On velocity space interrogation regions of fast-ion collective Thomson scattering at ITER

The collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic proposed for ITER is designed to measure projected 1D fast-ion velocity distribution functions at several spatial locations simultaneously. The frequency shift of scattered radiation and the scattering geometry place fast ions that caused the collective scattering in well-defined regions in velocity space, here dubbed interrogation regions.

Since the CTS instrument measures entire spectra of scattered radiation, many different interrogation regions are probed simultaneously. We here give analytic expressions for weight functions describing the interrogation regions, and we show typical interrogation regions of the proposed ITER CTS system.

The backscattering system with receivers on the low-field side is sensitive to fast ions with pitch |p| = |v/v| <0.5–0.9 depending on the ion energy and the frequency shift of the scattered radiation. A forward scattering system with receivers on the high-field side would be sensitive to co- and counter-passing fast ions in narrow interrogation regions with pitch |p| > 0.6–0.8.

Additionally, we use weight functions to reconstruct 2D fast-ion distribution functions, given two projected 1D velocity distribution functions from simulated simultaneous measurements with the back- and forward scattering systems.