Scanning retarding field analyzer for plasma profile measurements in the boundary of the Alcator C-Mod tokamak

A new Retarding Field Analyzer (RFA) head has been created for the outer-midplane scanning probe system on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak. The new probe head contains back-to-back retarding field analyzers aligned with the local magnetic field. One faces "upstream" into the field-aligned plasma flow and the other faces "downstream" away from the flow. The RFA was created primarily to benchmark ion temperature measurements of an ion sensitive probe; it may also be used to interrogate electrons. However, its construction is robust enough to be used to measure ion and electron temperatures up to the last-closed flux surface in C-Mod. A RFA probe of identical design has been attached to the side of a limiter to explore direct changes to the boundary plasma due to lower hybrid heating and current drive. Design of the high heat flux (>100 MW∕m(2)) handling probe and initial results are presented.