Investigating the performance of an ion luminescence probe as a multichannel fast-ion energy spectrometer using pulse height analysis

We investigate the capability of a fast-ion luminescent probe to operate as a pulse height ion energy analyzer. An existing high sensitivity system has been reconfigured as a single channel ion detector with an amplifier to give a bandwidth comparable to the phosphor response time. A digital pulse processing method has been developed to determine pulse heights from the detector signal so as to obtain time-resolved information on the ion energy distribution of the plasma ions lost to the wall of the TJ-II stellarator. Finally, the potential of this approach for magnetic confined fusion plasmas is evaluated by studying representative TJ-II discharges.