Novel technology for thermal and non-thermal plasmas: from x-ray crystal imaging spectrometers to multi-energy SXR and HXR cameras
by
Bruno Brunelli Hall
Frascati
Soft and hard x-ray diagnostic development and possible applications to DTT

Luis F. Delgado-Aparicio
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ, USA
Soft and hard x-ray diagnostics are foundational tools in high-temperature plasma and fusion research,
enabling measurements of MHD stability, energy confinement, impurity transport, runaway electron
dynamics, radiated power, plasma-wall interactions and disruptions. Traditional tomographic systems
provide space-resolved but energy-integrated measurements, limiting access to local plasma parameters
due to the lack of energy resolution. This talk traces two decade of progress in energy-sensitive x-ray
diagnostics, highlighting the design, construction, commissioning and implementation of PPPL’s X-ray
Imaging Crystal Spectrometers (XICS) as well as Multi-Energy Soft and Hard x-ray (ME-SXR & MEHXR)
systems in NSTX-U, C-Mod, LHD, W7X, KSTAR, EAST, lately WEST and JT-60SA, and in the
future, ITER. These systems enable direct emissivity measurements while also delivering real-time
estimates of vertical centroid position, Shafranov shift, electron and ion temperatures, plasma velocity,
radiated power profiles, as well as indirect inference of impurity densities, and two new methods for the
effective charge (Zeff) in machines with W-walls. New applications include also monitoring tungsten
evolution during RF-heating and sawteeth, diagnosing W-UFO events, detecting non-Maxwellian
anisotropies, fast electron losses near strike points, and the evolution of slide-away and runaway electron
populations for the first time. Finally, their integration with real-time control paves the way for nonmagnetic
equilibrium reconstructions and fast-acting RE alarms—pointing to a broader diagnostic
paradigm for future fusion devices. Several applications for DTT and opportunities for collaborations with
PPPL will be outlined.
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For remote connection:
Matteo Iafrati
