Probe System for Plasma Research

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Abstract
A probe system for studying the plasma of a stellarator is described. Such a fully ionized plasma can have a density ∼1013 cm−3 and a temperature ∼50 eV. The probe translator can carry various probes (we take as an example a simple Langmuir electrostatic probe) and forms part of an ultrahigh vacuum system. The associated circuitry for probe biasing, control, position indicating, and data handling and display must meet various requirements of accuracy, bandwidth, and personnel safety. Some experimental results obtained with the system are discussed, and compared with those obtained by other methods.