Quantification Of Cesium In Negative Hydrogen Ion Sources By Laser Absorption Spectroscopy

The use of cesium in negative hydrogen ion sources and the resulting cesium dynamics caused by the evaporation and redistribution in the vacuum and plasma phase makes a reliable and on-line monitoring of the cesium amount in the source highly desirable. For that purpose, a robust and compact laser absorption setup suitable for the ion source environment has been developed utilizing the Cs D{sub 2} resonance line at 852.1 nm. First measurements are taken in a small laboratory plasma chamber with cesium evaporation. A detection limit of {approx_equal}5x10{sup 13} m{sup -3} at a typical path length of 15 cm has been obtained with a dynamic range of more than three orders of magnitude, limited by line saturation at high densities. For on-line monitoring an automatic data analysis is established achieving a temporal resolution of 100 ms. The setup has then been applied to the ITER prototype ion sources developed at IPP. It is been shown that the method is well suited for routine measurements revealing a new insight into the cesium dynamics during source operation and cesium conditioning.