The large helical device vertical neutron camera operating in the MHz counting rate range

• Published in: Review of scientific instruments 2018-11, Vol.89 (11), p.113509-113509
• Main Authors: Ogawa, K., Isobe, M., Nishitani, T., Kobuchi, T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cameras; Coinjection; Collimation; Counting; Crosstalk; Deuterium; Deuterium plasma; Hematite; Magnetic shielding; Neutral beams; Neutron counters; Neutron emission; Neutron flux; Neutrons; Particle physics; Photomultiplier tubes; Position measurement; Programmable logic controllers; Scientific apparatus & instruments; Signal processing; Stilbene
• ISSN: 0034-6748; 1089-7623
• DOI: 10.1063/1.5054818

In the currently performed neutral beam (NB) -heated deuterium plasma experiments, neutrons are mainly produced by a beam-plasma reaction. Therefore, time-resolved measurement of the neutron emission profile can enhance the understanding of the classical and/or anomalous transport of beam ions. To measure radial neutron emission profiles as a function of time, the vertical neutron camera (VNC) capable of operation with a counting rate in the MHz range was newly installed on the Large Helical Device (LHD). This is the world’s first neutron camera for stellarator/heliotron devices. The VNC consists of a multichannel collimator, eleven fast-neutron detectors, and the digital-signal-processing-based data acquisition system (DAQ). The multichannel collimator having little cross talk was made from hematite-doped heavy concrete, which has a high shielding performance against both neutrons and gamma-rays. A stilbene crystal coupled with a photomultiplier having high-gain-stability in the high-count rate regime was utilized as a fast-neutron scintillation detector because it has a high neutron-gamma discrimination capability at high count rates. The DAQ system equipped with a field programmable logic controller was developed to obtain the waveform acquired with a 1 GHz sampling rate and the shaping parameter of each pulse simultaneously at up to 106 cps (counts per second). Neutron emission profiles were successfully obtained in the first deuterium campaign of LHD in 2017. The neutron emission profile was measured in tangentially co-injected NB-heated plasma with different magnetic axes (Rax). The neutron counts became larger in the inward-shifted configuration, which was consistent with the total neutron rate measured by the neutron flux monitor. The radial peak position of the line-integrated neutron profile which changed according to Rax showed that the VNC worked successfully as designed. The VNC demonstrated the expected performance conducive to extending energetic-particle physics studies in LHD.