Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-1984

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Electrical Engineering

Major Professor

T. V. Blalock

Committee Members

E. J. Kennedy, Jim Rochelle

Abstract

An instrument to synchronize the firing of a ruby laser for a Thomson scattering diagnostic with plasma oscillations was designed, developed, and evaluated. The instrument will fire the laser at a user-selected phase of an input sine or sawtooth wave with an accuracy of ±15°. Allowable frequencies range from 20 to 500 Hz for a sawtooth and from 1 to 30 kHz for a sine wave. The instrument also allows synchronization with a sine wave to be enabled by a preselected sawtooth phase.

The instrument uses analog signal processing circuits to separate the signal components, remove unwanted components, and produce zero-phase synchronization pulses. The instrument measures the period between zero-phase pulses in order to produce phase synchronization pulses delayed a fraction of the period from the zero-phase pulses. The laser is fired by the phase synchronization pulse. Unwanted signal components are attenuated by bandpass filters. A digitally controlled self-adjusting bandpass filter is used for sine processing.

The instrument was used to investigate the variation of the electron temperature profile with the phase of the X-ray signal from an Impurity Studies Experiment (ISX-B) plasma exhibiting magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) activity.

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