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Updated: Jun 27, 2026

A Silicon-tipped Fiber-optic Sensing Platform with High Resolution and Fast Response
Published on: January 7, 2019
Development of imaging bolometers for magnetic fusion reactors (invited)
Byron J Peterson1, Homaira Parchamy, Naoko Ashikawa
1National Institute for Fusion Science, Toki 509-5292, Japan.
Abstract:
Imaging bolometers utilize an infrared (IR) video camera to measure the change in temperature of a thin foil exposed to the plasma radiation, thereby avoiding the risks of conventional resistive bolometers related to electric cabling and vacuum feedthroughs in a reactor environment. A prototype of the IR imaging video bolometer (IRVB) has been installed and operated on the JT-60U tokamak demonstrating its applicability to a reactor environment and its ability to provide two-dimensional measurements of the radiation emissivity in a poloidal cross section. In this paper we review this development and present the first results of an upgraded version of this IRVB on JT-60U. This upgrade utilizes a state-of-the-art IR camera (FLIR/Indigo Phoenix-InSb) (3-5 microm, 256 x 360 pixels, 345 Hz, 11 mK) mounted in a neutron/gamma/magnetic shield behind a 3.6 m IR periscope consisting of CaF(2) optics and an aluminum mirror. The IRVB foil is 7 cm x 9 cm x 5 microm tantalum. A noise equivalent power density of 300 microW/cm(2) is achieved with 40 x 24 channels and a time response of 10 ms or 23 microW/cm(2) for 16 x 12 channels and a time response of 33 ms, which is 30 times better than the previous version of the IRVB on JT-60U.
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