Speaker
Description
In the frame of the PANDORA project - aimed at measuring β-decays of nuclear astrophysical interest in magnetically confined plasmas – and the SAMOTHRACE ecosystem (funded by the EU Next Gen Program), a new non-invasive plasma diagnostics testbench, PYN-HO, has been developed at INFN-LNS to advance the state-of-the-art in non-invasive plasma monitoring. The system is designed for high-resolution X-ray imaging, space-resolved spectroscopy, and tomography, in the 0.4–30 keV range.
The setup features a 4 MP X-ray CCD camera coupled with a 400 µm Pb pinhole, a multi-collimation system for scattering suppression, and a millisecond-resolution Pt-Ir X-ray shutter. Advanced Single Photon-Counting (SPhC) and High-Dynamic-Range (HDR) algorithms are employed to perform space-resolved spectroscopy and spectrally-resolved imaging, enhancing image quality and removing readout noise.
The system's capabilities were recently demonstrated in experiments at the ATOMKI laboratory (Debrecen, Hungary), where plasma transients—including ignition, afterglow, and turbulence—were resolved with 460 µm spatial, 230 eV (at 8 keV) energy, and 100 µs temporal resolution through dedicated trigger systems and delays. A SDD was simultaneous used to benchmark the spectroscopic results. These measurements enabled the characterization of structural and temporal plasma evolution and the investigation of electron/ion deconfinement dynamics between different configurations.
Furthermore, a new algorithm based on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning approach is currently being developed for SPhC image analysis, aimed at significantly improving the system’s overall performance and computational speed.
The PYN-HO prototype can be integrated into different facilities to study plasma structure, confinement dynamics, instabilities, in-plasma and plasma vessel elemental composition, and local thermodynamic parameters. These results highlight the potential of advanced X-ray diagnostics in optimizing ion source performance and exploring new frontiers in nuclear astrophysics but are potentially ready also for novel future applications.