High sensitivity detectors for measurement of space potentialfluctuations

A detection technique yielding an order of magnitude increase in the sensitivity of a Proca-Green type energy analyzer to beam energy fluctuations has been demonstrated. A sensitivity of <1 part in 10 ⁶ is possible. The technique can be used to increase the sensitivity of a Heavy Ion Beam Probe (HIBP) to space potential fluctuations in a plasma. The increase in sensitivity is achieved by splitting the detected ion beam into 10 smaller beamlets and summing the signals produced by the beamlets. Experimental results from an ion beam test facility are presented along with the projected results if implemented on the 2 MeV HIBP on the TEXT-Upgrade tokamak