Study of a fibre-optics current sensor for the measurement of plasma current in ITER

摘要

In this article, we study the feasibility of using a fibre-optics current sensor (FOCS) for the measurement of plasma current in the future fusion reactor ITER. The sensor is based on a classical FOCS interrogator involving the measurement of the state of polarization rotation undergone by the light in presence of a magnetic field (Faraday effect) in an optical fibre surrounding the current and terminated by a Faraday mirror. We considered a uniformly spun optical fibre as the sensing element and we used the Stokes formalism to simulate the sensor. The objective of the simulations is to quantify the ratio L_B/S_P (beat length over the spun period of the spun fibre) enabling a measurement error in agreement with the ITER specifications. The simulator takes into account the temperature variations undergone by the measurement system under ITER operation. The simulation work showed that a L_B/S_P ratio of 19.2 is adequate.