Gamma ray spectroscopy at high energy and high time resolution at JET

In fusion plasmas gamma ray emission is caused by reactions of fast particles, such as fusion alpha particles, with impurities. Gamma ray spectroscopy at JET has provided valuable diagnostic information on fast fuel as well as fusion product ions. Improvements of these measurements are needed to fully exploit the flux increase provided by future high power experiments at JET and ITER. Limiting aspects are, for instance, the count rate capability due to a high neutron/gamma background combined with slow detector response and a modest energy resolution due to the low light yield of the scintillators. This paper describes the solutions developed for achieving higher energy resolution, signal to background, and time resolution. The detector design is described based on the new Br La3 scintillator crystal. The paper will focus on hardware development, including a photomultiplier tube capable of stable operation at counting rate as high as 1 MHz, the magnetic shielding, and the fast digital data acquisition system. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.