Direct measurements of the plasma potential by katsumata-type probes

By taking advantage of the inherent difference between the gyro-radii of ions and electrons in a magnetised plasma, we developed a method to measure the plasma potential directly. The principle is based on the concept of the Katsumata probe. The probe collector is hidden inside a tube which screens an adjustable fraction of the electron flux whereas it lets pass most of the ions. In this paper an arrangement of three Katsumata-type probes with different diameters is used in the edge plasma region of the CASTOR tokamak to investigate the influence of the dimension of the probe. The results show almost no influence of the probe diameter on the values of the plasma potential. © Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic 2006.