Broadband heterodyne reflectometer at the W7-AS stellarator

A broadband heterodyne reflectometer, operating in the frequency range 75–110 GHz in extraordinary mode polarization, has been installed and operated at the Wendelstein 7‐AS stellarator for the study of density fluctuations and density profile determination. At 2.5 T it covers the density range between 5×1018 and 5×1019 m−3. The system differs from the usual setup as it combines the advantages of heterodyne detection with broadband capability avoiding the limitations of phase‐locked sources and permits the unambiguous determination of the phase delay independent of amplitude fluctuations in the reflected beam. After a first downconversion to an intermediate frequency of about 6 GHz, two additional mixing steps lead to an intermediate frequency of 60 MHz, which carries the phase delay from the plasma as a phase modulation. The phase information is yielded numerically from sin/cos detection at 60 MHz. Due to the balanced detection scheme, the drift as well as the broadband noise of the signal and local osci...