
Citation: | Yuan YAO, Yao YANG, Ang TI, Yang SONG, Jiamin ZHANG, Yan WANG, Yao ZHANG, Haiqing LIU, Yinxian JIE. A fringe jump counting method for the phase measurement in the HCN laser interferometer on EAST and its FPGA-based implementation[J]. Plasma Science and Technology, 2024, 26(4): 045601. DOI: 10.1088/2058-6272/ad0dec |
Electron density in fusion plasma is usually diagnosed using laser-aided interferometers. The phase difference signal obtained after phase demodulation is wrapped, which is also called a fringe jump. A method has been developed to unwrap the phase difference signal in real time using FPGA, specifically designed to handle fringe jumps in the hydrogen cyanide (HCN) laser interferometer on the EAST superconducting tokamak. This method is designed for a phase demodulator using the fast Fourier transform (FFT) method at the front end. The method is better adapted for hardware implementation compared to complex mathematical analysis algorithms, such as field programmable gate array (FPGA). It has been applied to process the phase measurement results of the HCN laser interferometer on EAST in real time. Electron density results show good confidence in the fringe jump unwrapping method. Further possible application in other laser interferometers, such as the POlarimeter-INTerferometer (POINT) system on EAST tokamak is also discussed.
THz vortex beams with OAM (orbital angular momentum), have potential applications in many fields, including THz wireless communication [1–4], super-resolution imaging [5], manipulating matters [6], spectroscopic probe of magnetism in matter [7], and so have attracted the attention of many researchers. Similar to optical OAM, by using the generation principles of wave-front modulators and THz hologram technology, a large number of methods have been proposed, such as diffractive elements [8], metasurfaces [9, 10], an ultrathin planar THz vortex phase plate [11], a spiral phase plate [5, 12], THz computer-generated holograms [13] and so on. Moreover, based on the nonlinear effects of plasma [14], THz vortex can be generated by beating two vortex lasers in rippled plasma [15, 16], and by transferring the OAM from the plasma vortex to the emitted THz wave [17–19]. Also using plasma, a THz pulse with OAM is obtained by employing two twisted input lasers [20]. What is more, some multiplexing/demultiplexing systems of THz OAM also have been demonstrated successfully [21–23], and the results indicate the potential of THz OAM in improving channel capacity.
Specifically, it is worth noting that the impact of propagation environment on THz OAM communication performance is one of the key points. According to this, Zhao et al discussed the modal coupling and crosstalk of multiple THz OAM beams propagating in turbulence, and the results show that the divergence and turbulence effects in the THz regime are different from those in the mm-wave and optical regime [1]. As we all know, the plasma environment widely exists in nature, laboratory and industry, such as ionosphere, interstellar medium, and laser fusion. In particular, the effects of plasma sheath, which is generated during the re-entering process of spacecraft, on tracking, telemetry and control (TT&C) communication have become a key problem in the application of hypersonic vehicles. In order to overcome the 'blackout' phenomenon caused by plasma sheath, many ways have been proposed, for example, applying a magnetic field [24, 25]. Meanwhile, owing to its good penetrability, THz wave is proved to be a new method to solve 'blackout'. Many studies on the propagation characteristics of THz waves in plasma sheath [26–29] have been reported. Further, considering the existing ablative particles, the sheath can be seen as dusty plasma environments, and the effects of dusty plasma with the ceramic substrate on the propagation of THz waves have been analyzed by the scattering matrix method (SMM) [30]. After discussing the effects of the inhomogeneity of plasma sheath, the incident direction, the flight speed, as well as the applied magnetic field, the conclusion shows that THz waves may raise the propagation performance of electromagnetic waves in plasma sheath. Therefore, in light of the application value of the new dimension-OAM in increasing channel capacity, it is prospective to explore the transmission of THz vortex beams in a plasma environment. In the earlier stage, with the help of the plane wave angular spectrum expansion method, we have carried out the transmission of a THz vortex beam and OAM crosstalk of multiple coaxial THz vortex beams in an unmagnetized plasma slab [31, 32]; however, for magnetized plasma, this method is not applicable. Thus, combining the vector wave function expansion with Fourier transform representation of an electromagnetic wave in magnetized plasma, we have proposed a new method to solve the transmission of a THz vortex beam passing through uniform magnetized plasma [33]. Whereas, for most environments, the distribution of the plasma density is nonuniform, which means that the transmission in non-uniform magnetized plasma is worthy of further study. This is what the work focuses on.
In this work, the typical non-diffraction Bessel vortex beam is chosen as the incident source, and the theoretical model is presented in section 2, including the expansion of electromagnetic fields in plasma regions in terms of cylindrical vector wave functions (CVWFs) and Fourier transform, and derivation of a cascade form of expansion coefficients. Section 3 discusses the effects of the applied magnetized field, the incident angle and the polarization mode upon the characteristics of the transmitted fields. Finally, section 4 summarizes the major conclusions.
Figure 1 depicts a THz Bessel vortex beam impinging upon a multi-layered magnetized plasma slab, where the global coordinate system
Assuming the direction of the applied magnetic field
=εj=[εj,1−εj,20εj,2εj,1000εj,3] | (1) |
where
The expression of a vector Bessel vortex beam is presented in terms of angular spectrum decomposition method as follows [34]:
E(r)=∫2π0E0Q(α,φ)|α=α0eilφeik0·rdφ, | (2) |
where
As a THz Bessel vortex beam is incident obliquely on the plasma slab, making use of CVWFs (
Einc=E0∞∑m=-∞∫π0[Aincm(ζ)m(1)mλ0(h0)+Bincm(ζ)n(1)mλ0(h0)]eih0zdζ, | (3) |
Hinc=k0iωμ0E0∞∑m=-∞∫π0[Aincm(ζ)n(1)mλ0(h0)+Bincm(ζ)m(1)mλ0(h0)]eih0zdζ, | (4) |
where
Aincm(ζ)=∞∑n=|m|[a' | (5) |
(6) |
here
In the jth layer of a multi-layered magnetized plasma slab, the wave equation of the electric field
(7) |
By using Fourier transform, the electric field in equation (7) can be shown as
(8) |
After a series of analysis on eigenvalue and eigenvector [37], the electric field in plasma can be expressed as
(9) |
where
(10) |
Here, the eigenvalues are
By expanding
(11) |
where,
(12) |
In order to describe the transmission of the electromagnetic waves in each layer of the magnetized plasma slab more vividly, we decompose equation (11) into two parts:
(13) |
(14) |
where equations (13) and (14) denote the downgoing and the upgoing waves in each plasma layer, respectively. Note that the variable
Similar to equations (3) and (4), the electromagnetic fields of the reflected beam by a multi-layered magnetized plasma slab can be expanded as
(15) |
(16) |
and the electromagnetic fields of the transmitted beam are
(17) |
(18) |
where
Based on the boundary conditions of the electromagnetic fields on every interface, we have
(19) |
(20) |
(21) |
Substituting equations (3), (4) and (13)–(18) into equations (19)–(21), the relationships of expansion coefficients are obtained as follows:
(22) |
(23) |
(24) |
where the expression of the coefficient matrices is shown in the appendix. After a series of simplifications, the cascade form of the unknown expansion coefficients can be obtained and devoted by
(25) |
Let us make
(26) |
Then the expansion coefficients of the reflected and transmitted beams are
(27) |
when the inhomogeneous magnetized plasma slab degenerates into a homogeneous one, the results of equation (27) are in conformity with that in [36].
Owing to the effects of the magnetized plasma slab, the vorticity of the incident Bessel vortex beam will be distorted. For example, except the dominant OAM state (whose TC is the same as that of the incident beam), some other OAM states are often derived in the transmitted beam. Normally, the weight distribution of the OAM states of the distorted beam is used to describe the vorticity of the transmitted beam, and the weight of each OAM state is defined as [33]:
(28) |
where
Considering that the plasma density of the slab is double Gaussian distribution, that is
(29) |
where,
Taking the inhomogeneous plasma slab given in figure 2 as an example, the correctness of the method provided in this paper is numerically verified. The plasma slab is split into 100 sublayers. The collision frequency and the magnetic induction intensity are set to 20 GHz and
In the following subsection, by using the double Gaussian distribution of the plasma density (shown in equation (29)), the effects of parameters of both the multi-layered magnetized plasma slab and the incident beam on the transmitted beams are analyzed numerically in detail. Without specification, the parameters used in equation (29) are the same as those in figure 2.
A comparison of the amplitude profiles of the transmitted electric field components
The contours shown in figure 4 indicate that as the magnetic induction intensity
The effects of the incident angle upon the profiles of the total transmitted electric field amplitude (
For different applied magnetic fields and incident angle parameters, figure 6 shows the distribution of the OAM spectrum of the transmitted beam. Parameters of both the beam and plasma in figures 6(a) and (b) are the same as those of figures 4 and 5, respectively. The results reveal that B 0 does not affect the OAM state distribution, which is in line with that of a homogeneous plasma slab [33]. However, as the incident angle increases, the phase distribution on the wave front of the transmitted beam gradually deviates from that of the incident vortex beam, which reduces the weight of the dominant OAM state.
In this section, for the incident beams with different polarization states, the effects of
For an x-polarized incident beam incidence, the vector trajectories are parallel to the x-axis. As the increase of
The figure shows that as the incident beam is circular polarization mode, the trajectory lines of the transmitted electric fields are not affected by
When the incident beam turns into radial polarization, its electric field trajectories are either linear or elliptical. After passing through the magnetized plasma slab, with the increase of
In conclusion, like the plane waves, the linear vortex beam propagating in the magnetized plasma will have the Faraday rotation effect, but the circular polarization will not. With the increase of
OAM multiplexing in free space communication is widely concerned in wireless optical communication technology, whereas the mode crosstalk of OAM is one of the key points that must be considered and overcome. In this section, for coaxial incidence of multiple Bessel vortex beams with different TCs, using the method mentioned in the above sections, by modifying the expression of the incident beams to
(30) |
the magnitude profiles and OAM spectrum characteristics of the transmitted beam can be analyzed.
Taking coaxial incidence of several Bessel vortex beams with
The results shown in figure 8 indicate that the magnitude profile of the total transmitted electric field
Figure 9 shows the weight distribution of the OAM states of the transmitted beams. Obviously, except the dominant OAM states (
A new method to solve the transmission of a THz vortex beam passing through a multi-layered magnetized plasma slab has been provided and extended to the case of multiple coaxial vortex beams incidence. By analyzing the transmission of single and multiple x-polarized Bessel vortex beams through an inhomogeneous magnetized plasma slab with double Gaussian distribution, the major conclusions are obtained as follows. (1) The propagation of a linear polarized vortex beam in magnetized plasma had similar Faraday rotation effects to that of plane waves. With the increase of
The coefficient matrices in equations (22)–(24) are
(A1) |
(A2) |
(A3) |
where
This study was funded and supported by the Comprehensive Research Facility for Fusion Technology Program of China (No. 2018-000052-73-01-001228), the HFIPS Director’s Fund (No. YZJJKX202301), Anhui Provincial Major Science and Technology Project (No. 2023z020004) and Task JB22001 from the Anhui Provincial Department of Economic and Information Technology.
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