| Microwave Imaging Reflectometry (MIR) systems have been used as diagnostic tools for characterization of fluctuating plasma density in large tokamaks. Such a technique has been implemented on the TEXTOR device [H. Park, et al., Review of Scientific Instruments, 2004] and is being continued on DIII-D and KSTAR. To develop a new MIR system for density fluctuation measurements for DIII-D and KSTAR, one requires an understanding of how to preserve phase information. The current design for an MIR optical system makes use of design tools in free space, which is great for evaluation of port access but not provide significant information when it comes to the plasma region. This thesis describes a numerical study of MIR in the presence of turbulent fluctuations by evaluating the effectiveness in coupling the reflection layer in the full wave region and the detector array in free space with respect to fluctuation levels. A synthetic diagnostic tool making use of 2D full-wave diffractive simulation in full plasma geometry is applied to couple an optical imaging system with different optical arrangements. |
