Deriving impurity density from local soft x-ray (SXR) emissivity (reconstructed by background-subtracted tomography during trace injections) by line-emission modelling leads to uncertainties due to the unknown ionization balance, especially for medium-Z impurities. This paper proposes a paradigm shift in the way SXR tomography is used, from one that maximizes signal at the expense of uncertain modelling to one that relies on sharper spectral resolution used to better understand what exactly is being measured. It is indeed shown that the measured SXR emissivity of an impurity may be robust with respect to changes to its unknown ionization balance (i.e. with respect to impurity transport) under two conditions. First, the electron temperature must be above a certain threshold (typically 4–5 keV or higher for metals like Ni or Fe). Second, the spectral response of SXR detectors must have a tuneable band-pass and should focus on a specific spectral region for each considered impurity. Both these conditions aim at maximizing the Bremsstrahlung contribution, which has the weakest dependence on ion charge. Prospective applications for several impurities are discussed as well as practical limitations. Since this method offers diagnostics-designing potential, possible technological solutions are also discussed.
Bayesian modelling for the visible spectroscopy reference system at ITER