Comparison of Tomographic Reconstruction Algorithms for Infrared Imaging Video Bolometer Diagnostic in Plasma Devices

Abstract

Infrared Imaging Video Bolometer (IRVB) measures total radiation power loss from plasma in 2 dimensions through a pinhole camera geometry. Where a free-standing thin metal foil act as a broad band absorber from Soft X-Rays to IR radiation. This configuration produces line-integrated signals with poloidal and toroidal coverage that must be inverted to recover the plasma radiation emissivity distribution on a poloidal cross-section. This study compares the tomographic methods implemented to IRVB brightness data reconstruction, namely Minimum Fisher Information (MFI), Phillips-Tikhonov regularization (PTR), and Maximum-Likelihood Expectation-Maximization (MLEM). The comparison assessment is organized around several aspects of bolometer measurements, namely viewing geometry configuration, non-negativity, robustness to noise, sensitivity to prior assumptions, convergence speed, and peak preservation. The present work also details the IRVB forward modelling process, construction of synthetic phantoms, and a validation of these reconstruction methods based on typical expected emissivity profiles, namely symmetric Gaussian distribution at plasma center, symmetric hollow-radiation emissivity profile, asymmetric radiation profiles across the poloidal cross-section, and divertor-side radiation emission profiles. The outcome is to emphasize the practical tradeoffs among reconstruction accuracy, numerical stability, and suitability for real-time or offline usage of these reconstruction methods, particularly for the IRVB camera viewing system.