Advanced diagnostic tools for density and temperature measurement in microwave generated plasmas.

At INFN-LNS innovative techniques of plasma heating are under investigation in order to produce growing intensities of beams of multi-charged ions for particle accelerators. Recently, signatures about electromagnetic-to-electrostatic waves (EMW-ESW) conversion, leading to the formation of an overdense plasmas characterized by high energy content, have been observed. A new X-ray pin-hole camera, allowing two-dimensional resolved spectroscopy and imaging, has been designed and used, showing the formation of hot electron layers when the plasma is heated by ESWs. Electrostatic probes have been used in parallel to measure the plasma bulk density and temperature, and a new microwave interferometer is under design.