Introduction to Plasma Diagnostics

The field of plasma diagnostics is one of the most versatile disciplines within the framework of thermonuclear research. Since plasma diagnostics are based on various physical processes with wavelengths ranging from tens of cm to less than one nm, many different techniques are being used for measuring the spatial profile and evolution of various plasma parameters. Although a fair number of these techniques is already well-established, plasma diagnostics is still a very challenging and vivid discipline. On the one hand this is caused by the always continuing effort to attain a better spatial and temporal resolution, to reach higher accuracies and to measure with more spatial channels. On the other hand diagnostic techniques based on more subtle physical processes (than used in the state-of-the-art diagnostics) are continuously being developed. In this paper a brief introduction into the field of plasma diagnostics will be given.