Design of a multifunctional Doppler backscattering diagnostic for the Pegasus-III Experiment

arXiv:2606.08942v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The Doppler backscattering (DBS) diagnostic measures flows and electron density fluctuations. Recent work indicates that DBS can also infer the magnetic pitch angle (Yeoh et al., NF 2026). We present the preliminary design of a DBS for the Pegasus-III Experiment. This DBS will serve two objectives. First, it will advance diagnostic science, by supporting understanding of the DBS instrumentation functions, using DBS to constrain the magnetic equilibrium, and data-driven inference of plasma properties from DBS signals. Secondly, it will support Pegasus-IIIs research directions, such as solenoid-free plasma initiation and O-X-B mode conversion for heating and current drive, since density fluctuations affect mode conversion efficiency and pitch angle measurements can be used to locate the mode conversion window. This ex-vacuum DBS system uses a single channel, tuneable Ka-band source, a corrugated horn antenna, and a homodyne I/Q receiver with baseband digitization. For greater flexibility, which is especially important for pitch angle measurements, the quasioptical elements include a rotatable spinner for O- and X-mode selection and a mirror with 2D steering. Using the \textit{Scotty} beam-tracing code, for a range of poloidal launch angles $8^\circ$ to $18^\circ$ and a corresponding toroidal launch angle between $0^\circ$ to $3^\circ$ for maximal backscattered DBS power, we find that the DBS system is capable of measuring ion-scale density fluctuations $1\leq k_{\perp,c} \leq8 \text{ cm}^{-1}$ at a range of normalized radial coordinates from the outer core ($\rho \sim 0.65$) to just beyond the last-closed flux surface (LCFS), where $\rho=0$ corresponds to the magnetic axis and $\rho=1$ the LCFS. The system is also designed with additional toroidal steering capability, $-4^\circ$ to $8^\circ$, to resolve the toroidal response needed for magnetic pitch angle measurements.