The study of tokamak plasma light emissions in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) region is an important subject since many impurity spectral emissions are present in this region. These spectral emissions can be used to determine the plasma ion temperature and density from different species and spatial positions inside plasma according to their temperatures. We have analyzed VUV spectra from 500 Å to 3200 Å wavelength in the TCABR tokamak plasma including higher diffraction order emissions. There have been identified 37 first diffraction order emissions, resulting in 28 second diffraction order, 24 third diffraction order, and 7 fourth diffraction order lines. The emissions are from impurity species such as OII, OIII, OIV, OV, OVI, OVII, CII, CIII, CIV, NIII, NIV, and NV. All the spectra beyond 1900 Å are from higher diffraction order emissions, and possess much better spectral resolution. Each strong and isolated spectral line, as well as its higher diffraction order emissions suitable for plasma diagnostic is identified and discussed. Finally, an example of ion temperature determination using different diffraction order is presented.

The application of a new multichannel 64 parallel amplification 10 stage photomultiplier arranged in 8 x 8 matrix of 20.32 mm x 20.32 mm, detector XP1752 from Philips, for laser light scattering diagnostics is now under development. Signal intensity calibration curve for eight parallel and individual channels, as well as cross talk between channels was measured. Also, Rayleigh scattering on nitrogen gas, normally used as optical calibration method for electron density measurements in Thomson scattering was realized, and the intensity of both detectors was compared making measurements with a tungsten lamp.

Tokamak NOVA-UNICAMP is a small tokamak with iron core and conducting shell stabilization built to study plasma-wall interaction and optical diagnostic development. Characteristic plasma behavior was the appearance of 2-3 kHz spike oscillation during entire discharge with very high X-ray activity which prevent our optical diagnostic development. By modifying capacitance and charging voltage on OH and vertical field banks, in order to obtain similar discharge current shape, most of 2-3 kHz spikes has been taken out, although some activities still remains to be analyzed. Nevertheless, the high X-ray activity which jeopardize our optical measurements is completely eliminated and time varying parameter as ion temperature is now possible to be followed during whole discharge.

Three visible and one VUV spectrometers covering four toroidal positions have been set to study He and H plasma created by NOVA-UNICAMP tokamak. Ion temperatures have been measured at the beginning of the tokamak discharge by Doppler broadening of C, O and He lines. The time evolution of carbon line emissions, with different degrees of ionization, showed to have opposite behavior between high and low plasma ionization condition. The high density operation and 2 kHz oscillation present throughout discharge, caused by periodical touching of the plasma with NOVA-UNICAMP tokamak limiter, restrained the increase of ion temperature.

Scattered light amplification by using multipass method is a very useful technique to increase Thomson and Rayleigh scattering signals for local plasma electron temperature and density measurements. Using Rayleigh scattering in nitrogen neutral gas chamber, the well-known technique of multipass system with two concentrical spherical mirrors is compared with new configuration by using two sets of lens and at mirrors. The focusing capability of both configurations makes the difference to stray light and scattered signal related to spectrometer slit aperture and number of multipass. For the same number of laser beam pass and best slit aperture, the lens and plan mirrors new configuration presented lower stray light and higher scattered signal, although the gain of the usual two spherical mirrors still remains higher.

Ideal one dimensional MHD (non-resistive) equations are used to study the rotational instability in field reversed configuration plasmas. Instead of using resistive boundary layer analysis, the eigenmode non hermitian equations are solved on the complex w-plane using a numerical code constructed using "Mathematica". We take into account the plasma compressibility and compare our results with the Compact Torus (TC-1) experiment of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), which is presented here. The m = 4 rotational mode observed in TC-1 is used to verify the consistency of our model.