Resumo

time-of-flight (TOF) technique for the plasma potential measurements by a heavy ion beam diagnostic (HIBD) with a multiple cell array detector has been elaborated on tokamak ISTTOK as an alternative to the traditional electrostatic energy analyzer. This article describes the design and operation of a four-channel TOF energy analyzer (TOFEA). First results of plasma potential measurements by TOFEA are presented proving the feasibility of this technique in experiments with HIBD.