Effects of edge biasing on blob dynamics and associated transport in the edge of the J-TEXT tokamak

Effects of edge radial electric field Er and Er × B flow shear on edge turbulence and turbulent transport, in particular, on large-scale blobs and blobby transport have been investigated in the positive and negative biasing discharges in the J-TEXT tokamak. The results show that under certain conditions, the positive electrode biasing induces better plasma confinement than the negative biasing. Further studies reveal that in addition to flow shear effects on blob dynamics, the local radial electric field at the edge region plays a significant role in repulsion of the blobs and associated transport, leading to improvement of particle confinement when the outward motion of the blobs is blocked. The results are in accordance with theoretical predictions.

Hydrogen Isotope Effect on Self-Organized Radial Electric Field Criticality During Electron Internal Transport Barrier Formation in Toroidal Plasmas

Self-organized structure formation in magnetically confined plasmas is one of the most attractive subjects in modern experimental physics. Nonequilibrium media are known to often exhibit phenomena that cannot be predicted by superposition of linear theories. One representative example of such phenomena is the hydrogen isotope effect in fusion plasmas, where the larger the mass of the hydrogen isotope fuel is the better the plasma confinement becomes, contrary to what simple scaling models anticipate. In this article, threshold condition of a plasma structure formation is shown to have a strong hydrogen isotope effect. To investigate the underlying mechanism of this isotope effect, the electrostatic potential is directly measured by a heavy ion beam probe. It is elucidated that the positive radial electric field structure can be driven by less input power normalized by plasma density in plasmas with larger isotope mass across the structure formation.

Design and simulation of a compact Ku-band RTTO with power divider extraction structure

The radial transit time oscillator (RTTO) has attracted much attention because of its high power capacity and pure mode of output microwave. To make the high power microwave (HPM) source devices more compact and to enable it to measure the output microwave mode quantitatively, this paper proposed a compact Ku-band RTTO with the power divider extraction structure (PDES). The radial decreasing magnetic field is applied to decreasing the mass of excitation system. Compared the conventional uniform solenoids, it can reduce the mass by about 30%. In the coaxial output waveguide, the PDES is used instead of the traditional support rods connecting the inner and outer conductors so as to convert TEM mode into TE10 mode efficiently. This structure can not only help shorten the axial dimension of the device, but also make it possible to measure the output microwave mode more accurately online. In particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation, the proposed Ku-band RTTO can output HPMs with the power of 3.05 GW and the frequency of 14.36 GHz, and the working efficiency is 40.3%. The maximum radial electric field intensity in the extraction cavity is 0.92 MV/cm, and the maximum electric field intensity in the PDES is 0.52 MV/cm, both of which are lower than the radio frequency (RF) breakdown threshold of metal materials.

Formation of the radial electric field profile in the WEST tokamak

Sheared flows are known to reduce turbulent transport by decreasing the correlation length and/or intensity of turbulent structures. The transport barrier that takes place at the edge during improved regimes such as H mode, corresponds to the establishment of a large shear of the radial electric field. In this context, the radial shape of the radial electric field or more exactly of the perpendicular $E\times B$ velocity appears as a key element in accessing improved confinement regimes. In this paper, we present the radial profile of the perpendicular velocity measured using Doppler back-scattering system at the edge of the plasma, dominated by the $E\times B$ velocity, during the first campaigns of the WEST tokamak. It is found that the radial velocity profile is clearly more sheared in LSN than in USN configuration for ohmic and low current plasmas ($B=3.7T$ and $q_{95}=4.7$), consistently with the expectation comparing respectively “favourable” versus “unfavourable” configuration. Interestingly, this tendency is sensitive to the plasma current and to the amount of additional heating power leading to plasma conditions in which the $E\times B$ velocity exhibits a deeper well in USN configuration. For example, while the velocity profile exhibits a clear and deep well just inside the separatrix concomitant with the formation of a density pedestal during L-H transitions observed in LSN configuration, deeper $E_r$ wells are observed in USN configuration during similar transitions with less pronounced density pedestal.

Vortices in a strongly coupled collisional quantum plasma embedded in an external magnetic field

Vortex motion of a cylindrical quantum plasma containing degenerate inertialess electrons and strongly correlated, non-degenerate inertial ions is studied. The electron exchange–correlation and ion–neutral collisional effects are taken into consideration, along with vertical external magnetic field and radial electric field. Considering generalized viscoelastic momentum equation for strongly coupled ions in quasi-crystalline state, variation of different rotational characteristics along radial distance are discussed numerically. Existence of shear rotation is observed near both the core and the periphery of the vortex, which is found to be modified by ion–ion correlation, quantum effects of the degenerate electrons, the ion–neutral collision, as well as by the magnetic field. It is noticed that electron exchange–correlation potential and quantum diffraction play major roles in modifying the rotational characteristics. Vorticity and the rate of increment of enstrophy with respect to radial distance, diminish to zero towards the periphery of the vortex. Also, it is noted that the ion–neutral collision may be responsible for reducing the increment of enstrophy.

Ideal magnetohydrodynamic stability in stellarators with subsonic equilibrium flow

The effect of a subsonic flow, inherent to most stellarators because of a radial electric field, on their ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) stability properties is studied employing the quasi-Lagrangian picture developed by Frieman and Rotenberg [1960 Rev. Mod. Phys. 32, 898]. The Mach number of the perpendicular ExB flow in stellarators is of order 0.01 and, therefore, admits the usage of a subsonic approximation in form of a static equilibrium. A mathematical formulation of the weak form of the stability equation with flow has been implemented in the ideal-MHD stability code CAS3D. This formulation uses magnetic coordinates and does not involve any derivatives across magnetic surfaces. In addition to the expected Doppler shift of frequencies, properties of the spectrum of the ideal MHD force operator, which are already known for tokamaks, but now also shown in the stellarator case, are: firstly, the appearance of unstable flow-induced continua stemming from the coupling of sound and Alfven continuum branches with equal mode numbers; and, secondly, the existence of flow-induced, global, stable modes near extrema of sound continuum branches, the extrema, in turn, being generated by the influence of a sheared flow on the static sound continua.

Four-electrode probe for plasma studies in the GOL-NB multiple-mirror trap

A system of four-electrode Langmuir probes developed for the GOL-NB multiple-mirror trap is discussed. The system is used for studies of a low-temperature start plasma (1019–1020 m-3, 5 eV) that fills the device during the initial phase of the experiment. The probe allows simultaneous measurements of plasma density, electron temperature and radial electric field. The accuracy of the probe measurements is also discussed.