B.H. Deng

Improved-confinement plasmas at high temperature and high beta in the MST RFP

We have increased substantially the electron and ion temperatures, the electron density, and the total beta in plasmas with improved energy confinement in the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST). The improved confinement is achieved with a well-established current profile control technique for reduction of magnetic tearing and reconnection. A sustained ion temperature >1?keV is achieved with intensified reconnection-based ion heating followed immediately by current profile control. In the same plasmas, the electron temperature reaches 2?keV, and the electron thermal diffusivity drops to about 2?m2?s?1. The global energy confinement time is 12?ms. This and the reported temperatures are the largest values yet achieved in the reversed-field pinch (RFP). These results were attained at a density ~1019?m?3. By combining pellet injection with current profile control, the density has been quadrupled, and total beta has nearly doubled to a record value of about 26%. The Mercier criterion is exceeded in the plasma core, and both pressure-driven interchange and pressure-driven tearing modes are calculated to be linearly unstable, yet energy confinement is still improved. Transient momentum injection with biased probes reveals that global momentum transport is reduced with current profile control. Magnetic reconnection events drive rapid momentum transport related to large Maxwell and Reynolds stresses. Ion heating during reconnection events occurs globally, locally, or not at all, depending on which tearing modes are involved in the reconnection. To potentially augment inductive current profile control, we are conducting initial tests of current drive with lower-hybrid and electron-Bernstein waves.

High-speed three-wave polarimeter-interferometer diagnostic for Madison symmetric torus

A high-speed three-wave polarimeter-interferometer diagnostic has been developed on the Madison symmetric torus reversed field pinch to provide simultaneous measurement of electron density and poloidal magnetic field profile evolution. With increased digitizer bandwidth, polarimetry noise due to aliasing and cross-talk is minimized, and time response improved. System performance is demonstrated by measurements of equilibrium profile evolution during fast events such as the sawtooth crash and pellet injection.

Dynamo-free plasma in the reversed-field pinch : Advances in understanding the reversed-field pinch improved confinement mode

Generation and sustainment of the reversed field pinch (RFP) magnetic configuration normally relies on dynamo activity. The externally applied electric field tends to drive the equilibrium away from the relaxed, minimum energy state which is roughly described by a flat normalized parallel current density profile and is at marginal stability to tearing modes. Correlated fluctuations of magnetic field and velocity create a dynamo electric field which broadens the parallel current density profile, supplying the necessary edge current drive. These pervasive magnetic fluctuations are also responsible for destruction of flux surfaces, relegating the standard RFP to a stochastic-magnetic transport-limited device. Application of a tailored electric field profile (which matches the relaxed current density profile) allows sustainment of the RFP configuration without dynamo-driven edge current. The method used to ascertain that a dynamo-free RFP plasma has been created is reported here in detail. Several confinement...

Overview of results in the MST reversed field pinch experiment

Confinement in the reversed field pinch (RFP) has been shown to increase strongly with current profile control. The MST RFP can operate in two regimes: the standard regime with a naturally occurring current density profile, robust reconnection and dynamo activity; and the improved confinement regime with strong reduction in reconnection, dynamo and transport. New results in standard plasmas include the observation of a strong two-fluid Hall effect in reconnection and dynamo, the determination that the m = 0 edge resonant mode is nonlinearly driven, and the determination that tearing modes can lock to the wall via eddy currents in the shell. New results in improved confinement plasmas include observations that such plasmas are essentially dynamo-free, contain several isolated magnetic islands (as opposed to a stochastic field) and contain reduced high frequency turbulence. Auxiliary current drive and heating is now critical to RFP research. In MST, a programme to apply auxiliary systems to the RFP is underway and progress has accrued in several techniques, including lower hybrid and electron Bernstein wave injection, ac helicity injection current drive, pellet injection and neutral beam injection.

Laser Faraday rotation measurement of current density fluctuations and electromagnetic torque (invited)

Far-infrared laser polarimetry with time response up to ∼1 μs and spatial resolution ∼8 cm has been successfully implemented on the Madison Symmetric Torus reversed-field pinch. Internal magnetic field and current density fluctuations are nonperturbatively measured. This is accomplished by taking parallel polarimetry chords which measure the line-integrated magnetic field fluctuations via Faraday rotation. With suitable analysis we are able to obtain information on spatial profiles of magnetic field fluctuations and current density fluctuations. Coherent interaction between these fluctuations is also measured and observed to generate an electromagnetic fluctuation-induced torque 〈δJ×δB〉.

Electron density measurement by differential interferometry

A novel differential interferometer is being developed to measure the electron density gradient and its fluctuations. Two separate laser beams with slight spatial offset and frequency difference are coupled into a single mixer making a heterodyne measurement of the phase difference which is <1% of the total phase change experienced by each beam separately. This measure of the differential phase is made at multiple spatial points and can be inverted directly to provide the local density distribution.

Plasma behaviour at high β and high density in the Madison Symmetric Torus RFP

Pellet fuelling of improved confinement Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) plasmas has resulted in high density and high plasma beta. The density in improved confinement discharges has been increased fourfold, and a record plasma beta (βtot = 26%) for the improved confinement reversed-field pinch (RFP) has been achieved. At higher β, a new regime for instabilities is accessed in which local interchange and global tearing instabilities are calculated to be linearly unstable, but experimentally, no severe effect, e.g., a disruption, is observed. The tearing instability, normally driven by the current gradient, is driven by the pressure gradient in this case, and there are indications of increased energy transport (as compared with low-density improved confinement). Pellet fuelling is also compared with enhanced edge fuelling of standard confinement RFP discharges for the purpose of searching for a density limit in MST. In standard-confinement discharges, pellet fuelling peaks the density profile where edge fuelling cannot, but transport appears unchanged. For a limited range of plasma current, MST discharges with edge fuelling are constrained to a maximum density corresponding to the Greenwald limit. This limit is surpassed in pellet-fuelled improved confinement discharges.

High-β, improved confinement reversed-field pinch plasmas at high density

In Madison Symmetric Torus [Dexter et al., Fusion Technol. 19, 131 (1991)] discharges where improved confinement is brought about by modification of the current profile, pellet injection has quadrupled the density, reaching ne=4×1019m−3. Without pellet injection, the achievable density in improved confinement discharges had been limited by edge-resonant tearing instability. With pellet injection, the total beta has been increased to 26%, and the energy confinement time is comparable to that at low density. Pressure-driven local interchange and global tearing are predicted to be linearly unstable. Interchange has not yet been observed experimentally, but there is possible evidence of pressure-driven tearing, an instability usually driven by the current gradient in the reversed-field pinch.

The Hall dynamo effect and nonlinear mode coupling during sawtooth magnetic reconnection

During magnetic reconnection associated with sawtooth activity in a reversed field pinch, we observe a large fluctuation-induced Hall electromotive force, ⟨δJ×δB⟩∕nee, which is capable of modifying the equilibrium current. This Hall dynamo effect is determined in the hot plasma core by laser Faraday rotation which measures equilibrium and fluctuating magnetic field and current density. We find that the Hall dynamo is strongest when nonlinear mode coupling between three spatial Fourier modes of the resistive tearing instability is present. Mode coupling alters the phase relation between magnetic and current density fluctuations for individual Fourier modes leading to a finite Hall effect. Detailed measurements of the spatial and temporal dynamics for the dominant core resonant mode under various plasma configurations are described providing evidence regarding the origin of the Hall dynamo.

New ORNL Pellet Injection System and Installation/Initial Operations on MST

Abstract A compact pellet injection system that was recently developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been installed on the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) at the University of Wisconsin and used in initial plasma fueling experiments. The system, referred to as a “pellet injector in a suitcase,” is a pipe gun device with a four-barrel capability (presently equipped with two 1.0-mm-bore barrels), and it uses a cryogenic refrigerator for in-situ hydrogen pellet formation (typically, D2 pellets). This new, portable, stand-alone pellet injection system was developed to provide a flexible means of plasma fueling on a wide variety of magnetic confinement devices, with relatively low costs for installation and operation. The injector has already been used to produce useful results with pellets on MST plasmas, including significant and rapid increases (almost 100%) in the line average density, and effectively depositing fuel in the plasma core (central densities of [approximately equal to ≈ 1.4 × 1019 m−3). In this paper, the injection system, its performance, and reliability will be described, and results from some initial MST pellet experiments will be highlighted.