Fudi Wang

Imaging x-ray crystal spectrometer on EAST

A high-resolution imaging x-ray crystal spectrometer is described for implementation on the EAST tokamak to provide spatially and temporally resolved data on the ion temperature, electron temperature and poloidal plasma rotation. These data are derived from observations of the satellite spectra of helium-like argon, Ar XVII, which is the dominant charge state for electron temperatures in the range from 0.4 to 3.0 keV and which is accessible to EAST. Employing a novel design, which is based on the imaging properties of spherically bent crystals, the spectrometers will provide spectrally and spatially resolved images of the plasma for all experimental conditions, which include ohmically heated discharges as well as plasmas with rf and neutral-beam heating. The experimental setup and initial experimental results are presented.

Excitation of (2,1) neoclassical tearing modes by mode coupling with (1,1) internal mode in EAST

Neoclassical tearing modes (NTM) are observed in discharges with auxiliary heating LH+ICRF and LH only during H-mode in EAST. The m/n?=?2/1 NTM is triggered by strongly coupling with an m/n?=?1/1 internal mode. Here, LH and ICRF are the abbreviations of lower hybrid resonance heating and ion cyclotron resonance frequency heating, respectively. The mode number of the NTM is m/n?=?2/1, where m is the poloidal mode number and n is the toroidal mode number. Just before the triggering of NTMs, an m/n?=?1/1 internal mode appears in the soft x-ray emission at plasma centre when the intensity of hard x-ray (IHX) reaches a critical value. The mode, characterized by frequency chirping in the spectrum, may be related to suprathermal electrons produced by LH. The saturated magnetic island width wsat of the NTM is strongly correlated with poloidal ?p. Normalized ?N,onset and the magnetic island critical width wcrit increase with electron temperature Te.

Observations of pressure gradient driven m = 1 internal kink mode in EAST tokamak

Pressure gradient driven m = 1 internal kink mode destabilization that follows an L-H transition is observed in the operational region of the EAST tokamak, which manifests in periodic oscillations in soft x-ray (SXR) and Mirnov coil signals. Using tomography with the high resolution soft x-ray detection array, we find that the rotation direction of the 1/1 kink mode is in the ion diamagnetic drift direction in poloidal cross-section. A large displacement of the hot core is attributable to the shift of the 1/1 internal kink mode. In contrast to stationary oscillations with fixed frequency, various frequency chirping behavior is observed with this 1/1 kink mode. Furthermore, we also occasionally observe that a 2/1 neoclassical tearing mode (NTM) is triggered by a 1/1 internal kink mode via mode coupling in a high-performance plasma. The spatial structure of a 2/2 mode, which is the harmonic mode of the 1/1 kink mode, is also presented in this paper. Large amounts of medium-Z impurities accumulate in the cen...

Laboratory spectroscopy of silicon plasmas photoionized by mimic astrophysical compact objects

Photoionized plasmas are encountered in astrophysics wherever low-temperature gas/plasma is bathed in a strong radiation field. X-ray line emissions in the several kiloelectronvolts spectral range were observed from accreting clouds of binary systems, such as CYGNUS X-3 and VELA X-1, in which high-intensity x-ray continua from compact objects (neutron stars, black holes or white dwarfs) irradiate the cold and rarefied clouds. X-ray continuum- induced line emission accurately describes the accreting clouds, but experimental verification of this photoionized plasma model is scarce. Here we report the generation of photoionized plasmas in the laboratory under well-characterized conditions using a high-power laser. A blackbody radiator at a temperature of 500 eV, corresponding to a compact object, was created by means of a laser-driven implosion. The emerging x-rays irradiate a low-density (n(e) < 10(20) cm(-3)) and low- temperature (T(e) < 30 eV) silicon plasma. Line emissions from lithium- and helium-like silicon ions were observed from a thermally cold silicon plasma in the 1.8-1.9 keV spectral region, far from equilibrium conditions. This result reveals the laboratory generation of a photoionizing plasma. Atomic kinetic calculations imply the importance of direct K-shell photoionization by incoming hard x-rays.

Observation of 1/1 impurity-related ideal internal kink mode locking in the EAST tokamak

m/n = 1/1 pressure gradient driven impurity-related ideal internal kink mode locking is observed in EAST limit-cycle state H-mode plasmas. This 1/1 mode has a radial structure with no inversion around the resonance, which implies that the mode has an ideal internal kink structure. The rotation direction of the 1/1 internal kink mode, as obtained by tomography of a high-resolution multi-array soft x-ray system, is the ion diamagnetic drift velocity direction. Impurities accumulated in the central region play a vital role in mode excitation. Remarkable loss of the yield of neutron rate due to 1/1 mode is also observed. A notch at the location in the vicinity of q = 1 is also observed in the local toroidal rotation profile. Furthermore, the frequency chirping behavior of the 1/1 kink mode is related to the toroidal rotation velocity of the plasma. (Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

Performance predictions of RF heated plasma in EAST

Scenario development of high power L- and H-mode plasmas in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) tokamak is reported. The simulations use PTRANSP in combination with TSC to explore EAST plasmas with various radio frequency (RF) auxiliary heating methods, including ion cyclotron resonant heating (ICRH) and lower hybrid current drive. The GLF23 transport model is found to give a better fit to temperature measurements compared with the MMM95 and MMM08 models. A series of ICRH simulations are performed to optimize parameters of a new ICRH system in EAST. The highest plasma stored energy and other related plasma parameters using the current auxiliary power limits are predicted. The discharge length of high power plasma can be 8–200 s, depending on the volt–second consumption in different scenarios. Various phenomena are reported including the influence of different fractions of RF power on their deposition behavior, and on thermal diffusivity, the linear relation between q0 and LHW power fraction, different behavior of fast ions between L- and H-mode plasmas. The scenario development is predicted to improve the performance of EAST.

Time-Dependent Simulation of Photoionized Plasma Created by Laboratory Blackbody Radiator

In recent years, several experiments have been carried out to generate photoionized plasma in a laboratory. In this paper, a computer program is described, which simulates the evolution in time of such laboratory photoionized plasmas. While the experiments provide time-integrated quantities such as average temperature or emission spectrum, the program helps to study the time-dependent development of the underlying processes. A good agreement is obtained between the computational and experimental results.

Density limits investigation and high density operation in EAST tokamak

Increasing the density in a tokamak is limited by the so-called density limit, which is generally performed as an appearance of disruption causing loss of plasma confinement, or a degradation of high confinement mode which could further lead to a H → L transition. The L-mode and H-mode density limit has been investigated in EAST tokamak. Experimental results suggest that density limits could be triggered by either edge cooling or excessive central radiation. The L-mode density limit disruption is generally triggered by edge cooling, which leads to the current profile shrinkage and then destabilizes a 2/1 tearing mode, ultimately resulting in a disruption. The L-mode density limit scaling agrees well with the Greenwald limit in EAST. The observed H-mode density limit in EAST is an operational-space limit with a value of . High density H-mode heated by neutral beam injection (NBI) and lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) are analyzed, respectively. The constancy of the edge density gradients in H-mode indicates a critical limit caused perhaps by e.g. ballooning induced transport. The maximum density is accessed at the H → L transition which is generally caused by the excessive core radiation due to high Z impurities (Fe, Cu). Operating at a high density () is favorable for suppressing the beam shine through NBI. High density H-mode up to could be sustained by 2 MW 4.6 GHz LHCD alone, and its current drive efficiency is studied. Statistics show that good control of impurities and recycling facilitate high density operation. With careful control of these factors, high density up to 0.93 stable H-mode operation was carried out heated by 1.7 MW LHCD and 1.9 MW ion cyclotron resonance heating with supersonic molecular beam injection fueling.

Laser-produced plasmas as unique x-ray souces for industry and astrophysics

Laser produced plasma is one of the brilliant x-ray source that has unique capabilities for use in a wide range of science. Here we describe two examples of laser-produced plasma x-ray source application; one is for the semiconductor device industry and the other is for the astronomy. Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light sources for microlithography are receiving much attention as an industrial application of laser-produced x-ray source. High power and clean EUV light source, 13.5 nm of wavelength, is developed for mass-production of next generation semiconductor devices. Highest EUV conversion efficiency of 4% has been attained by using low-density and minimum-mass tin targets produced by laser-driven explosion of micro-droplet. In addition, it was recently demonstrated that laser-produced x-ray source is very useful to simulate x-ray astronomical phenomena in the laboratory. A 0.5-keV Planckian x-ray source was created with laser driven implosion for producing non-local-thermodynamical-equilibrium (non-LTE) photoionized plasmas, which is a key to understand astronomical compact objects. Laboratory experiment of non-LTE photoionized plasma offers novel test bed for validation and verification of computational codes used in x-ray astronomy.

Upgrades of poloidal and tangential x-ray imaging crystal spectrometers for temperature and rotation measurements on EAST

During the past two years, key parts of poloidal and tangential x-ray imaging crystal spectrometers (PXCSs and TXCSs) have been upgraded. For poloidal XCSs, double-crystals of ArXVII and FeXXV were deployed. For fulfilling in situ alignment of a poloidal XCS, the beryllium window must be flexibly removed. By utilizing a design, where the beryllium window was installed in the vacuum chamber of the double-crystal, and between the double-crystal and wall of this chamber, an in situ alignment for the two spectrometers was fulfilled. Also, a new holder for the double-crystal was installed to allow for precise adjustments of azimuth angle and vertical height of the double-crystal. In order to facilitate these adjustments of double-crystal and installation of beryllium window, the chamber of the double-crystal for PXCS was upgraded from a cylinder to a cuboid. The distance between double-crystal and magnetic axis was extended from 8936 mm to 9850 mm in order to improve spatial resolution for PXCS, which is currently in the range from 1.237 mm to 4.80 mm at magnetic axis. Furthermore, a new pixelated detector (PILATUS 900K), which has a large sensitive area of 83.8 × 325.3 mm2 and which is vacuum compatible, is being implemented on the PXCS. This detector is mounted on a rail, so that its position can be changed by 50 mm to effectively record spectra of He-like argon and He-like iron (ArXVII and FeXXV). Similarly, a rail, which allows detector movement by 50 mm, was also installed in TXCS to alternatively record spectra of ArXVII and ArXVIII. Presently, the operation duration of PXCS and TXCS has been upgraded to hundreds of seconds in one shot. Ti- and uϕ-profiles measured by TXCS and charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS) were compared and found to be in good agreement.