Fumitake Watanabe

Observation of the low to high confinement transition in the large helical device

The low to high confinement transition has been observed on the large helical device [A. Iiyoshi, A. Komori, A. Ejiri et al., Nucl. Fusion 39, 1245 (1999)], exhibiting rapid increase in edge electron density with sharp depression of Hα emission. The transition occurs in low toroidal field (Bt=0.5–0.75T) discharges and are heated by high power neutral beam injection. The plasma thus has a relatively high value (∼1.5%) of the volume averaged β value. The electron temperature and density profiles have steep gradients at the edge region which has high magnetic shear but is at a magnetic hill. Formation of the edge transport barrier leads to enhanced activities of the interchange type of modes with m=2∕n=3 (m,n are the poloidal and toroidal mode numbers) in the edge region. At present, these magnetohydrodynamic activities limit the rise of the stored energy; the resultant increment of the stored energy remains modest.

Effect of pressure-driven MHD instabilities on confinement in reactor-relevant high-beta helical plasmas a)

Through the experiment data analysis in the large helical device (LHD), the influence of the global MHD instability and the relatively short wave length MHD instabilities driven turbulence on the confinement performance in reactor-relevant high-beta helical plasmas is studied. The comparison of the energy confinement time between just before global MHD instability disappears and after that, and the estimation of the saturated mode structure by the multi-channel soft x-ray measurement enable us to quantitatively estimate the influence of the global interchange type MHD instability with different saturated mode structures on the confinement performance. According to the comparison between thermal conductivities in experiments and those predicted by theoretical transport models, the transport properties in the peripheral region of high beta LHD plasmas are quite similar with anomalous transport model based on an interchange type MHD instability driven turbulence, and that result is supported by the dependenc...

Measurement of electrostatic potential fluctuation using heavy ion beam probe in large helical device

Heavy ion beam probe (HIBP) for large helical device (LHD) has been improved to measure the potential fluctuation in high-temperature plasmas. The spatial resolution is improved to about 10 mm by controlling the focus of a probe beam. The HIBP is applied to measure the potential fluctuation in plasmas where the rotational transform is controlled by electron cyclotron current drive. The fluctuations whose frequencies change with the time constant of a few hundreds of milliseconds and that with a constant frequency are observed. The characteristics of the latter fluctuation are similar to those of the geodesic acoustic mode oscillation. The spatial profiles of the fluctuations are also obtained.

Effects of an externally produced static magnetic island on edge MHD modes in the Large Helical Device

In high beta plasmas and plasmas with an edge transport barrier on the Large Helical Device (LHD), pressure-driven edge MHD modes such as m/n = 1/1, 3/4, 2/3, 3/5 and 1/2 (m, n: poloidal and toroidal mode numbers) are excited in the magnetic hill region of the plasma edge. When a sizable static magnetic island with the mode number of m/n = 1/1 was externally generated at the ι/2π = 1 surface near the plasma edge using the perturbation field coils called the local island divertor coil, the edge pressure gradient was modified in the toroidal and poloidal directions by the formation of an X-point and an O-point of the island and the achieved volume-averaged beta was appreciably reduced. This modification changed the excited mode numbers of these edge MHD modes and their radial mode structures at the inboard and outboard sides of LHD. In particular, these edge MHD fluctuations observed by soft x-ray detectors exhibited obvious enhancement on the outboard side (larger major radius) and reduction on the inboard side, regardless of the O-point/X-point position.

Development of a Heavy Ion Beam Probe for Measuring Electrostatic Potential Profile and Its Fluctuation in LHD

A heavy ion beam probe (HIBP) using a 3-MV tandem accelerator has been installed on large helical device (LHD). Electrostatic potential in core plasma can be measured under the toroidal magnetic field strength of up to 3 T. By using the HIBP, the transition of potential profiles from electron-root to ion-root is observed in core plasmas during ramp-up of the electron density. Potential fluctuations are also measured electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD). Two kind of characteristic fluctuations are observed. One is a reversed-shear-induced Alfven eigenmode (RSAE), whose frequency varies during the evolution of the rotational transform profile, and the other is with a constant geodeisc acoustic mode (GAM) frequency.

Formation of Edge Transport Barriers by L-H Transition and Large Reversed Plasma Current on LHD

On the Large Helical Device (LHD) where nested magnetic surfaces are surrounded by the ergodic field layer, edge transport barrier (ETB) was produced in neutral-beam-injection (NBI) heated plasmas through transition and non-transition processes. The former case is the ETB formation by L-H transition, where characteristics of L-H transition observed in a tokamak plasma are clearly recognized. The confinement improvement is the modest (~ 10%), compared with the ISS95 international stellarator scaling. The threshold power for the transition is comparable or slightly lower than the ITER scaling law established by tokamaks and compact tori. The ETB is formed inside the ergodic field layer of the vacuum field. The ETB formation destabilizes edge coherent modes such as m/n = 1/1, 2/3 and 1/2, of which rational surfaces are in the magnetic hill. The formed ETB is partially and transiently destroyed by these coherent edge MHD modes and edge localized modes (ELMs) typically observed in Hα signals. The latter ETB is observed in a plasma with large reversed NBI-driven current more than 100 kA at Bt = 1 T. In these plasmas, the edge magnetic shear is enhanced by the current and the rotational transform in the core region is expected to be appreciably reduced. Thus reduced rotational transform in the plasma central region will enhance outward heat and particle fluxes toward ergodic edge layer. The ETB with steep electron temperature gradient up to ~ 5 keV/m is formed by blocking enhanced outward heat flux.

Formation of edge transport barrier in the ergodic field layer of helical divertor configuration on the Large Helical Device

On the Large Helical Device (LHD), low to high confinement (L–H) transition and edge transport barrier (ETB) formation were observed in the low beta regime (βdia 1.5%). In most of ETB plasmas electron density preferentially increases in the edge region without a substantial rise of the edge electron temperature. The ETB zone develops inside the ergodic field layer calculated in the vacuum field. The ETB formation strongly destabilizes edge coherent modes such as m/n = 2/3 or 1/2 (m, n: poloidal and toroidal mode numbers), because the plasma edge region is in the magnetic hill. The ETB is partially destroyed by the combination of these edge MHD modes and ELM-like activities. For a particular experimental condition, the forced generation of a sizable m/n = 1/1 magnetic island near the edge by application of external field perturbations facilitates the L–H transition at a lower electron density and suppresses edge MHD modes and ELM-like activities to lower levels.

Contribution of the Large Helical Device Plasmas to Alfvén Eigenmode Physics in Toroidal Plasmas

In the large helical device (LHD) having three dimensional configuration, Alfven eigenmodes (AEs) destabilized by energetic ions are widely investigated using neutral beam heated plasmas with monotonic and non-monotonic rotational transform (ι/2π) profiles. In a plasma with monotonic ι/2π-profile, core-localized toroidicity-induced Alfven eigenmode (TAE) as well as global one are often observed. With the increase in the averaged toroidal beta value, defined as the ratio of total plasma pressure to toroidal magnetic pressure, core-localized TAE with low toroidal mode number becomes global. In a relatively high beta plasma with monotonic ι/2π-profile, two TAEs with different toroidal mode number often interact nonlinearly and generate another modes through three wave coupling. In a plasma with non-monotonic ι/2π-profile generated by intense counter neutral beam current drive, reversed shear Alfven eigenmode (RSAE) and geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) excited by energetic ions were observed for the first time in a helical plasma. Nonlinear coupling was also observed between RSAE and GAM.