R. Makino

Electron Bernstein wave heating by electron cyclotron wave injection from the high-field side in LHD

In the Large Helical Device (LHD), evident electron Bernstein wave (EBW) heating was successfully performed. The experiment was carried out using the electron cyclotron heating (ECH) system that was upgraded by installation of high-power, long-pulse 77 GHz gyrotrons. The EBW heating was achieved by a mode conversion from injected EC wave to EBW, by the so-called slow-XB technique where an X-mode wave is injected to the plasma from the high magnetic field side. The specific magnetic configuration of LHD provides a good opportunity to realize the slow-XB technique, which is generally difficult for tokamaks. With the slow-XB technique, increases in kinetically evaluated electron energy Wpe and electron temperature Te were observed in overdense plasmas. An electron heating in the so-called super dense core plasma in LHD, which is characterized with an internal diffusion barrier and a steep density gradient at the plasma core, was successfully demonstrated in the plasma core region where the central electron density ne0 of 17 × 1019 m−3 was about 1.2 times higher, at the beginning of the EC-wave injection, than the left-hand cut-off density of applied 77 GHz EC waves.

Progress of long pulse discharges by ECH in LHD

Using ion cyclotron heating and electron cyclotron heating (ECH), or solo ECH, trials of steady state plasma sustainment have been conducted in the superconducting helical/stellarator, large helical device (LHD) (Ida K et al 2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 104018). In recent years, the ECH system has been upgraded by applying newly developed 77 and 154 GHz gyrotrons. A new gas fueling system applied to the steady state operations in the LHD realized precise feedback control of the line average electron density even when the wall condition varied during long pulse discharges. Owing to these improvements in the ECH and the gas fueling systems, a stable 39 min discharge with a line average electron density n e_ave of 1.1 × 1019 m−3, a central electron temperature T e0 of over 2.5 keV, and a central ion temperature T i0 of 1.0 keV was successfully performed with ~350 kW EC-waves. The parameters are much improved from the previous 65 min discharge with n e_ave of 0.15 × 1019 m−3 and T e0 of 1.7 keV, and the 30 min discharge with n e_ave of 0.7 × 1019 m−3 and T e0 of 1.7 keV.

Electron Bernstein wave heating and emission measurement through the very narrow O-X-B mode conversion window in the LHD

In the large helical device (LHD), the theoretically predicted width of the ordinary-extraordinary-electron Bernstein wave (O-X-B) mode conversion (MC) window is comparable to the beam width and the power deposition is located in the off-axis region if the 77GHz fundamental electron cyclotron (EC) wave of is launched from an existing horizontal port antenna. In the experiment, the actual MC window location was looked for with changing the aiming. The effective aiming with that the increase of the stored energy was observed was two degrees apart from the location of the theoretical MC window at a maximum. Measurement of the waves originated from the thermally emitted EBW and radiated via the B-X-O mode conversion process is effective to improve the accuracy of the theoretical prediction with comparison between the theoretical and the experimental results. The theoretical prediction suggests that the width of the MC window of the fundamental 77GHz EC wave can be expanded if the lower port antenna is used. O...

High Density Plasma Heating by EC-Waves Injected from the High-Field Side for Mode Conversion to Electron Bernstein Waves in LHD

To realize an excitation of electron Bernstein waves (EBW) via mode conversion from X-mode waves injected from the high magnetic field side (HFS), new inner-vessel mirrors were installed close to a helical coil in the large helical device (LHD). 77 GHz electron cyclotron (EC) wave beams injected from an existing EC-wave injection system toward the new mirror are reflected on the mirror so that the beams are injected to plasmas from HFS. Evident increases in the electron temperature at the plasma core region and the plasma stored energy were observed by the HFS beam injection to the plasmas with the line-average electron density of 7.5×1019 m−3, which is slightly higher than the plasma cut-off density of 77 GHz EC-waves, 7.35×1019 m−3. The heating efficiency evaluated from the changes in the time derivative of the plasma stored energy reached ~70%. Although so far it is not clear which is the main cause of the heating effect, the mode-converted EBW or the X-mode wave itself injected from the HFS, an effective heating of high-density plasma over the plasma cut-off of EC-wave was successfully demonstrated.