Wen Yi-Zhi

Electron Cyclotron Emission Imaging on the EAST Tokamak

An upgraded electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) system consisting of new optics lenses with necessary electronics for receiving and processing signals for two dimension (2D) ECEI diagnostics was installed on EAST. Hyperboloid lens were adopted in the new system to optimize the spatial resolutions. The mixers array of sixteen elements measured the plasma electron cyclotron emission at eight frequencies simultaneously, and the profiles of the electron temperature and its fluctuation in an area of 20 cm (vertical) × 6 cm (horizontal) could then be analyzed. Evolution of sawtooth precursor and crash in EAST was observed.

One-Dimensional Vertical ECEI Diagnostic for HT-7 Tokamak

At the first stage of the electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) diagnostic project on HT-7, a 16-channel vertical-resolved ECEI diagnostic has been developed and installed on HT-7 tokamak to measure electron cyclotron emission with a temporal resolution of 0.5 μsec. The system works at a fixed frequency of 97.5 GHz. The sample volumes of the system are aligned vertically with a vertical channel spacing of 11 mm, and can be shifted across the plasma cross-section by varying the toroidal magnetic field. The high spatial resolution of the system is achieved by utilizing a low-cost linear mixer/receiver array and an optical imaging system. The focus location may be shifted horizontally when translating one of the optical imaging elements. The details of the system design and laboratory testing of the ECEI optics are presented together with the preliminary experimental results.

Electron temperature fluctuation in the HT-7 tokamak plasma observed by electron cyclotron emission imaging

The fluctuation of the electron temperature has been measured by using the electron cyclotron emission imaging in the Hefei Tokamak-7 (HT-7) plasma. The electron temperature fluctuation with a broadband spectrum shows that it propagates in the electron diamagnetic drift direction, and the mean poloidal wave-number θ is calculated to be about 1.58 cm−1, or θρs ≈ 0.34. It indicates that the fluctuation should come from the electron drift wave turbulence. The linear global scaling of the electron temperature fluctuation with the gradient of electron temperature is consistent with the mixing length scale qualitatively. Evolution of spectrum of the fluctuation during the sawtooth oscillation phases is investigated, and the fluctuation is found to increase with the gradient of electron temperature increasing during most phases of the sawtooth oscillation. The results indicate that the electron temperature gradient is probably the driver of the fluctuation enhancement. The steady heat flux driven by electron temperature fluctuation is estimated and compared with the results from power balance estimation.

Modification of plasma edge fluctuations using electrostatic probes in Keda Tokamak-5C

The experiments to characterize the modification of edge fluctuations using electrostatic probes have been performed on Keda Tokamak-5C (KT-5C) [World Survey of Activities in Controlled Fusion Research, Nuclear Fusion Special Supplement (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1991), p. 190]. The results show that the externally excited perturbation propagates in the direction of electron directional movement. The observed phenomena are mainly related to the electrons, and can be well explained by the proposed dynamic theory of the ballistic mode. The experimental correlation coefficient and the longitudinal dispersion relation are in good agreement with the proposed ballistic model.

Self-Organized Criticality Properties of the Turbulence-Induced Particle Flux at the Plasma Edge of the HT-6M Tokamak

The power spectrum and the probability distribution function (PDF) of the turbulence-induced particle flux Γ in the velocity shear layer of the HT-6M edge region have been measured and analysed. Three regions of frequency dependence (f 0, f-1, f-4) have been observed in the spectrum of the flux. The PDF of the flux displays a Γ-1 scaling over one decade in Γ. Using the rescaled-range statistical technique, we find that the degree of the self-similarity (Hurst exponent) of the particle flux in the measured region ranges from 0.64 to 0.83. All of these results may mean that the plasma transport is in a state characterized by self-organized criticality.

A 57-Pin Langmuir Probe Array for Two-Dimensional Diagnosis in the Toroidal KT-5D Steady-State Plasma

In this article, the design idea of a 57-pin Langmuir probe array is presented, together with some experimental results. The manufacture technique of the probe array is discussed. Two-dimensional distributions of the plasma density, the floating potential and their fluctuations in the poloidal cross section are obtained. The blobs, which move radially and poloidally, cause great particle and energy transport. The charge neutralization by the poloidal movement of particles greatly decreases the vertical electric field in the helimak plasma. This leads to a confinement time which is two orders of magnitude larger than the theoretical prediction.

Internal Magnetic Configuration Measured by ECE Imaging on EAST Tokamak

ECE imaging (electron cyclotron emission imaging) is an important diagnostic which can give 2D imaging of temperature fluctuation in the core of tokamak. A method based on ECE imaging is introduced which can give the information of the position of magnetic axis and the structure of internal magnetic surface for EAST tokamak. The EFIT equilibrium reconstruction is not reliable due to the absence of important core diagnostic at the initial phase for EAST, so the information given by ECE imaging could help to improve the accuracy of EFIT equilibrium reconstruction.

Optical Design of ECEI Diagnostic System for HT-7 Tokamak

Electron cyclotron emission imaging system in the frequency range of 95 GHz-125 GHz is going to be constructed for a two-dimensional diagnosis of the electron temperature profiles and fluctuations on the HT-7 Tokamak. The optical design for the ECEI diagnostic system is completed. Because of the superconducting technology used in HT-7, the vacuum chamber is rather thick (630 mm), the height of the horizontal windows is limited (maximum 450 mm), which constrains greatly the ECE imaging Gaussian beam that passing through the windows. We here comes to make a design compromise between the number of the beams that can pass through the windows and the spatial resolution (around 1.1 cm). We also find that due to the field curvature of the optical system, the gaussian beams of edge channels are always overlapped. To flatten the field curvature, it is needed to insert a concave made of a material with a low refractive index (compared with the one used in the convex). But the suitable material has not been available so far, therefore the deterioration of the resolution in some channels (e.g. the edge channels) is acceptable.

Generation of Radial Electric Field with Electrode Biasing

Time and space resolved measurements of the radial electric field (Er) have been conducted during the electrode biasing experiments on the KT-5C tokamak. The suppression of the turbulent transport with the change of Er induced by the biased electrode is observed. It is found that the poloidal flow contributes to the main part of the Er, and the change of the poloidal flow has a lead of about 20 µs to the formation of Er. These observations suggest that a radial current, responding to an induced voltage on the electrode, drives a poloidal flow which in turn drives the radial electric field.

A Signature of Self-Organized Criticality in the HT-6M Edge Plasma Turbulence

Power spectra of electron density and floating potential fluctuations in the velocity shear layer of the HT-6M edge region have been measured and analysed. All the spectra have three distinct frequency regions with the spectral decay indices typical of self-organized criticality systems (0, -1 and -4) when Doppler shift effects induced by the plasma E×B flow velocity have been taken into account. These results are consistent with the predictions of the self-organized criticality models, which may be an indication of edge plasma turbulence in the HT-6M tokamak evolving into a critical state independent of local plasma parameters.