Y. Ohtani

Edge plasma responses to energetic-particle-driven MHD instability in Heliotron J

Two different responses to an energetic-particle-driven magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instability, modulation of the turbulence amplitude associated with the MHD instability and dynamical changes in the radial electric field (Er) synchronized with bursting MHD activities, are found around the edge plasma in neutral beam injection (NBI) heated plasmas of the Heliotron J device using multiple Langmuir probes. The nonlinear phase relationship between the MHD activity and broadband fluctuation is found from bicoherence and envelope analysis applied to the probe signals. The structural changes of the Er profile appear in perfect synchronization with the periodic MHD activities, and radial transport of fast ions are observed around the last closed flux surface as a radial delay of the ion saturation current signals. Moreover, distortion of the MHD mode structure is clarified in each cycle of the MHD activities using beam emission spectroscopy diagnostics, suggesting that the fast ion distribution in real and/or velocity spaces is distorted in the core plasma, which can modify the radial electric field structure through a redistribution process of the fast ions. These observations suggest that such effects as a nonlinear coupling with turbulence and/or the modification of radial electric field profiles are important and should be incorporated into the study of energetic particle driven instabilities in burning plasma physics.

Highly time-resolved evaluation technique of instantaneous amplitude and phase difference using analytic signals for multi-channel diagnosticsa)

A fluctuation analysis technique using analytic signals is proposed. Analytic signals are suitable to characterize a single mode with time-dependent amplitude and frequency, such as an MHD mode observed in fusion plasmas since the technique can evaluate amplitude and frequency at a specific moment without limitations of temporal and frequency resolutions, which is problematic in Fourier-based analyses. Moreover, a concept of instantaneous phase difference is newly introduced, and error of the evaluated phase difference and its error reduction techniques using conditional/ensemble averaging are discussed. These techniques are applied to experimental data of the beam emission spectroscopic measurement in the Heliotron J device, which demonstrates that the technique can describe nonlinear evolution of MHD instabilities. This technique is widely applicable to other diagnostics having necessity to evaluate phase difference.

First measurement of time evolution of electron temperature profiles with Nd:YAG Thomson scattering system on Heliotron J.

A Nd:YAG Thomson scattering system has been developed for Heliotron J. The system consists of two 550 mJ 50 Hz lasers, large collection optics, and 25 radial channel (∼1 cm spatial resolution) interference polychromators. This measurement system achieves a S/N ratio of ∼50 for low-density plasma (ne ∼ 0.5 × 10(19) m(-3)). A time evolution of electron temperature profiles was measured with this system for a high-intensity gas-puff (HIGP) fueling neutral-beam-injection plasma. The peripheral temperature of the higher-density phase after HIGP recovers to the low-density pre-HIGP level, suggesting that improving particle transport in the HIGP plasma may be possible.

Gas puff modulation experiment measured by interferometers in Heliotron J

An HCN laser (λ = 337 μm) interferometer with a high time resolution has been developed in a helical device, Heliotron J, for the study of plasma confinement and transport. Using the new interferometer in combination with a microwave interferometer, a gas puff modulation experiment has been performed to clarify the particle transport in ECH and ECH + NBI heated plasmas. Based on the particle balance equation, the diffusion coefficient D and the convection velocity V are evaluated on the assumption of profile shapes for D, V and particle source. The result indicates that ECH plasma has better particle transport characteristics, smaller value on D and V, than the case of NBI heated plasmas. The influence of the source profile shape on this analysis is considered, because there is ambiguity on the edge plasma parameters around LCFS, which determines the source profile shape. Although evaluated values of D and V can depend on the source profiles, the difference still remains within the error bars at the present accuracy in this experimental condition, suggesting that more careful treatment of the assumption on particle source is required for the particle transport study with higher accuracy.

Interpretation of Plasma Fluctuation Data from Combination Measurement of a Perpendicular-View Camera and a Langmuir Probe in Heliotron J

Abstract In the medium-sized heliotron device Heliotron J, edge density fluctuation has been measured simultaneously with a high-speed video camera and a Langmuir probe. Poloidally propagating, parallel elongating filamentary structures with 20- to 30-kHz frequency and ~14-cm poloidal wavelength were observed by a camera. However, the radial position of this density mode is not well known with only camera data because the camera lens axis is perpendicular to the torus plane. To identify the span of this density mode, plasma-surface interaction (PSI) between the probe and the plasma has been analyzed. As the probe scanned into the plasma, enhanced brightness due to PSI was clearly observed in camera images. By comparing this enhanced brightness among different probe positions, the outmost margin of the 20- to 30-kHz mode observed by the camera has been identified to be within 10 mm outside from the last closed flux surface. This conclusion is supported by the spectrum of the probe data.

A novel electron density reconstruction method for asymmetrical toroidal plasmas

A novel reconstruction method is developed for acquiring the electron density profile from multi-channel interferometric measurements of strongly asymmetrical toroidal plasmas. It is based on a regularization technique, and a generalized cross-validation function is used to optimize the regularization parameter with the aid of singular value decomposition. The feasibility of method could be testified by simulated measurements based on a magnetic configuration of the flexible helical-axis heliotron device, Heliotron J, which has an asymmetrical poloidal cross section. And the successful reconstruction makes possible to construct a multi-channel Far-infrared laser interferometry on this device. The advantages of this method are demonstrated by comparison with a conventional method. The factors which may affect the accuracy of the results are investigated, and an error analysis is carried out. Based on the obtained results, the proposed method is highly promising for accurately reconstructing the electron density in the asymmetrical toroidal plasma.

Development of a high-speed full digital processing phase detector for interferometry

This study describes the development of a fully digital-type phase detector for plasma interferometry. This detector functions even in situations in which the phase changes rapidly or the input signal is too small to derive the correct phase shift from the intermediate frequency (IF) signal. The detector directly converts the IF signal waveform of the interferometer to the phase shift signal by means of data processing in a logic circuit. Thus, the phase is derived from the whole waveform of the IF signal. The IF signal of the interferometer is converted to in-phase and quadrature-phase signals by Hilbert transformation, processed by a digital low-pass filter, and converted to polar coordinates by a coordinate rotation digital computer algorithm to obtain the phase shift. A simulation of the high-speed full digital processing phase detector shows that a fringe jump does not occur unless the phase change rate exceeds 0.8 × 106 rad/s. This value is sufficiently large compared to the phase change velocity in rapid density increase resulting from a pellet injection. The phase conversion is simulated using a real IF signal from an interferometer measured with a Heliotron J device. The results show that the phase signal is correctly calculated by the full digital processing method from the IF signal, the phase derivation of which is typically difficult to obtain when using a conventional analog phase detector.

Faraday-cup-type lost fast ion detector on Heliotron J.

A Faraday-cup type lost-fast ion probe (FLIP) has been designed and installed in Heliotron J for the purpose of the studies of interaction between fast ions and MHD instabilities. The FLIP can measure the co-going fast ions whose energy is in the range of 1.7-42.5 keV (proton) and pitch angle of 90∘-140∘, especially for fast ions having the injection energy of neutral beam injection (NBI). The FLIP successfully measured the re-entering passing ions and trapped lost-fast ions caused by fast-ion-driven energetic particle modes in NBI heated plasmas.