Preceding propagation of turbulence pulses at avalanche events in a magnetically confined plasma

The preceding propagation of turbulence pulses has been observed for the first time in heat avalanche events during the collapse of the electron internal transport barrier (e-ITB) in the Large Helical Device. The turbulence and heat pulses are generated near the foot of the e-ITB and propagate to the peripheral region within a much shorter time than the diffusion timescale. The propagation speed of the turbulence pulse is approximately 10 km/s, which is faster than that of the heat pulse propagating at a speed of 1.5 km/s. The heat pulse propagates at approximately the same speed as that in the theoretical prediction, whereas the turbulence pulse propagates one order of magnitude faster than that in the prediction, thereby providing important insights into the physics of non-local transport.

Impact of Magnetic Field Configuration on Heat Transport in Stellarators and Heliotrons

We assess the magnetic field configuration in modern fusion devices by comparing experiments with the same heating power, between a stellarator and a heliotron. The key role of turbulence is evident in the optimized stellarator, while neoclassical processes largely determine the transport in the heliotron device. Gyrokinetic simulations elucidate the underlying mechanisms promoting stronger ion scale turbulence in the stellarator. Similar plasma performances in these experiments suggests that neoclassical and turbulent transport should both be optimized in next step reactor designs.

Homodyne interferometry using a phase rotator for calibration of sine-cosine phase detection of a 70 GHz probe beam through a plasma

Homodyne interferometry using a motorized phase rotator for calibration of sine-cosine detection of the phase shift of a 70 GHz probe beam through a plasma has been developed. Four interferometers based on this interferometry have been installed on the low aspect ratio torus experiment (LATE) device with four horizontal probe beams on the mid-plane, which has measured the line-integrated electron densities with a time resolution of 10 μs and a resolution of line-integrated density of 5 × 10¹⁵ m^-2.

2D spatial profile measurements of potential fluctuation with heavy ion beam probe on the Large Helical Device

Two-dimensional spatial profiles of potential fluctuation were measured with the heavy ion beam probe (HIBP) in the Large Helical Device (LHD). For 2D spatial profile measurements, the probe beam energy has to be changed, which requires the adjustment of many deflectors in the beam transport line to optimize the beam trajectory, since the transport line of LHD-HIBP system is long. The automatic beam adjustment system was developed, which allows us to adjust the beam trajectory easily. By analyzing coherence between potential fluctuation and magnetic probe signal, the noise level of the mode power spectrum of the potential fluctuation can be reduced. By using this method, the 2D spatial profile of potential fluctuation profile was successfully obtained.

Reconstruction of high temporal resolution Thomson scattering data during a modulated electron cyclotron resonance heating using conditional averaging

This paper provides a software application of the sampling scope concept for fusion research. The time evolution of Thomson scattering data is reconstructed with a high temporal resolution during a modulated electron cyclotron resonance heating (MECH) phase. The amplitude profile and the delay time profile of the heat pulse propagation are obtained from the reconstructed signal for discharges having on-axis and off-axis MECH depositions. The results are found to be consistent with the MECH deposition.

Design of polarizers for a mega-watt long-pulse millimeter-wave transmission line on the large helical device

The polarizer is one of the critical components in a high-power millimeter-wave transmission line. It requires full and highly efficient coverage of any polarization states, high-power tolerance, and low-loss feature. Polarizers with rounded shape at the edge of the periodic groove surface are designed and fabricated by the machining process for a mega-watt long-pulse millimeter-wave transmission line of the electron cyclotron resonance heating system in the large helical device. The groove shape of λ/8- and λ/4-type polarizers for an 82.7 GHz transmission line is optimally designed in an integral method developed in the vector theories of diffraction gratings so that the efficiency to realize any polarization state can be maximized. The dependence of the polarization states on the combination of the two polarizer rotation angles (Φλ/8, Φλ/4) is examined experimentally in a low-power test with the newly developed polarization monitor. The results show that the measured polarization characteristics are in good agreement with the calculated ones.

Power and polarization monitor development for high power millimeter-wave

A new type monitor of power and polarization states of millimeter-waves has been developed to be installed at a miter-bend, which is a part of transmission lines of millimeter-waves, for electron cyclotron resonance heating on the Large Helical Device. The monitor measures amplitudes and phase difference of the electric field of the two orthogonal polarizations which are needed for calculation of the power and polarization states of waves. The power and phase differences of two orthogonal polarizations were successfully detected simultaneously.

Electron cyclotron beam measurement system in the Large Helical Device

In order to evaluate the electron cyclotron (EC) heating power inside the Large Helical Device vacuum vessel and to investigate the physics of the interaction between the EC beam and the plasma, a direct measurement system for the EC beam transmitted through the plasma column was developed. The system consists of an EC beam target plate, which is made of isotropic graphite and faces against the EC beam through the plasma, and an IR camera for measuring the target plate temperature increase by the transmitted EC beam. This system is applicable to the high magnetic field (up to 2.75 T) and plasma density (up to 0.8 × 10(19) m(-3)). This system successfully evaluated the transmitted EC beam profile and the refraction.

Development of fast steering mirror control system for plasma heating and diagnostics

A control system for a fast steering mirror has been newly developed for the electron cyclotron heating (ECH) launchers in the large helical device. This system enables two-dimensional scan during a plasma discharge and provides a simple feedback control function. A board mounted with a field programmable gate array chip has been designed to realize feedback control of the ECH beam position to maintain higher electron temperature by ECH. The heating position is determined by a plasma diagnostic signal related to the electron temperature such as electron cyclotron emission and Thomson scattering.

Suppression of spurious mode oscillation in mega-watt 77-GHz gyrotron as a high quality probe beam source for the collective Thomson scattering in LHD

Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) diagnostic requires a strong probing beam to diagnose a bulk and fast ion distribution function in fusion plasmas. A mega-watt gyrotron for electron cyclotron resonance heating is used as a probing beam in the large helical device. Spurious mode oscillations are often observed during the turning on/off phase of the modulation. The frequency spectra of the 77-GHz gyrotron output power have been measured, and then one of the spurious modes, which interferes with the CTS receiver system, is identified as the TE(17,6) mode at the frequency of 74.7 GHz. The mode competition calculation indicates that the increase of the magnetic field strength at the gyrotron resonator can avoid such a spurious mode and excite only the main TE(18,6) mode. The spurious radiation at the 74.7 GHz is experimentally demonstrated to be suppressed in the stronger magnetic field than that optimized for the high-power operation.

Collective Thomson scattering of a high power electron cyclotron resonance heating beam in LHD (invited)

Collective Thomson scattering (CTS) system has been constructed at LHD making use of the high power electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) system in Large Helical Device (LHD). The necessary features for CTS, high power probing beams and receiving beams, both with well defined Gaussian profile and with the fine controllability, are endowed in the ECRH system. The 32 channel radiometer with sharp notch filter at the front end is attached to the ECRH system transmission line as a CTS receiver. The validation of the CTS signal is performed by scanning the scattering volume. A new method to separate the CTS signal from background electron cyclotron emission is developed and applied to derive the bulk and high energy ion components for several combinations of neutral beam heated plasmas.

Improvements of data quality of the LHD Thomson scattering diagnostics in high-temperature plasma experiments

In Large Helical Device (LHD) experiments, an electron temperature (T(e)) more than 15 keV has been observed by the yttrium-aluminum-garnet (YAG) laser Thomson scattering diagnostic. Since the LHD Thomson scattering system has been optimized for the temperature region, 50 eV≤T(e)≤10 keV, the data quality becomes worse in the higher T(e) region exceeding 10 keV. In order to accurately determine T(e) in the LHD high-T(e) experiments, we tried to increase the laser pulse energy by simultaneously firing three lasers. The technique enables us to decrease the uncertainties in the measured T(e). Another signal accumulation method was also tested. In addition, we estimated the influence of high-energy electrons on T(e) obtained by the LHD Thomson scattering system.

The observation of nonlinear ion cyclotron wave excitation during high-harmonic fast wave heating in the large helical device

A wave detector, a newly designed magnetic probe, is installed in the large helical device (LHD). This wave detector is a 100-turn loop coil with electrostatic shield. Comparing a one-loop coil to this detector, this detector has roughly constant power coupling in the lower frequency range of 40 MHz, and it can easily detect magnetic wave in the frequency of a few megahertz. During high-harmonic fast wave heating, lower frequency waves (<10 MHz) were observed in the LHD for the first time, and for the power density threshold of lower frequency wave excitation (7.5 MHz) the power density of excited pumped wave (38.47 MHz) was approximately -46 dBmHz. These lower frequencies are kept constant for electron density and high energy particle distribution, and these lower frequency waves seem to be ion cyclotron waves caused by nonlinear wave-particle interaction, for example, parametric decay instability.

Three-dimensional observation of an helical hot structure during a sawtooth crash in the WT-3 tokamak

Sawtooth crashes in an Ohmically heated plasma in the WT-3 tokamak have been observed by using soft x-ray computer tomography at three different poloidal cross sections around the torus. Initially, collapsing proceeds slowly with keeping the helical structure of an m = 1/n = 1 hot core around the torus. It accelerates as the helical hot structure is strongly deformed and fades away in the manner that the hot core at the high field side becomes obscure and disappears, while that at the low field side is deformed into a thin crescent aligned along the inversion circle, which survives even at the completion of the crash.

Doppler-shifted cyclotron absorption of electron Bernstein waves via N( parallel)-upshift in a Tokamak plasma

Extraordinary (X) waves are perpendicularly injected for electron Bernstein (B) wave heating into an Ohmically heated plasma from the inboard side in the WT-3 tokamak. Measurements show that absorption does not take place at the electron cyclotron resonance layer nor the upper hybrid resonance layer, but does happen midway between them. This is consistent with the ray tracing prediction, i.e., the poloidal field and poloidal inhomogeneity of toroidal field lead the B waves to have a large parallel refractive index N( parallel) (>1), and the B waves are damped away via the Doppler-shifted cyclotron resonance.