Using a tangentially viewing x-ray imaging crystal spectrometer, substantial co-current rotation driven by lower hybrid current drive(LHCD) at 4.6 GHz is observed on EAST tokamak. This study presents plasma rotation behaviors with 4.6 GHz LHCD injection. Typically, the 10-20 km/s co-current rotation change and the transport of rotation velocity from edge to core are observed. The relationship between plasma parameters and rotation is also investigated, indicating that rotation decreases with increasing internal inductance(l_i) and increases with increasing safety factor(q_0). Hysteresis between rotation and T_e plasma stored energy is observed, suggesting different response times between the electron heating and rotation acceleration by LHCD. A comparison between the rotations driven by 4.6 G LHCD and 2.45 G LHCD on EAST is also presented, in which higher frequency LHCD could induce more rotation changes.
A compound sawtooth with an incomplete relaxation was observed in EAST's lower hybrid current drive(LHCD)plasma. The sub-crash phase of the compound sawtooth corresponds to a longer-lasting and slower-growing 1/1 mode.Based on the two-dimensional(2D) SXR tomography, the time-dependent 2D image of a compound sawtooth crash is obtained. The island produced during a resistive internal kink mode is observed in the all crash phases of the compound sawtooth. The destabilization of 1/1 long-lasting saturated 1/1 mode is related to the current driven by the LHCD near the q = 1 surface.
Two Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers at 1064 nm wavelength have been employed to produce plasmas on aluminum-based alloy in single- and collinear double-pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS).Time resolved technique was used for detecting emission signal by spectrometer equipped with ICCD detector.The intensity calibration of spectral response was performed by using deuterium and tungsten halogen lamps.Time evolution of the plasma temperature and electron number density was investigated in single- and collinear double-pulse experiments.Based on the investigation of plasma parameters,the emission signal enhancement mechanism was discussed qualitatively.
Core plasma rotation of both L-mode and H-mode discharges with ion cyclotron range of frequency(ICRF) minority heating(MH) scheme was measured with a tangential X-ray imaging crystal spectrometer on EAST(Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak).Cocurrent central impurity toroidal rotation change was observed in ICRF-heated L-and H-mode plasmas.Rotation increment as high as 30 km/s was generated at ~1.7 MW ICRF power.Scaling results showed similar trend as the Rice scaling but with significant scattering,especially in L-mode plasmas.We varied the plasma current,toroidal field and magnetic configuration individually to study their effect on L-mode plasma rotation,while keeping the other major plasma parameters and heating unchanged during the scanning.It was found that larger plasma current could induce plasma rotation more efficiently.A scan of the toroidal magnetic field indicated that the largest rotation was obtained for on-axis ICRF heating.A comparison between lower-single-null(LSN)and double-null(DN) configurations showed that LSN discharges rendered a larger rotation change for the same power input and plasma parameters.
Particle-in-cell(PIC)simulation method has been proved to be a good candidate to study the interactions between plasmas and radio-frequency waves.However,for waves in the lower hybrid range of frequencies,a full PIC simulation is not efficient due to its high computational cost.In this work,a gyro-kinetic electron and fully-kinetic ion(GeFi)particle simulation model is applied to study the propagations and mode conversion processes of lower hybrid waves(LHWs)in plasmas.With this method,the computational efficiency of LHW simulations is greatly increased by using a larger grid size and time step.The simulation results in the linear regime are validated by comparison with the linear theory.
Fully non-inductive plasma start-up was successfully achieved by using a wellcontrolled microwave source on the spherical tokamak, QUEST. Non-inductive plasmas were maintained for approximately 3–5 min, during which time power balance estimates could be achieved by monitoring wall and cooling-water temperatures. Approximately 70%–90% of the injected power could be accounted for by calorimetric measurements and approximately half of the injected power was found to be deposited on the vessel wall, which is slightly dependent on the magnetic configuration. The power distribution to water-cooled limiters, which are expected to be exposed to local heat loads, depends significantly on the magnetic configuration, however some of the deposited power is due to energetic electrons, which have large poloidal orbits and are likely to be deposited on the plasma facing components.
