Charge exchange recombination spectroscopy measurements in the extreme ultraviolet region of central carbon concentrations during high power neutral beam heating in TFTR

Abstract

The carbon concentration in the central region of TFTR discharges with high power neutral beam heating has been measured by charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS) of the C5+ n = 3–4 transition in the extreme ultraviolet region. The carbon concentrations were deduced from absolute measurements of the line brightness using a calculation of the beam attenuation and the appropriate cascade corrected line excitation rates. As a result of the high ion temperatures (20–30 keV) in most of the discharges, the contribution of beam halo neutrals to the line brightness was significant and therefore had to be included in the modelling of the data. Carbon concentrations have been measured in discharges with plasma currents Ip in the range 1.0-1.6 MA and beam power in the range 2.6–30 MW, including a number of supershots. The results are in good agreement with carbon concentrations deduced from the visible bremsstrahlung Zeff and with metallic impurity concentrations measured by X-ray pulse height analysis, demonstrating the reliability of the atomic rates used in the beam attenuation and line excitation calculations. Carbon is the dominant impurity species in these discharges; the oxygen concentration measured via CXRS in a high beam power case was 0.0006 of ne, compared to 0.04 for carbon. Trends with plasma current and beam power in the carbon concentration and the inferred deuteron concentration are presented. The carbon concentration is independent of plasma current and decreases from 0.13 at 2.6 MW beam power to 0.04 at 30 MW, while the deuteron concentration increases from 0.25 to 0.75 over the same range of beam power. These changes are primarily the result of beam particle fuelling, as the carbon density did not vary significantly with beam power. The time evolutions of the carbon and deuteron concentrations during two high power beam pulses, one which exhibited a carbon bloom (a sudden influx of carbon due to local heating of the limiter) and one which did not, are compared. In both types of discharge, the carbon concentration decreases early in the beam pulse as a result of beam particle fuelling, and the carbon density rises slowly during the beam pulse until the start of the bloom. The electron density rise during the bloom is primarily due to the increase in the carbon density.