Controlling the rotation of drift tearing modes by biased electrode in ADITYA-U tokamak

Abstract

The influence of background plasma poloidal rotation on the rotation frequency of the m/n = 2/1 drift tearing mode (DTM) has been studied in ADITYA-U tokamak. The poloidal rotation velocity of the background plasma in the ion diamagnetic direction is increased or decreased by inducing an outward or inward radial electric field, respectively, through a biased-electrode placed in the edge region of the plasma. The rotation frequency of the preexisting drift tearing mode, rotating in the electron diamagnetic direction, concomitantly decreased or increased with the application of bias depending on its polarity. The positive-bias increases the background plasma rotation in the ion-diamagnetic direction from its pre-bias value, hence decreasing the DTM rotation frequency, whereas the negative bias reduces the plasma rotation velocity in the ion-diamagnetic direction, hence increasing the mode rotation. In addition to that, a short gas puff introduced during the positive and negative bias pulse further reduces the mode frequency, however, with different amplitudes in different bias-polarities. These observations suggest that the background plasma rotation contributes significantly toward the rotation of DTMs, and the rotation frequency of the magnetohydrodynamic modes can be modified by varying the poloidal rotation of the background plasma and/or the diamagnetic drift frequency.