Electron confinement studies on the EBT-S Bumpy Torus Experiment using soft x-ray techniques

Abstract

Soft x-ray bremsstrahlung measurements have been performed on the ELMO Bumpy Torus (EBT-S) plasma to determine the electron temperature Te and electron density density ne using a calibrated Si(Li) detector over a wide range of operating conditions. The purpose of this paper is to outline the necessary assumptions and essential x-ray techniques that are inherent in soft x-ray measurements in order to investigate the electron heating and confinement properties of EBT-S. In addition, by utilizing the electron density as determined by the soft x-ray measurements, the previous EBT-S confinement analyses have been extended. The steady-state plasma of EBT-S is heated by microwaves using a continuous wave (cw) gyrotron that can operate up to power levels of 200 kW. From the soft x-ray measurements, both the electron temperature and density are found to increase at higher microwave power levels. For operation at microwave power levels of 200 kW, Te approaches 1 keV while ne approaches 1.2×1012 cm−3. In general, confinement properties are found to improve with increased microwave power. The data are compared with neoclassical transport scaling and the electron transport is found to be collisionless (ν/Ω<1) as well as neoclassical.