Electron Cyclotron Emission Imaging Observations of m/n = 1/1 and Higher Harmonic Modes during Sawtooth Oscillation in ICRF Heating Plasma on EAST**Supported by the National Magnetic Confinement Fusion Energy Program of China under Grant Nos 2013GB106002 and 2014GB109002, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 10990210 and 11275200.

Abstract

The m/n = 1/1 and its higher harmonic modes are observed in sawtooth oscillations by using the novel high-resolution 2D ECE imaging system on the experimental advanced superconducting Tokamak (EAST). Higher harmonic modes are appearing for a short time during the crash phase of sawtooth oscillation in lower βp plasma, which is not the preferable position in the poloidal cross section. These modes generate sharp pressure points on the inversion radius during the crash phase of sawtooth oscillation. Furthermore, reconnection events proceed in two distinctive phases. In the first phase, a small amount of heat is expelled through the weak reconnection while in the second phase the remaining large quantity of heat and particles emerged rapidly from the hot core to the peripheral region of the inversion radius. In addition, these harmonic modes are only found before and after the ICRF pulse, while in the ICRF pulse only the (1,1) mode exists in the sawtooth oscillation.