Numerical study of impurity effects on ion temperature gradient modes in tokamak edge plasmas based on the Euler matrix eigenvalue method

Abstract

Low-Z impurity injection is frequently used for divertor detachment operations in current tokamaks; however, the impurity effects on the main plasma are yet to be fully understood. In this paper, the impurity effects on the ion temperature gradient (ITG) modes in tokamak edge plasmas are investigated based on the Euler matrix eigenvalue method. The eigen-equations with multiple ion species are established from the fundamental gyrokinetic theory, in which each ion species is treated equally. A novel and efficient gyro-kinetic code is developed for this numerical study, and the code’s availability to examine quasi-linear ITG modes is demonstrated by its comparison with existing results. At the pedestal top parameters in Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak high-β p H-mode plasmas, the ITG mode behavior is investigated in pure deuterium plasmas and with impurities. Impurities can induce destabilizing or stabilizing effects on ITG modes, which are determined by the impurity density scale length. The inwardly peaked impurity density profile tends to reduce the ITG growth rate. The effect strength also increases with the impurity charge concentration. The effects of impurity species, including boron, carbon, neon and argon, are also evaluated. Numerical results show that the strength of destabilizing or stabilizing effect inverses with impurity ion charge at the same effective charge.