Observation of electromagnetic fluctuation induced particle transport in ETG dominated large laboratory plasma

Abstract

The large volume plasma device (LVPD), a cylindrically shaped, linear plasma device of dimension (Φ = 2 m, L = 3 m) have successfully demonstrated the excitation of electron temperature gradient (ETG) turbulence (Mattoo et al 2012 Phys. Rev. Lett. 108 1–5). The observed ETG turbulence shows significant power between corresponding to the wave number, where, and ion cyclotron frequency and electron Larmor radius, respectively. The observed frequency and wave number matches well with theoretical estimates corresponding to Whistler-ETG mode. We investigated electromagnetic (EM) fluctuations induced plasma transport in high beta ETG mode suitable plasma in LVPD. The radial EM electron (ion) flux results primarily from the correlation between fluctuations of parallel electron current and radial magnetic field The EM particle flux is observed to be much smaller than the electrostatic particle flux, The EM flux is small but finite contrary to the conventional slab ETG model. The EM flux is non-ambipolar. A theoretical model is obtained for the EM particle flux in straight homogeneous magnetic field geometry. The theoretical estimates are seen to compare well with the experimental observations. Sluggish parallel ion response is identified as the key mechanism for generation of small but finite EM flux.