On-surface potential and radial electric field variations in electron root stellarator plasmas

Abstract

In the present work we report recent radial electric field measurements carried out with the Doppler reflectometry (DR) system in the TJ-II stellarator. The study focuses on the fact that, under some conditions, the radial electric field measured at different points over the same flux surface shows significantly different values. A numerical analysis is carried out considering the contribution arising from the radial dependence of Φ1 as a possible correction term to the total radial electric field. Here Φ1 is the neoclassical electrostatic potential variation over the surface. The comparison shows good agreement in some aspects, like the conditions under which this correction is large (electron-root conditions) or negligible (ion-root conditions). But it disagrees in others like the sign of the correction. The results are discussed together with the underlying reasons of this partial disagreement. In addition, motivated by the recent installation of the dual DR system in Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X), Φ1 estimations for W7-X are revisited considering core electron-root confinement plasmas from its first experimental campaign. The simulations show larger values of Φ1 under electron-root conditions than under ion root. The contribution from the kinetic electron response is shown to become important at some radii. All this results in a potential variation size in W7-X noticeably larger than estimated in our previous work (García-Regaña et al 2017 Nucl. Fusion 57 056004), for other plasma parameters and another configuration.