Particle pump-out induced by trapped electron mode turbulence in electron cyclotron heated plasmas on XuanLong-50 spherical torus

Abstract

Particle pump-out effects induced by low-frequency (<200 kHz) density fluctuations were observed in solely electron cyclotron wave (ECW)-heated plasmas on the spherical torus XuanLong-50 (EXL-50) without a central solenoid. The intensity of the relative density fluctuations increases with increasing ECW power and decays when the ECW is turned off while sustaining the plasma current. The electron densities are maintained relatively high and steady when the density fluctuations are completely absent, indicating that the outward transport of electrons is dominated by the particle pump-out effect of the ECW. The density fluctuations are modulated by a supersonic molecular beam injection pulse and the modulation amplitude decreases with increasing electron density at the same ECW injection power and decreasing ECW power at the same electron density, respectively. Analysis revealed that a critical value of electron temperature gradient (ETG) triggers the density fluctuations, and the intensity of the relative density fluctuations is positively correlated with the ETG and approximately inversely proportional to the effective collision frequency. With plasma parameters similar to those of EXL-50 experiments, the HD7 code simulations demonstrate that trapped electron mode (TEM) turbulence can be excited by ETG higher than the critical value observed in the experiment. In addition, the dependence of the mode growth rate (supposed to be proportional to the saturation level of fluctuations in quasi-linear theory) and the measured intensity of the density fluctuations is comparable. The simulated outward particle flux integrated over the poloidal wave number spectrum is significant and proportional to ETG. These observations demonstrate that the density fluctuation is TEM turbulence, which is driven by ETG and induces particle pump-out when the electron density/effective electron collision frequency is low. The potential relevance of this work with the controls of plasma profiles, impurities, helium ash, and heat transport in future reactors of similar low effective collision frequency is also discussed.