Search for alpha driven TAEs at lowered ion temperature in TFTR DT discharges

Abstract

An experiment was performed in TFTR DT plasmas in an attempt to destabilize the alpha particle driven toroidicity-induced Alfven eigenmodes (TAEs) by reducing their thermal ion Landau damping. The thermal ion Landau damping was reduced by transiently lowering the ion temperature using either helium (He) gas puffs or deuterium (D) or lithium (Li) pellet injection during neutral beam injection (NBI) into DT supershots. The ion temperature was successfully lowered from Ti(0) approximately=20 keV to Ti(0) approximately=10 keV in about 0.2 s; however, no alpha driven TAEs were observed. Theoretical analyses of the TAE instability of these DT discharges indicate that the alpha pressure required for TAE stability still remained greater than that actually obtained in this experiment, mainly because of the effects of beam ion Landau damping