Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating Power Research Articles

Expulsion of runaway electrons using ECRH in the TCV tokamak

Abstract Runaway electrons (REs) are a concern for tokamak fusion reactors from discharge startup to termination. A sudden localized loss of a multi-megaampere RE beam can inflict severe damage to the first wall. Should a disruption occur, the existence of a RE seed may play a significant role in the formation of a RE beam and the magnitude of its current. The application of central electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) in the Tokamak à Configuration Variable (TCV) reduces an existing RE seed population by up to three orders of magnitude within only a few hundred milliseconds. Applying ECRH before a disruption can also prevent the formation of a post-disruption RE beam in TCV where it would otherwise be expected. The RE expulsion rate and consequent RE current reduction are found to increase with applied ECRH power. Whereas central ECRH is effective in expelling REs, off-axis ECRH has a comparatively limited effect. A simple 0-D model for the evolution of the RE population is presented that explains the effective ECRH-induced RE expulsion results from the combined effects of increased electron temperature and enhanced RE transport.

Overview of the recent experimental research on the J-TEXT tokamak

The J-TEXT capability is enhanced compared to two years ago with several upgrades of its diagnostics and the increase of electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) power to 1 MW. With the application of electron cyclotron wave (ECW), the ECW assisted plasma startup is achieved; the tearing mode is suppressed; the toroidal injection of 300 kW ECW drives around 24 kA current; fast electrons are generated with toroidal injected ECW and the runaway current conversion efficiency increases with ECRH power. The mode coupling between 2/1 and 3/1 modes are extensively studied. The coupled 2/1 and 3/1 modes usually lead to major disruption. Their coupling can be either suppressed or avoided by external resonant magnetic perturbation fields and hence avoids the major disruption. It is also found that the 2/1 threshold of external field is significantly reduced by a pre-excited 3/1 mode, which can be either a locked island or an external kink mode. The disruption control is studied by developing prediction methods capable of cross tokamak application and by new mitigation methods, such as the biased electrode or electromagnetic pellet injector. The high-density operation and related disruptions are studied from various aspects. Approaching the density limit, the collapse of the edge shear layer is observed and such collapse can be prevented by applying edge biasing, leading to an increased density limit. The density limit is also observed to increase, if the plasma is operated in the poloidal divertor configuration or the plasma purity is increased by increasing the pre-filled gas pressure or ECRH power during the start-up phase.

Impact of T i/T e ratio on ion transport based on EAST H-mode plasmas

At the EAST tokamak, the ion temperature (T i) is observed to be clamped around 1.25 keV in electron cyclotron resonance (ECR)-heated plasmas, even at core electron temperatures up to 10 keV (depending on the ECR heating power and the plasma density). This clamping results from the lack of direct ion heating and high levels of turbulence-driven transport. Turbulent transport analysis shows that trapped electron mode and electron temperature gradient-driven modes are the most unstable modes in the core of ECR-heated H-mode plasmas. Nevertheless, recently it was found that the T i/T e ratio can increase further with the fraction of the neutral beam injection (NBI) power, which leads to a higher core ion temperature (T i0). In NBI heating-dominant H-mode plasmas, the ion temperature gradient-driven modes become the most unstable modes. Furthermore, a strong and broad internal transport barrier (ITB) can form at the plasma core in high-power NBI-heated H-mode plasmas when the T i/T e ratio approaches ~1, which results in steep core T e and T i profiles, as well as a peaked n e profile. Power balance analysis shows a weaker T e profile stiffness after the formation of ITBs in the core plasma region, where T i clamping is broken, and the core T i can increase further above 2 keV, which is 80% higher than the value of T i clamping in ECR-heated plasmas. This finding proposes a possible solution to the problem of T i clamping on EAST and demonstrates an advanced operational regime with the formation of a strong and broad ITB for future fusion plasmas dominated by electron heating.

Ion heat transport in electron cyclotron resonance heated L-mode plasma on the T-10 tokamak

Anomalous ion heat transport is analyzed in the T-10 tokamak plasma heated with electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) in second-harmonic extra-ordinary mode. Predictive modeling with empirical scaling for Ohmical heat conductivity shows that in ECRH plasmas the calculated ion temperature could be overestimated, so an increase of anomalous ion heat transport is required. To study this effect two scans are presented: over the EC resonance position and over the ECRH power. The EC resonance position varies from the high-field side to the low-field side by variation of the toroidal magnetic field. The scan over the heating power is presented with on-axis and mixed ECRH regimes. Discharges with high anomalous ion heat transport are obtained in all considered regimes. In these discharges the power balance ion heat conductivity exceeds the neoclassical level by up to 10 times. The high ion heat transport regimes are distinguished by three parameters: the ratio, the normalized electron density gradient , and the ion–ion collisionality . The combination of high , high , and −10 results in values of normalized anomalous ion heat fluxes up to 10 times higher than in the low transport scenario.

Progress on the conceptual design of the antennas for the DTT ECRH system

One of the main goals of the Divertor Tokamak Test (DTT) facility is to reach a ratio of power crossing the separatrix over the major radius of about 15 MW m − 1, as the one expected in DEMO. For this purpose, up to 45 MW of external additional heating power shall be coupled to the plasma, provided by Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH), Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating and Neutral Beam Injection. The foreseen total ECRH power installed at full power shall be 32 MW, generated using 1 MW/170 GHz gyrotrons, for 100 s. The present ECRH system foresees two launching antennas per DTT sector, based on the front-steering concept. The equatorial antenna is dedicated to plasma heating and current drive and the upper antenna to the stabilization of MHD instabilities. This paper focuses on the latest design concept for these two antennas and on the definition of the ex-vessel matching optics unit of the last section of the evacuated Transmission Line (TL). The design has been updated to be compatible with the insertion of CVD diamond windows, to separate the vacuum environment of DTT from the one of the TL. This choice requires adding corrugated waveguide sections between the last mirror of the TL and the first mirror inside the port, requiring some adaptation of the in-vessel optics and of the supporting structure. The possibility to modify the steering range for the launching mirror has been also investigated to be compatible with the new design of the first wall and for the upper antenna, to reach the q = 2 surface in the new plasma scenario.

The behaviour of the argon transport with electron cyclotron resonance heating in J-TEXT

The transport of impurities is very important for burning plasma; in particular, the accumulation of highly charged impurities will lead to the deterioration of plasma performance and trigger disruption by radiation losses. In order to study impurity transport in Joint Texas EXperimental Tokamak electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) plasmas, argon has been injected at the discharge flattop in an amount approximately 1% that of fuelling hydrogen gas to ensure no significant effect on the discharge. Experimental results show that precursor oscillations with a sawtooth appearance are beneficial for argon ion transport to the wall. The argon behaviour has been modulated by ECRH, with the power deposited inside/outside the sawtooth inverse radius. The ECRH power deposited outside the sawtooth inverse radius can induce larger precursor oscillations in the end of sawtooth and promote the argon transport. The ECRH power deposited inside the sawtooth inverse radius can induce oscillations in the mid-phase of the sawtooth and decrease the core toroidal rotation velocity, which can enhance argon transport. The results of the analysis that these oscillations can lead to an outward convection velocity, which means that the argon ions are transported to the wall. In addition, the oscillations in the mid-phase of the sawtooth can strongly enhance the argon transport.

MISTRAL campaign in support of W7-X long pulse operation

Following two initial campaigns [1], Stellarator Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) has now completed the construction phase by installation of active cooling of all plasma facing components. The machine is presently commissioned for the next campaign (OP2) aiming at 1 GJ per pulse, e.g. 100 s at 10 MW, eventually aiming at 18 GJ, e.g. 1800 s at 10 MW. The key heating system is the Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) system, consisting of 10 gyrotrons with power per gyrotron ranging from 0.6 MW up to 1.0 MW at 140 GHz. A phased upgrade of the installation is in progress with the addition of 2 gyrotrons and the development of 1.5 MW and 2.0 MW gyrotrons, such that at the end of the upgrade 4 gyrotrons will be available in each power class of 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 MW [2]. The increased ECRH power, combined with O2 and X3 heating schemes at high densities, will lead to increased microwave stray radiation. This is non-absorbed microwave power that diffuses inside the vessel and is incident on all in-vessel components including vacuum windows and attached diagnostic systems. A fraction of the stray radiation is absorbed by resistive or dielectric losses of these components, leading to thermal loads that scale with stray radiation levels and pulse length. At W7-X a high power microwave stray radiation launch facility ’MISTRAL’ is available that is used to qualify invessel components for use at specified microwave surface power densities [Wm−2]. This paper reports on MISTRAL campaigns in 2020 2021 for testing of stray radiation loads during OP2 in W7-X, as well as on an EUROfusion program assessing stray radiation loads on ITER components. A dedicated, absolutely calibrated, caloric load was developed for the campaign to obtain measurement of stray radiation power levels as well as to conveniently expose samples. Amongst other we report on shielding concepts using metal enclosures combined with microwave absorbing coatings and dielectric heating of vacuum windows.

Characteristics of electron temperature profile stiffness in electron-heated plasmas on EAST

A very high core electron temperature (T e0 ∼ 10 keV) plasma has been established and stably sustained by applying both lower hybrid wave (LHW) and on-axis electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). In this work, power balance analysis shows that the increase of ECRH power can increase the normalized T e gradient significantly at the plasma core region (ρ < 0.6), but does not change the T e profile stiffness in the low-density L-mode plasmas. This has been considered to be due to a strong synergistic effect between ECRH and LHW. Furthermore, three distinguishable stages characterized by different T e profile stiffnesses can be identified from the density ramp-up in the electron-heated plasma on EAST. A stronger T e profile stiffness at ρ = 0.3 has been observed in the Stage-II, where the LHW power deposition gradually moves away from the plasma core region, following the electron density increases. Furthermore, the formation of an internal plasma density transport barrier inside ρ ∼ 0.6, accompanied by a sudden drop in core T e and a rise in both core plasma density and ion temperature, has been observed for the first time during the transition from the Stage-II to the Stage-III when the central line-averaged plasma density reaches a threshold of 2.2 × 1019 m−3. This finding strongly affects further development of high-performance gas-fueled electron-heated plasma scenarios in EAST and suggests an advanced operational regime with a wide internal plasma density transport barrier.

Solenoid-free current drive via ECRH in EXL-50 spherical torus plasmas

As a new spherical tokamak designed to simplify the engineering requirements of a possible future fusion power source, the EXL-50 experiment features a low aspect ratio vacuum vessel (VV), encircling a central post assembly containing the toroidal field coil conductors without a central solenoid. Multiple electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) resonances are located within the VV to improve current drive effectiveness. Copious energetic electrons are produced and measured with hard x-ray detectors, carry the bulk of the plasma current ranging from 50–150 kA, which is maintained for more than 1 s duration. It is observed that over one ampere current can be sustained per watt of ECRH power issued from the 28 GHz gyrotrons. The plasma current reaches I p > 80 kA for high density (>5 × 1018 m−2) discharge with 150 kW ECRH. An analysis was carried out combining reconstructed multi-fluid equilibrium, guiding-center orbits of energetic electrons, and resonant heating mechanisms. It is verified that in EXL-50 a broadly distributed current of energetic electrons creates a smaller closed magnetic-flux surface of low aspect ratio that in turn confines the thermal plasma electrons and ions and participate in maintaining the equilibrium force balance.

Confinement properties of L-mode plasmas in ASDEX Upgrade and full-radius predictions of the TGLF transport model

The properties of L-mode confinement have been investigated with a set of dedicated experiments in ASDEX Upgrade and with a related modelling activity with the transport code ASTRA and the quasi-linear turbulent transport model TGLF–SAT2, with boundary conditions at the separatrix. The values at the boundary have been set by the two-point model for the electron temperature, with the ion temperature proportional to the electron temperature by a constant factor, and the electron density set by a constant fraction of the volume averaged density. The influx of neutrals has been set through a feedback procedure which ensures that in the simulation the same particle content as in the experiment is obtained. The sensitivity of the results under considerable variations in the choice of the boundary conditions has been investigated and found to be limited. The predictions of this full-radius modelling set-up have been compared to experimental results covering a scan in electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) power in both hydrogen and deuterium plasmas, a plasma current scan with fixed magnetic field, under both ECRH and neutral beam injection heating, an increase in plasma density with constant ECRH power in hydrogen plasmas, as well as variations of the fraction of electron and ion heating at approximately constant total heating power, as well as a change of main ion from deuterium to hydrogen. The ASTRA-TGLF predictions have been found to reproduce all of the experimentally explored dependences with relatively good accuracy, providing evidence, for the first time to our knowledge, that the main properties of L-mode confinement can be reproduced by conventional full-radius transport modelling with a quasi-linear turbulent transport model. Evidences of largest disagreement, although usually not exceeding the 20%, have been found at high electron heating power, where TGLF underpredicts the electron and particularly the ion thermal stored energies, and in the current dependence of confinement, which, in electron heated conditions, is predicted to be weaker than in the experiment.

Advances in physics and applications of 3D magnetic perturbations on the J-TEXT tokamak

In the last two years, three major technical improvements have been made on J-TEXT in supporting of the expanded operation regions and diagnostic capabilities. (1) The successful commission of the 105 GHz/500 kW/1 s electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) system increasing the core electron temperature from 0.9 keV up to around 1.5 keV. (2) The poloidal divertor configuration with an X-point in the high-field side has been achieved. In particular, the 400 kW electron cyclotron wave has also been successfully injected into the diverted plasma. (3) A 256-channel electron cyclotron emission imaging diagnostic system and two sets of four-channel Doppler backscattering diagnostics have been successfully developed on J-TEXT, allowing detailed measurement of the electron temperature and density fluctuations for turbulence and MHD research. The locked mode (LM), especially the 2/1 LM, is one of the biggest threats to the plasma operation. Both the thresholds of 2/1 and 3/1 LM are observed to vary non-monotonically on electron density. The electrode biasing was applied successfully to unlock the LM from either a rotating or static resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) field. In the presence of 2/1 LM, three kinds of standing wave (SW) structures have been observed to share a similar connection to the island structure, i.e. the nodes of the SWs locate around the O- or X-points of the 2/1 island. The control and mitigation of disruption is essential to the safe operation of ITER, and it has been systematically studied by applying a RMP field, massive gas injection (MGI) and shattered pellet injection on J-TEXT. When the RMP-induced 2/1 LM is larger than a critical width, the MGI shutdown process can be significantly influenced. If the phase difference between the O-point of LM and the MGI valve is +90° (or −90°), the penetration depth and the assimilation of impurities can be enhanced (or suppressed) during the pre-thermal quench (TQ) phase and result in a faster (or slower) TQ. A secondary MGI can also suppress the runaway electron (RE) generation, if the additional high-Z impurity gas arrives at the plasma edge before TQ. When the secondary MGI has been applied after the formation of the RE current plateau, the RE current can be dissipated, and the dissipation rate increases with the injected impurity quantity but saturates with a maximum of 28 MA s−1. The non-local transport is experimentally observed in the ion transport channel. The electron thermal diffusivity significantly increases with the ECRH power. Theoretical work shows that significant intrinsic current can be driven by electromagnetic turbulence, and the robust formation mechanism of the E × B staircase is identified from the Hasegawa–Wakatani system.

Low-Threshold Induced-Side-Scattering Instability at the Tokamak Edge Transport Barrier Predicted in O-Mode Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating Experiments

The trapping of a lower hybrid wave in the tokamak edge transport barrier is predicted, reducing by 3 orders of magnitude the excitation threshold for the absolute parametric decay instability that leads to side scattering of the ordinary microwave pump in electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) experiments. This process is similar to the stimulated Raman scattering instability in laser physics and can result in substantial anomalous scattering of the pump wave, like in laser fusion experiments. The corresponding broadening of the ECRH power deposition profile can reduce the ability of this method to control the neoclassical tearing modes both in present day machines, as ASDEX-Upgrade, where the theory can be checked, and in fusion reactors such as ITER and DEMO.

Validation of low-Z impurity transport theory using boron perturbation experiments at ASDEX upgrade

An experimental technique has been developed at ASDEX upgrade (AUG) to separately identify the diffusive and convective components of the boron particle flux. Using this technique a database of B transport coefficients has been assembled that shows that the normalized ion temperature gradient () is the strongest organizing parameter for both the B diffusion and convection and large is a necessary ingredient to obtain hollow B density profiles in AUG. This database also shows that large changes in the applied neutral beam injection (NBI) have a relatively small impact on impurity transport compared to similar changes in electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH). Even low levels of ECRH power dramatically increase both the diffusive and convective fluxes and lead to peaking of the impurity density profile. Comparisons to a combination of neoclassical and quasi-linear gyrokinetic simulations show good agreement in the measured and predicted diffusion coefficients. The outward convection measured in NBI dominated plasmas, however, is not well captured by the simulations, despite the inclusion of fast ions. In contrast, the convection is reasonably well reproduced for plasmas with flat or peaked boron density profiles. This dataset provides an excellent experimental validation of the non-monotonic, predicted, convective-particle-flux created by the combination of pure-pinch, thermo-diffusion, and roto-diffusion. In addition, this dataset demonstrates a non-monotonic dependence of the experimental particle diffusivity to ion heat conductivity (D/χ i) in qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions.

Elevation of runaway electron current by electron cyclotron resonance heating during disruptions on J-TEXT

Runaway electrons represent a serious problem for the reliable operation of future tokamaks. Radio frequency (RF) auxiliary heating can help suppress runaway electrons in the flat-top phase through a reduction in loop voltage. However, if a disruption occurs during RF auxiliary heating, it may lead to an increase in the runaway electron production due to the generation of a suprathermal population with energies in the order of ∼100 keV. The elevation of runaway current during disruptions by electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) has been investigated on the J-TEXT tokamak. The results show that the conversion efficiency of runaway current increases with increased ECRH power. When the applied ECRH power is at the level of 400 kW, the conversion efficiency of Ohmic to runaway current increases from 35% to 75%, the thermal quench duration is decreased from 0.24 ms to 0.11 ms, and the Absolute Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer (AXUV) radiative power and electron density are about two times higher than the cases without ECRH heating.

Comparison of natural grassy ELM behavior in favorable/unfavorable B t in EAST

The properties of grassy edge-localized modes (ELMs) in EAST in the favorable and unfavorable B t are statistically studied. Statistical analysis indicates that there is no systematical difference in the frequencies of grassy ELMs under the two different magnetic configurations in the similar parameter spaces. The high-frequency grassy ELM (f ELM > 1 kHz) in unfavorable B t is dependent on the high poloidal beta β p and high triangularity δ u, while the high-frequency grassy ELM (f ELM > 1 kHz) in favorable B t appears to rely on the high plasma density. A frequently occurring phenomenon in favorable B t defined as ‘clustered ELM’ seems to be the most evident difference in ELM behavior between favorable and unfavorable B t. Statistical analysis shows that larger plasma-wall outer gap, longer plasma elongation, lower low-hybrid wave heating power and electron cyclotron resonance heating power favor the occurrence of clustered grassy ELMs. Further studies indicate that the generation of clustered grassy ELMs could be correlated with the lower electron temperature in the bulk plasma.

First neutral beam experiments on Wendelstein 7-X

In the previous divertor campaign, the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) device injected 3.6 MW of neutral beam heating power allowing for the achievement of densities approaching 2 × 1020 m−3, and providing the first initial assessment of fast ion confinement in a drift optimized stellarator. The neutral beam injection (NBI) system on W7-X is comprised of two beam boxes with space for four radio frequency sources each. The 3.6 MW of heating reported in this work was achieved with two sources in the NI21 beam box. The effect of combined electron-cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and NBI was explored through a series of discharges varying both NBI and ECRH power. Discharges without ECRH saw a linear increase in the line-integrated plasma density, and strong peaking of the core density, over the discharge duration. The presence of 1 MW of ECRH power was found to be sufficient to control a continuous density rise during NBI operation. Simulations of fast ion wall loads were found to be consistent with experimental infrared camera images during operation. In general, NBI discharges were free from the presence of fast ion induced Alfvénic activity, consistent with low beam betas. These experiments provide data for future scenario development and initial assessment of fast-ion confinement in W7-X, a key topic of the project.

Observation of the electron thermal transport and temperature fluctuations for electron cyclotron resonance heated plasmas on J-TEXT

First dedicated experiments have been carried out on the J-TEXT tokamak for investigating the electron thermal transport and plasma fluctuations before and during electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH). The electron thermal diffusivities are calculated using the diffusive space-time evolution characteristic of the electron temperature perturbations produced by internal sawtooth collapse. It is found that the electron thermal diffusivity significantly increases as ECRH is turned on. The temperature fluctuations in the ECRH-assisted ohmic plasmas measured by the correlation electron cyclotron emission (CECE) diagnostic have a larger amplitude and broader bandwidth than that of pure ohmic plasmas. However, there is a slight change in the density fluctuations. The electron thermal diffusivities and the bandwidth of the electron temperature fluctuations decrease simultaneously as density increases in ohmic plasmas. However, the same trend is not found for ECRH-assisted ohmic plasmas with fixed ECRH power. The electron thermal diffusivities increase almost linearly with the ECRH power for the same discharge parameters, while the temperature fluctuations become broader at the same time. Linear stability analysis using the gyrokinetic electromagnetic numerical experiment code indicates that there is a turbulence transition from the mixed mode of ion temperature gradient mode and trapped electron mode (TEM) to the pure (broader) TEM when changing from pure ohmic to ECRH-assisted ohmic plasmas. It is consistent with the temperature fluctuations measured by CECE, which is sensitive to the long-wavelength modes. All these results suggest that the long-wavelength temperature fluctuations play an important role in electron thermal transport. In ECRH-assisted ohmic plasmas, electron thermal transport may become dominated by ETGs when TEMs are suppressed at high density.

Observation of TAE mode driven by off-axis ECRH induced barely trapped energetic electrons in EAST tokamak

A toroidal Alfvén eigenmode (TAE) is excited by electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) induced barely trapped energetic electrons in experimental advanced superconducting tokamak . This TAE appears in the low density EAST discharges under pure off-axis ECRH heating. After analysing the ECRH power modulation induced local density and temperature oscillations, the location of this TAE mode and the power deposition of ECRH are determined. This edge localized TAE mode drifts in ion-diamagnetic direction may be driven by barely trapped energetic electrons considering the contribution of poloidal bounce effect in the general wave-particle resonance condition. The experimental observations also demonstrate that ECRH power modulation with fixed frequency could be used as an effective diagnostic tool to study the internal properties of MHD modes as well as particle and heat transports.

Parametric decay instabilities near the second-harmonic upper hybrid resonance in fusion plasmas

Parametric decay instabilities (PDIs) lead to the generation of strong frequency-shifted radiation when powerful X-mode polarized microwaves, injected for electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) of fusion plasmas, cross a region of non-monotonic electron density near the second-harmonic upper hybrid resonance (UHR). For the standard second-harmonic X-mode ECRH scenarios used at the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak, the second-harmonic UHR occurs near the plasma edge, meaning that PDIs occur in connection with phenomena leading to non-monotonic edge electron density profiles, e.g. blobs, edge-localized modes (ELMs), and inter-ELM modes. We present the first study of strong signals near half the ECRH frequency in fusion-relevant plasmas and demonstrate their PDI-like features, such as an ECRH power threshold required for their occurrence, through analog modulations of the ECRH power. The signals near half the ECRH frequency are found to be far more prevalent than expected based on previous theories, and we hence present a qualitative explanation of their origin, in terms of cross-polarized microwaves generated through non-linear interactions of the waves involved in the PDIs, which captures the basic features of the experimental observations. We additionally present examples of the PDI-related microwave signals just below the ECRH frequency which indicate the location of the microwave source. Furthermore, based on a non-linear magnetohydrodynamics simulation of an ELM crash in ASDEX Upgrade, performed using the JOREK code, the duration of the PDI-like microwave spikes observed in connection with ELMs is shown to match the transit time of an ELM filament though an ECRH beam. Finally, the PDI power threshold expected theoretically, calculated using the electron density and temperature profiles from the JOREK simulation, is shown to match the experimentally observed values.

Study of turbulence modulation and core density peaking with CO2 laser collective scattering diagnostics in the EAST tokamak

We report experiments designed to help us understand the interaction between electron-scale turbulence and plasma poloidal flow in tokamaks. Multiple electron-scale turbulence (for ) in the plasma radial region (ρ = 0–0.8) is simultaneously monitored by CO2 laser collective scattering diagnostics in the EAST tokamak. In the stable discharge phase with electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) power modulation and constant neutral beam injection (NBI), a periodic change in the core density peaking factor can be obtained. We note that the intensity of turbulence and the core density peaking factor show a negative correlation, while the poloidal rotation speed is inversely proportional to the intensity of electron-scale turbulence. The correlation between turbulence and plasma flow is found to be closely related to the density peaking factor. The quasi-linear theory of electron-scale turbulence-driven intrinsic poloidal rotation is adopted, and it shows that plasma flow may exhaust the free energy of turbulence through Reynolds stress. Besides, by comparing the plasma flow shear and spatial cross-correlation of turbulence we observed that the spatial structure of turbulence at is more sensitive to flow shear than that of turbulence at . The possible mechanism for controlling the core density peaking, together with the unchanged density gradient in the outer plasma region 0.5–0.8) are favorable for controlling the fusion reaction rate if they can be extrapolated to burning plasma. The results for ECRH power modulation experiments without NBI are listed and analyzed simultaneously; these serve as a comparison and enrich the physical picture.