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Characteristics of transport in electron internal transport barriers (ITB) and in the vicinity of a rational surface with a magnetic island are studied with transient transport analysis as well as with steady state transport analysis. Associated with the transition of the radial electric field from a small negative value (ion-root) to a large positive value (electron-root), an electron ITB appears in the Large Helical Device [M. Fujiwara et al., Nucl. Fusion 41, 1355 (2001)], when the heating power of the electron cyclotron heating exceeds a power threshold. Transport analysis shows that both the standard electron thermal diffusivity, chie, and the incremental electron thermal diffusivity, chieinc (the derivative of normalized heat flux to temperature gradient, equivalent to heat pulse chie), are reduced significantly (a factor 5 10) in the ITB. The chieinc is much lower than the chie by a factor of 3 just after the transition, while chieinc is comparable to or even higher than chie before the transition, which results in the improvement of electron transport with increasing power in the ITB, in contrast to its degradation outside the ITB. In other experiments without an ITB, a significant reduction (by one order of magnitude) of chieinc is observed at the O-point of the magnetic island produced near the plasma edge using error field coils. This observation gives significant insight into the mechanism of transport improvement near the rational surface and implies that the magnetic island serves as a poloidally asymmetric transport barrier. Therefore the radial heat flux near the rational surface is focused at the X-point region, and that may be the mechanism to induce an ITB near a rational surface.

In this article we describe the first results of beam injection using an improved negative ion source, which consists of a set of steering and multislot grounded grids. The set of the grids is designed to achieve high power beam injection for the large helical device (LHD). The main purpose in replacing the conventional multiaperture with multislot grids is to reduce the heat load onto the grid. By adopting the multislot grid, the frequency of voltage breakdown at the acceleration gap decreased considerably and the maximum beam energy attained was 180 keV, which is one of the target values of the LHD neutral beam injector (NBI). The maximum injection power reached 4.4 MW, consequently. The heat load onto the multislot grid was water calorimetrically measured and the load is suppressed by 50% compared to the multiaperture case. In the condition for maximum injection power, the beam profile obtained in the accelerator with the multislot grounded grid becomes vertically elongated due to the asymmetric electric field close to the grid slot. Although some part of this elongated beam is lost at the injection port, the multislot grid has enough performance for beam injection.

Since the start of the Large Helical Device (LHD) experiment, various attempts have been made to achieve improved plasma performance in LHD [A. Iiyoshi et al., Nucl. Fusion 39, 1245 (1999)]. Recently, an inward-shifted configuration with a magnetic axis position R_ax of 3.6 m has been found to exhibit much better plasma performance than the standard configuration with R_ax of 3.75 m. A factor of 1.6 enhancement of energy confinement time was achieved over the International Stellarator Scaling 95. This configuration has been predicted to have unfavorable magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) properties, based on linear theory, even though it has significantly better particle-orbit properties, and hence lower neoclassical transport loss. However, no serious confinement degradation due to the MHD activities was observed, resolving favorably the potential conflict between stability and confinement at least up to the realized volume-averaged beta of 2.4%. An improved radial profile of electron temperature was also achieved in the configuration with magnetic islands, minimized by an external perturbation coil system for the Local Island Divertor (LID). The LID has been proposed for remarkable improvement of plasma confinement like the high (H) mode in tokamaks, and the LID function was suggested in limiter experiments.

We have achieved long-pulse plasma heating using a negative-ion-based neutral beam injector (NBI) in the large helical device (LHD), where the confinement magnetic field is generated by only external superconducting coils. In the initial long-pulse experiments at lower power than that in short-pulse experiments, 80 keV–1.1 MW NBI heating lasted for 10 s with a little increase in the plasma density at the pulse end. Almost steady-state plasma heating was achieved for 21 s with 66 keV–0.6 MW NB injection. Plasma relaxation oscillation phenomena at a period of 1–2 s were also observed for 20 s. Above 1 keV plasma was easily sustained with a long-pulse NBI heating in LHD, without the current drive nor the disruption in tokamaks. Negative ion source operation was stable and the cooling water temperature rise of beam accelerator grids was nearly saturated with a temperature rise below 10 °C. For a higher power injection, the pulse duration is determined by the beam blocking, where the reionization loss is expon...

The influence of filament positions on the arc discharge characteristics of a negative hydrogen ion source for a neutral beam injector were studied by simulations and experiments. We have made a simulation code named “PRIMELOC2,” which calculates the orbits of primary electrons emitted from cathode filaments, including collisions with H2 gas molecules filled in the source, to obtain the spatial distribution of ionization points. We applied this code to a large negative hydrogen ion source having an external magnetic filter for LHD-NBI No. 1 (neutral beam injector 1 for a large helical device). As a result of the calculations, we have found that the moving area of emitted primary electrons differs markedly according to the filament positions. Calculation results agreed well with the experimental results of high-power arc discharge and the spatial distribution of plasma parameters obtained by Langmuir probe measurements. By applying PRIMELOC2 to filament–arc ion sources, we can choose appropriate areas in a...

A new experimental technique to investigate the particle confinement of energetic ions during their slowing-down process is developed for charge exchange neutral particle diagnostics. The method is based on the maximum entropy and the maximum likelihood method and is used for the neutral beam short pulse experiment. The method assumes that the energy loss of the fast ions is given by the classical deceleration rate at their birth orbit. It will not require the bulk neutral distributions and the energetic ion distribution in plasmas. The method provides the spatial distribution of confinement time of energetic particles on their orbit during the slowing-down processes. The method of the analysis is described and the application to the experimental data is shown in this article.

Intense H− beams have been extracted from a large multicusp plasma source operated with cesium seeding. The H− beams were accelerated up to 100 keV by a single‐stage or a two‐stage electrode system. Spatial profiles of the beams are measured calorimetrically and the beam divergence angle is obtained from half of the e‐folding width. A minimum beam divergence angle of 5 mrads is achieved at a H− current density of 30 mA/cm2 with a beam energy of 100 keV. The ratio of acceleration current to H− current increases abruptly when a H− current saturates in the space charge limited region. This enhancement is mainly due to secondary electrons caused by the intersection of H− beams with an extraction grid. When the operating gas pressure decreases, the ratio of the acceleration current to the H− current decreases. This is related to a stripping loss of H− ions in the electrodes. A beam divergence angle reaches a minimum when a ratio of Vacc to Vext is set at an optimum value of 1.6 in the single‐stage acceleration...

Multibeamlet focusing of an intense negative‐ion beam has been performed using beamlet steering by aperture displacement. The apertures of the grounded grid were displaced as all 270 beamlets (18×15) in an area of 25 cm×26 cm are steered to a common point (a focal point) in both the two‐stage and the single‐stage accelerators. The multibeamlets were successfully focused and the e‐folding half width of 10 cm was achieved 11.2 m downstream from the ion source in both accelerators. The corresponding gross divergence angle is 9 mrad. The negative‐ion beamlets are deflected by the electron deflection magnetic field at the extraction grid and the deflection direction reverses line by line, resulting in the beam splitting in the deflection direction. This beamlet deflection was well compensated also using beamlet steering by the aperture displacement of the grounded grid. The beam acceleration properties related to the beam divergence and the H− ion current were nearly the same for both the two‐stage and the single‐stage accelerators, and were dependent on the ratio of the extraction to the acceleration electric fields.

Experiments by a four-pin probe and photodetachment technique were carried out to investigate the charged particle flows in the beam extraction region of a negative hydrogen ion source for neutral beam injector. Electron and positive ion flows were obtained from the polar distribution of the probe saturation current. Negative hydrogen ion flow velocity and temperature were obtained by comparing the recovery times of the photodetachment signals at opposite probe tips. Electron and positive ions flows are dominated by crossed field drift and ambipolar diffusion. Negative hydrogen ion temperature is evaluated to be 0.12 eV.

Microwave plasma source for the negative hydrogen ion production was constructed and tested. The plasma source consists of two chambers: a plasma production chamber and a plasma confinement chamber. The production chamber is placed into the strong axial magnetic field and the microwaves (2.45 GHz, up to 5 kW) are introduced through the quartz window along the magnetic field lines. It is found that the suppression of the fast electron loss to the window holder is important to improve the efficiency of hydrogen plasma production. The plasma density increases with the magnetic field strength in the plasma production chamber. For the microwave power of 4 kW the uniform plasma of 3×1012 cm−3 for argon and 3×1011 cm−3 for hydrogen is obtained in the area of 20×20 cm. Electron temperature in the plasma grid region is around 2 eV. The optimum gas pressure is around 6 mTorr.

A large vacuum‐immersed H− ion source has been operated on the negative‐ion‐based neutral beam teststand. The achieved level of the beam and the pulse duration in beam conditioning were limited by a high‐voltage breakdown in the vacuum vessel. A baffle plate at grounded potential for shielding completely from the charged particles was successful. A beam with an energy of up to 102 keV and the H− ion current of 0.55 A were achieved for 0.29 s without the breakdown. The ion current of ∼1.5 A was accelerated in cesium‐seeded operation. The corresponding ion current density was ∼7 mA/cm2. A magnetic filter (as Type I LV magnetic filter) on the plasma electrode was applied. The electron beam component which was extracted from the plasma source together with H− ions was found to be very reduced.

A large hydrogen negative‐ion source with an external magnetic filter has been developed for a neutral beam injection (NBI) system in the Large Helical Device (LHD), and a high‐energy and high‐current H− ion beam has been produced. The ion source is operated at a high arc efficiency of 0.1 A/kW at an operational gas pressure of less than 3.5 mTorr, and produces 47 keV–16.2 A of a H− ion beam from a grid area of 25 cm×50 cm. With two‐stage acceleration, 13.6 A of a H− ion beam has been successfully accelerated to 125 keV. Multibeamlet focusing by the aperture displacement technique has been achieved 11.2 m downstream with a gross divergence angle of 9 mrad. The alternate beamlet deflection by the magnetic field at the extraction grid, which results in beam broadening in the deflection direction, was well compensated also by the aperture displacement technique. These results satisfy the specification of the negative‐ion‐based LHD–NBI system.

To develop the powerful negative‐ion‐based neutral beam injection system for the large helical device, a 1/3 scaled H− source has been tested, which is immersed in the vacuum vessel. Intrinsic features of the vacuum‐immersed large H− source are described. Plasma density of higher than about 1012 e/cm3 is produced. During the beam extraction, it was found that a beam‐induced thin plasma exists in the vacuum vessel. In order to get a long pulse beam, this plasma was shielded and then the beam conditioning was completed up to the total beam energy of 70 keV for 100 ms, with the arc power up to about 50 kW. It is confirmed that H− current scaling as well as the plasma parameters would be similar to the scaling which is achieved by the previous 1/3 source.

The characteristics of a large negative‐ion source with external filter is investigated for the neutral‐beam injection system in a large helical device. The magnetic cusp field is set up at almost the same strength as that in our well optimized 1/3 ion source with rod‐type magnetic filter. An H− ion current of 5.2 A is extracted from the ion source with Cs seeding. The H− current corresponds to 19.7 mA/cm2, and the value is comparable to the current density obtained using the 1/3 scaled ion source with a rod‐type magnetic filter at the same extraction voltage. In low operating pressure, the ion source with the external filter has a better performance on the extraction of H− ions.

A large vacuum‐immersed negative‐ion source has been investigated for the development of the neutral beam injection system in a large helical device. The structure of the vacuum‐immersed source is compact and light because it is free from atmospheric pressure. Therefore, this is very advantageous for a large‐scaled ion source. Moreover, since the grids of the accelerator are supported by post insulators, enhanced pumping of gaps between grids is expected, leading to a reduction of stripping loss of negative ions. The gas pressure distribution between grids was calculated and the stripping loss of H− ions was estimated and the effectiveness of the vacuum‐immersed source structure was confirmed. The gas temperature effect of the gas pressure distribution is also considered by using a Monte Carlo code.

A spectrally selective imaging system has been developed to obtain a distribution of Hα emissions at the extraction region in a hydrogen negative ion source. The diagnostic system consisted of an aspherical lens, optical filters, a fiber image conduit, and a charge coupled device detector was installed on the 1/3-scaled hydrogen negative ion source in the National Institute for Fusion Science. The center of sight line passes beside the plasma grid (PG) surface with the distance of 11 mm, and the viewing angle has coverage 35 mm from the PG surface. Two dimensional Hα distribution in the range up to 20 mm from the PG surface was clearly observed. The reduction area for Hα emission caused by beam extraction was widely distributed in the extraction region near the PG surface.

We report on the characteristics of the electronegative plasma in a large-scale hydrogen negative ion (H(-)) source. The measurement has been made with a time-resolved Langmuir probe installed in the beam extraction region. The H(-) density is monitored with a cavity ring-down system to identify the electrons in the negative charges. The electron-saturation current decreases rapidly after starting to seed Cs, and ion-ion plasma is observed in the extraction region. The H(-) density steps down during the beam extraction and the electron density jumps up correspondingly. The time integral of the decreasing H(-) charge density agrees well with the electron charge collected with the probe. The agreement of the charges is interpreted to indicate that the H(-) density decreasing at the beam extraction is compensated by the electrons diffusing from the driver region. In the plasmas with very low electron density, the pre-sheath of the extraction field penetrates deeply inside the plasmas. That is because the shielding length in those plasmas is longer than that in the usual electron-ion plasmas, and furthermore the electrons are suppressed to diffuse to the extraction region due to the strong magnetic field.

Giant negative ion sources, producing high-current of several tens amps with high energy of several hundreds keV to 1 MeV, are required for a neutral beam injector (NBI) in a fusion device. The giant negative ion sources are cesium-seeded plasma sources, in which the negative ions are produced on the cesium-covered surface. Their characteristic features are discussed with the views of large-volume plasma production, large-area beam acceleration, and high-voltage dc holding. The international thermonuclear experimental reactor NBI employs a 1 MeV-40 A of deuterium negative ion source, and intensive development programs for the rf-driven source plasma production and the multistage electrostatic acceleration are in progress, including the long pulse operation for 3600 s. Present status of the development, as well as the achievements of the giant negative ion sources in the working injectors, is also summarized.

Characteristics of radio frequency (RF) plasma production are investigated using a field effect transistor inverter power supply as an RF wave source. With the frequency of around 0.3 MHz, an electron density over 10(18) m(-3) is produced in argon plasma. Although lower densities are obtained in hydrogen plasma, it drastically increased up to 5x10(18) m(-3) with an axial magnetic field of around 100 G applied in the driver region. Effects of the magnetic field and gas pressure are investigated in the RF produced plasma with the frequency of several hundred kilohertz.

An experimental technique to investigate fast ion confinement based on charge exchange spectroscopy of H(alpha)-light was applied to evaluate the confinement property of perpendicular fast ions in large helical device (LHD). Sensitivities of the H(alpha) spectra to the pitch angles of injected neutral beams (NBs) and these to the angle between the sight line of the measurement and NB injection path are examined. The energy dependence of the charge exchange cross section significantly affects the observed spectra since the driving NB is injected perpendicular to the magnetic field lines in the geometry of LHD. The measured spectra are compared to the spectra of GNET simulation results and the simulated spectra agreed well with the experimental measurement when we take into account the contribution of halo neutrals. Although it is difficult to obtain the fast ion distribution functions directly, this technique provides useful experimental data in benchmarking simulation codes.

A carbon film was deposited by mass‐separated negative‐carbon‐ion‐beam deposition in the energy range of 25–1000 eV. The carbon film deposited by a C− ion beam was optically transparent (the maximum optical gap was 0.96 eV) and served as an electrical insulator (the maximum electrical resistivity was 1.5×108 Ω cm). The film property strongly depended on the ion‐beam energy for deposition and, the film obtained at the deposition energy of 115–215 eV was the most transparent and the best insulator. Its atomic density was also the highest and was almost the same as that of diamond. The carbon film deposited at room temperature was amorphous and showed no IR absorption. On the other hand, the film deposited at a substrate temperature of 800 °C showed graphitelike rings in reflection high‐energy electron‐diffraction patterns and an IR absorption such as graphite. Its electrical resistivity was much lower. The property of the film deposited by a C−2 ion beam was more strongly dependent on the ion‐beam energy th...

We have developed a new type of microwave ion source which has an axial magnetic field generated by a permanent magnet. By the combination of the permanent magnet and ferromagnetic materials, a closed magnetic circuit is formed through an ion extraction electrode. This axial magnetic field is utilized both for the high‐density plasma production by the electron‐ cyclotron resonance process and for the high efficient ion extraction by transporting the generated ions along the magnetic force lines. The continuous ion beams of 2–3 mA are delivered from the extraction aperture (2 mm in diameter) when various gases (Ar, N2, CO2), metal vapors (Cs, Rb), and reactive gas (O2) are used. Extremely low impurities are present in the extracted ion beam. An ion beam with low emittance of 10−8 m rad order and high brightness of 1011 A m−2 rad−2 order is obtained. The size of this ion source is 50 mm in diameter and 65 mm in height. The discharge power of the microwave with the frequency of 2.45 GHz is 7 to 30 W. Thus, a...

We developed a mass‐separated negative‐ion‐beam deposition system to investigate the interactions between low‐energy negative ions and solid surfaces and evaluated its usefulness as an advanced technique for film formation. The deposition system consists of an intense negative‐ion source and a negative‐ion‐beam deceleration electrode system. In the new type of sputter negative‐ion source, 0.74 mA of mass‐separated C− ion beam was produced in a high vacuum. The negative‐ion‐beam deceleration electrode system has a new structure to suppress the divergent effect of the beam, where a lens and a deceleration gap are closely placed. This structure is also simpler than any of the positive‐ion‐beam deceleration systems because production of oppositely charged particles, i.e., positive ions that might be accelerated in the deceleration field, can be neglected. A decelerated negative C− ion current of several tens of μA in the range of a final energy of 10–100 eV and about 100 μA in the range of over 100 eV were ob...