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We explore the inboard-limited internal transport barrier (ITB) as an alternative advanced operation scenario for KSTAR. This paper presents in detail the progress of the ITB experiment at KSTAR. In an earlier study, the ITB formed in both ion and electron thermal channels, and an early neutral-beam injection (NBI) power of over 4 to 5 MW under a limited L-mode was crucial to ITB access. In the present study, we access the ITB experimentally with about 3 MW of NBI power by using the upper single null (USN), which is an unfavorable H-mode condition with a higher L–H power threshold. Finding an ITB access condition with a lower heating power should allow for a more efficient control of the heat flux and for maintaining stable plasma performance. The key control parameters of the experiment are the vertical position and the location of outboard striking point of the plasma. The shape-control attempts to divert the plasma to a vertically shifted USN with a marginal touch of the inboard limiter so that the plasma can remain in the L-mode at the boundary, while the striking-point control maintains the ITB performance for a longer period of time.

We study a Reaction-Diffusion model describing the nonlinear oscillations of a transport barrier in a finite shear-layer (width dE ≪ a), where a is the plasma minor radius, based on a 1D reduced model derived to explain nonlinear barrier oscillations in 3D turbulence simulations [P. Beyer, S. Benkadda, G. Fuhr-Chaudier et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 105001 (2005)]. We show that this single nonlinear equation encompasses most of the physics of these barrier relaxations. The nonlinear oscillations have common characteristics with type-III edge localized modes (ELMs), such as a repetition frequency which decreases with increasing power. In addition to the flow shear, the shear-layer width is also shown to control the nature of the oscillations. (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Two phases of a DIII-D discharge with and without magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) activity are analysed using ONETWO code. The toroidal momentum flux is extracted from experimental data and compared with the predictions by neoclassical theory, Gyro?Landau fluid transport model (GLF23) and Multi-Mode model (MMM95). It is found that without MHD activities GLF23 and MMM95 provide a reasonable description while with MHD activity no model alone can fully describe the experimental momentum flux. For the phase with MHD activity a simple model of resonant magnetic drag is tested and it cannot fully explain the plasma slowing down observed in experiment.

A free-boundary Tokamak Equilibrium Solver (TES), developed for advanced study of tokamak equilibra, is described with two distinctive features. One is a generalized method to resolve the intrinsic axisymmetric instability, which is encountered after all in equilibrium calculation with a free-boundary condition. The other is an extension to deal with a new divertor geometry such as snowflake or X divertors. For validations, the uniqueness of a solution is confirmed by the independence on variations of computational domain, the mathematical correctness and accuracy of equilibrium profiles are checked by a direct comparison with an analytic equilibrium known as a generalized Solovev equilibrium, and the governing force balance relation is tested by examining the intrinsic axisymmetric instabilities. As a valuable application, a snowflake equilibrium that requires a second order zero of the poloidal magnetic field is discussed in the circumstance of KSTAR coil system., 20 pages, 6 figures

By using gain nonlinearity characteristics of a semiconductor optical amplifier, an all-optical NAND gate at 10 Gbit/s is demonstrated. The all-optical NAND gate operates in single mechanism, which is cross-gain modulation. In the NAND gate (AB+Ā), Boolean AB is obtained by using signal A as a probe beam and signal B as a pump beam in SOA-1. Also, Boolean Ā is obtained by using the clock signal as a probe beam and signal A as a pump beam in SOA-2. By adding the two outputs from SOA-1 and SOA-2, Boolean Ā+AB (logic NAND) can be acquired. The extinction ratio is about 6.1 dB.