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The effects of the stochastic magnetic field in a plasma center produced by electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) on transport have been revealed. Because the electron temperature profile is flat in the core region, in the case of counter-directed ECCD (ctr-ECCD) against the toroidal magnetic field, the magnetic field is stochastic in the core region with rotational transform ᵼ ∼ 1/3. The particle diffusion coefficient of the ctr-ECCD plasma is approximately 20 times as large as that of the plasma without the stochastic magnetic field produced by co-directed ECCD (co-ECCD) at the maximum. Furthermore, in the stochastic magnetic field with ctr-ECCD, counter-directed intrinsic rotation is observed in the plasma with balanced NBI discharge., source:Yoshiaki Ohtani et al 2021 Nucl. Fusion 61 034002, source:https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/abd6b1, identifier:0000-0003-3646-5427

We assess the magnetic field configuration in modern fusion devices by comparing experiments with the same heating power, between a stellarator and a heliotron. The key role of turbulence is evident in the optimized stellarator, while neoclassical processes largely determine the transport in the heliotron device. Gyrokinetic simulations elucidate the underlying mechanisms promoting stronger ion scale turbulence in the stellarator. Similar plasma performances in these experiments suggests that neoclassical and turbulent transport should both be optimized in next step reactor designs., source:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.225001, identifier:0000-0001-9585-5201

Controlled particulate injections from the PPPL impurity powder dropper (IPD) into the Large Helical Device have demonstrated positive effects on the wall conditions on both an intra and inter-shot basis. Injections over a range of densities, input powers, pulse lengths, heating schemes, injection quantities and main ion species show conclusive evidence of improvement to plasma wall conditions. Successful injections are confirmed by both spectroscopic measurements as well as real-time visible camera signals. In 7 s long plasmas the responses include a reduction in wall recycling as well as a reduction in native impurity content as observed over the course of several discharges. For plasmas longer than 40 s, improvements to the recycling rate and increased impurity control are observed in real time as a consequence of the extended particulate injections. These experiments demonstrate the extended applicability of this solid particulate conditioning technique to the control and maintenance of the plasma wall conditions. In addition they are an important initial step in the development of the real-time boronization technique as a supplement to standard conditioning scenarios., source:R. Lunsford et al 2022 Nucl. Fusion 62 086021, source:http://doi.orig/10.1088/1741-4326/ac6ff5, identifier:0000-0003-3588-6801

In state-of-the-art stellarators, turbulence is a major cause of the degradation of plasma confinement. To maximize confinement, which eventually determines the amount of nuclear fusion reactions, turbulent transport needs to be reduced. Here we report the observation of a confinement regime in a stellarator plasma that is characterized by increased confinement and reduced turbulent fluctuations. The transition to this regime is driven by the injection of submillimetric boron powder grains into the plasma. With the line-averaged electron density being kept constant, we observe a substantial increase of stored energy and electron and ion temperatures. At the same time, the amplitude of the plasma turbulent fluctuations is halved. While lower frequency fluctuations are damped, higher frequency modes in the range between 100 and 200 kHz are excited. We have observed this regime for different heating schemes, namely with both electron and ion cyclotron resonant radio frequencies and neutral beams, for both directions of the magnetic field and both hydrogen and deuterium plasmas., source:Nespoli, F., Masuzaki, S., Tanaka, K. et al. Observation of a reduced-turbulence regime with boron powder injection in a stellarator. Nat. Phys. 18, 350–356 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01460-4, source:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-021-01460-4, identifier:0000-0001-7644-751X

A new multi-tracer technique in the Tracer-Encapsulated Solid Pellet (TESPEL) method has been developed in order to acquire simultaneously the information about the behaviors of various impurities, i.e., to study concurrently the behaviors of low- and mid/high-Z impurities in magnetically confined high-temperature plasmas. In this new technique, an inorganic compound (for example, lithium titanate, Li2TiO3) is proposed to be used as a tracer embedded in the core of the TESPEL, instead of pure elements. The results of the proof-of-principle experiment clearly demonstrate the applicability of the new multi-tracer technique in the TESPEL method for the simultaneous study of behaviors of low- and mid/high-Z impurities in high-temperature plasmas., source:Review of Scientific Instruments 92, 063516 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0043495, source:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0043495, identifier:0000-0003-1682-1519

A bulk charge exchange spectroscopy (BCXS) system using a grism (grating prism) spectrometer has been applied to measure the profile of the deuterium (D) fraction in deuterium and hydrogen (H) mixture plasma in the Large Helical Device. The observed spectrum can be fitted with four Gaussian functions successfully by reduction of free parameters for the least-squares fit. The plasma flow velocity and ion temperature profile measured by charge exchange spectroscopy using carbon impurity are used for estimation of the wavelength shift of hot components to reduce the free parameter. The ion temperature is used to estimate the apparent wavelength shift due to the energy dependent emission cross section only and is not used to set the Doppler width for H and D in the fitting. The sensitivity of the evaluated D fraction on the velocity is increased for a higher D fraction. The error of the D fraction is calculated from the error in the fitted parameter and sensitivity on the velocity of the hot component. The difference in the profile and time trace of the D fraction with D pellet and H pellet injection was observed clearly by BCXS using a grism spectrometer., source:Review of Scientific Instruments 92, 063509 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0043607, source:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0043607, identifier:0000-0002-5113-9710

0000-0001-5669-1937, In this paper, a tomography approach aiming at reconstructing a phase-space structure is proposed. For the phase-space resolved diagnostic system, a signal must be decomposed in real-space, velocity-space, and time; therefore, it is challenging to obtain a sufficiently high signal intensity in a single detector bin. To overcome this difficulty, three different sets of data having different integration directions in real-space, velocity-space, and time are simultaneously used, and a reconstruction of the original structure in the phase-space is attempted by a tomographic manner. The proposed method is demonstrated using a synthetic dataset in the actual diagnostic setup in the Large Helical Device. Time evolution of a phase-space perturbation induced by the Landau damping, which is caused by energetic particle-driven magnetohydrodynamic bursts, is successfully reconstructed by this method. Robustness against realistic diagnostic noise is also presented.

Spatial profile of deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) ratio is observed using the charge exchange emission of bulk deuterium/hydrogen ion and neutral beam perpendicularly injected into the torus plasma. Neutral beam injection (NBI) is turned on and off in order to subtract the deuterium/hydrogen emission from the plasma edge. The number of fitting parameters for the subtracted spectral signal is reduced from 12 to 3 by assuming that the bulk ion temperature and velocity are the same as those of the carbon ions (C6+). The initial result observed in Large Helical Device (LHD) plasma indicates that D/H ratio is constant in radial direction and is the same as that observed from passive spectroscopic measurement when the tangential NBI or the pellet injection are absent., source:https://doi.org/10.1585/pfr.13.1202103, identifier:0000-0002-1804-6336

Multi-channel scanning filter spectrometer with narrow band pass of 2 nm is installed in Large Helical Device (LHD) for Beam Emission Spectroscopy (BES) using hydrogen (H) and deuterium beam (D). The spectral shape of transmitted light (half width at half maximum, skewness and kurtosis) is measured using the monitor grating spectrometer coupled with the filter spectrometer. No distortion of the spectrum shape is observed in the wavelength scan range of 8 nm required for the Doppler shift of the BES emission from H-beam and D-beam., source:https://doi.org/10.1585/pfr.14.1305118, identifier:0000-0001-5243-4917

A beam emission spectroscopy (BES) system for density fluctuation measurements having the sight lines passing through the plasma in the toroidal direction was developed in the Large Helical Device (LHD). The coverage of the area sampled by 15 × 100 optical fibers is nearly from the core to the edge on the horizontally elongated poloidal cross section with the spatial pitch of around 1.0 cm, and 32 channels is detected simultaneously with the 4 × 8 pixel Avalanche Photodiode Detector camera. In order to improve the directional sensitivity for the propagation of the density fluctuation in the radial direction or the poloidal direction, we propose the use of slit-shaped sight lines. An initial result of the density fluctuation measurements for MHD activity in the edge region and its cross-correlation analysis is presented., source:https://doi.org/10.1585/pfr.11.1402115

Plasma rotation plays an important role in the suppression of turbulence, leading to an increase in energy and particle confinement. Significant rotation also leads to a stabilisation of the resistive wall mode. The external momentum input from Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) in current generation fusion plasmas may not be available for future self-heated fusion reactors. Therefore it is important to analyse the phenomenon of spontaneous rotation. At NIFS plasma rotation and momentum transport of the Large Helical Device (LHD) plasma is analysed using a code suite called TASK3D-a. In this work neoclassical effects, which can be especially significant in non-axisymmetric plasmas, were implemented in TASK3D-a. Initial analysis of neoclassical radial momentum flux profiles shows that in NBI-driven momentum input neoclassical effects, especially neoclassical damping, become dominant in the non-center plasma region. It was also found that during and after pellet-injection the neoclassical damping force becomes strong. With the implementation of neoclassical effects new features can be examined in the momentum flux-gradient relations; in the damping-dominated situation following pellet injection a large excursion in momentum flux is found. This work can aid in the search for neoclassical transport-optimised configurations for enhanced (spontaneous) plasma rotation., source:https://doi.org/10.1585/pfr.12.1402006

A new fast-ion diagnostic based on the spectroscopy of the Doppler shifted Balmer-alpha line of Deuterium is considered for JT-60SA. Two sight lines, one tangential and the other perpendicular, are examined as candidates. It was found that the tangential one has better sensitivity than the perpendicular one. A trial of the FIDA measurement was performed on JT-60U. Signals due to the tangential-NB injection were obtained. It was found that about the one third of the signal would be due to the active FIDA signal, which was produced by fast-ions and a probe beam, while the remainder would be due to passive signal. The results indicate the FIDA measurement on JT-60SA would be possible with proper background measurements., source:https://doi.org/10.1585/pfr.8.2402108, identifier:0000-0001-5220-947X

A new diagnostic for LHD is presented, which utilizes active charge-exchange signals from Hydrogen (main ions) and Helium (impurity ions) to derive the radial ion-temperature and ion-velocity profiles as well as the H/He ratio profile. In a sensitivity study, different models for profile fitting and measurement uncertainties are compared, which leads to first results. This covers fitting with one Gauss function and two Gauss functions as well as the inclusion of read-out noise and photon noise. Full error propagation from the measured spectra to the resulting profiles is provided by utilizing Bayesian statistics in combination with a weighted least-squares fit and boundary conditions. Reliable and accurate results were achieved for the ion-temperature profiles, which are in good agreement with the well-proven Carbon diagnostic. Concerning the quality of the velocity profiles, no statement could be made. The H/He ratio measurements in contrary lead to accurate results. Calibration with the H/He ratio of passive emission near the plasma edge just before the end of the discharge allows calculating absolute values for Helium and Hydrogen density profiles., source:https://doi.org/10.1585/pfr.8.2402097

0000-0003-3588-6801, Controlled particulate injections from the PPPL impurity powder dropper (IPD) into the Large Helical Device have demonstrated positive effects on the wall conditions on both an intra and inter-shot basis. Injections over a range of densities, input powers, pulse lengths, heating schemes, injection quantities and main ion species show conclusive evidence of improvement to plasma wall conditions. Successful injections are confirmed by both spectroscopic measurements as well as real-time visible camera signals. In 7 s long plasmas the responses include a reduction in wall recycling as well as a reduction in native impurity content as observed over the course of several discharges. For plasmas longer than 40 s, improvements to the recycling rate and increased impurity control are observed in real time as a consequence of the extended particulate injections. These experiments demonstrate the extended applicability of this solid particulate conditioning technique to the control and maintenance of the plasma wall conditions. In addition they are an important initial step in the development of the real-time boronization technique as a supplement to standard conditioning scenarios.

0000-0001-7644-751X, In state-of-the-art stellarators, turbulence is a major cause of the degradation of plasma confinement. To maximize confinement, which eventually determines the amount of nuclear fusion reactions, turbulent transport needs to be reduced. Here we report the observation of a confinement regime in a stellarator plasma that is characterized by increased confinement and reduced turbulent fluctuations. The transition to this regime is driven by the injection of submillimetric boron powder grains into the plasma. With the line-averaged electron density being kept constant, we observe a substantial increase of stored energy and electron and ion temperatures. At the same time, the amplitude of the plasma turbulent fluctuations is halved. While lower frequency fluctuations are damped, higher frequency modes in the range between 100 and 200 kHz are excited. We have observed this regime for different heating schemes, namely with both electron and ion cyclotron resonant radio frequencies and neutral beams, for both directions of the magnetic field and both hydrogen and deuterium plasmas.

The effects of the stochastic magnetic field in a plasma center produced by electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) on transport have been revealed. Because the electron temperature profile is flat in the core region, in the case of counter-directed ECCD (ctr-ECCD) against the toroidal magnetic field, the magnetic field is stochastic in the core region with rotational transform t ∼ 1/3. The particle diffusion coefficient of the ctr-ECCD plasma is approximately 20 times as large as that of the plasma without the stochastic magnetic field produced by co-directed ECCD (co-ECCD) at the maximum. Furthermore, in the stochastic magnetic field with ctr-ECCD, counter-directed intrinsic rotation is observed in the plasma with balanced NBI discharge.

0000-0001-5669-1937, In this paper, the background physics of the isotope effects in the ion internal transport barrier (ITB) are discussed in detail. An heuristic criterion for the ITB strength is defined based on the nonlinear dependence of the ion thermal diffusivity on the local ion temperature in the L-mode phase. Comparing deuterium plasmas and hydrogen plasmas, two isotope effects on the ion ITB are clarified: stronger ITBs formed in the deuterium plasmas and an ITB concomitant edge confinement degradation in the hydrogen plasmas. Principal component analysis reveals that the ion ITB becomes strong when a high input power normalized by the line averaged electron density is applied and electron density profile is peaked. A gyrokinetic simulation suggests that the ITB profile is determined by the ion temperature gradient driven turbulence, while the way the profile saturates in L-mode plasmas is unknown. In the electron density turbulence behavior, a branch transition is observed, where the increasing trend in turbulence amplitude against the ITB strength is flipped to a decreasing trend across the ITB formation. The radial electric field structure is measured by the charge exchange recombination spectroscopy system. It is found that the radial electric field shear plays a minor role in determining the ITB strength.

0000-0001-9585-5201, We assess the magnetic field configuration in modern fusion devices by comparing experiments with the same heating power, between a stellarator and a heliotron. The key role of turbulence is evident in the optimized stellarator, while neoclassical processes largely determine the transport in the heliotron device. Gyrokinetic simulations elucidate the underlying mechanisms promoting stronger ion scale turbulence in the stellarator. Similar plasma performances in these experiments suggests that neoclassical and turbulent transport should both be optimized in next step reactor designs.

0000-0002-5113-9710, A bulk charge exchange spectroscopy (BCXS) system using a grism (grating prism) spectrometer has been applied to measure the profile of the deuterium (D) fraction in deuterium and hydrogen (H) mixture plasma in the Large Helical Device. The observed spectrum can be fitted with four Gaussian functions successfully by reduction of free parameters for the least-squares fit. The plasma flow velocity and ion temperature profile measured by charge exchange spectroscopy using carbon impurity are used for estimation of the wavelength shift of hot components to reduce the free parameter. The ion temperature is used to estimate the apparent wavelength shift due to the energy dependent emission cross section only and is not used to set the Doppler width for H and D in the fitting. The sensitivity of the evaluated D fraction on the velocity is increased for a higher D fraction. The error of the D fraction is calculated from the error in the fitted parameter and sensitivity on the velocity of the hot component. The difference in the profile and time trace of the D fraction with D pellet and H pellet injection was observed clearly by BCXS using a grism spectrometer.

0000-0003-1682-1519, A new multi-tracer technique in the Tracer-Encapsulated Solid Pellet (TESPEL) method has been developed in order to acquire simultaneously the information about the behaviors of various impurities, i.e., to study concurrently the behaviors of low- and mid/high-Z impurities in magnetically confined high-temperature plasmas. In this new technique, an inorganic compound (for example, lithium titanate, Li2TiO3) is proposed to be used as a tracer embedded in the core of the TESPEL, instead of pure elements. The results of the proof-of-principle experiment clearly demonstrate the applicability of the new multi-tracer technique in the TESPEL method for the simultaneous study of behaviors of low- and mid/high-Z impurities in high-temperature plasmas.

The isotope effect on impurities and bulk ion particle transport is investigated by using the deuterium, hydrogen, and isotope mixture plasma in the Large Helical Device (LHD). A clear isotope effect is observed in the impurity transport but not the bulk ion transport. The isotope effects on impurity transport and ion heat transport are observed as a primary and a secondary effect, respectively, in the plasma with an internal transport barrier (ITB). In the LHD, an ion ITB is always transient because the impurity hole triggered by the increase of ion temperature gradient causes the enhancement of ion heat transport and gradually terminates the ion ITB. The formation of an impurity hole becomes slower in the deuterium (D) plasma than the hydrogen (H) plasma. This primary isotope effect on impurity transport contributes the longer sustainment of the ion ITB state because the low ion thermal diffusivity can be sustained as long as the normalized carbon impurity gradient R/L n,c, where L c =-(∇n c/n c) -1 is above the critical value (∼-5). Therefore, the longer sustainment of the ITB state in the deuterium plasma is considered to be a secondary isotope effect due to the mitigation of the impurity hole. The radial profile of H and D ion density is measured using bulk charge exchange spectroscopy inside the isotope mixture plasma. The decay time of H ion density after the H-pellet injection and the decay time of D ion density after D-pellet injection are almost identical, which demonstrates that there is no significant isotope effect on ion particle transport.

0000-0001-5473-2109, A ka-band multi-channel Doppler reflectometer system was constructed for the Large Helical Device (LHD) using a comb frequency generator as a source. A filter bank system is utilized for precise quadrature phase detection, and preliminary back-scattered waves were obtained in LHD plasma experiments. In addition, a direct digital signal acquisition system was successfully demonstrated for providing a greater number of multi-channel measurements.

A new diagnostic for LHD is presented, which utilizes active charge-exchange signals from Hydrogen (main ions) and Helium (impurity ions) to derive the radial ion-temperature and ion-velocity profiles as well as the H/He ratio profile. In a sensitivity study, different models for profile fitting and measurement uncertainties are compared, which leads to first results. This covers fitting with one Gauss function and two Gauss functions as well as the inclusion of read-out noise and photon noise. Full error propagation from the measured spectra to the resulting profiles is provided by utilizing Bayesian statistics in combination with a weighted least-squares fit and boundary conditions. Reliable and accurate results were achieved for the ion-temperature profiles, which are in good agreement with the well-proven Carbon diagnostic. Concerning the quality of the velocity profiles, no statement could be made. The H/He ratio measurements in contrary lead to accurate results. Calibration with the H/He ratio of passive emission near the plasma edge just before the end of the discharge allows calculating absolute values for Helium and Hydrogen density profiles.

0000-0001-5220-947X, A new fast-ion diagnostic based on the spectroscopy of the Doppler shifted Balmer-alpha line of Deuterium is considered for JT-60SA. Two sight lines, one tangential and the other perpendicular, are examined as candidates. It was found that the tangential one has better sensitivity than the perpendicular one. A trial of the FIDA measurement was performed on JT-60U. Signals due to the tangential-NB injection were obtained. It was found that about the one third of the signal would be due to the active FIDA signal, which was produced by fast-ions and a probe beam, while the remainder would be due to passive signal. The results indicate the FIDA measurement on JT-60SA would be possible with proper background measurements.

0000-0001-8856-1483, In this study, the integrated transport analysis suite, TASK3D-a, was developed to enhance the physics understanding and accurate discussion of the Large Helical Device (LHD) experiment toward facilitating transport model validation. Steady-state and dynamic (transient) transport analyses of NBI (neutral-beam-injection)-heated LHD plasmas have been greatly facilitated by this suite. This will increase the predictability of the transport properties of LHD plasmas toward reactor-relevant regimes and reactor-scale plasmas.

An experimental technique to investigate fast ion confinement based on charge exchange spectroscopy of H-light was applied to evaluate the confinement property of perpendicular fast ions in large helical device (LHD). Sensitivities of the H 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.