Plasma Confinement Characteristics in Heliotron J——Spontaneous Change of Plasma Confinement State

Spontaneous transition of the plasma confinement mode was observed in thehelical-axis heliotron device 'Heliotron J' for three different plasma heating schemes, i.e.ECH-only, NBI-only and the combination of ECH and NBI. The transition seems to occur above a certaincritical density. In addition to the confinement transition, a spontaneous shift of the hittingposition of the divertor plasma flux on the wall was observed. This shift could be related with thechange of the edge field topology caused by non-inductive toroidal currents.

Metrology for sub-Rayleigh-length target positioning in~10^(22)W/cm^(2)laser-plasma experiments

Tight focusing with very small f-numbers is necessary to achieve the highest at-focus irradiances.However,tight focusing imposes strong demands on precise target positioning in-focus to achieve the highest on-target irradiance We describe several near-infrared,visible,ultraviolet and soft and hard X-ray diagnostics employed in a~10^(22)W/cm^(2)laser±plasma experiment.We used nearly 10 J total energy femtosecond laser pulses focused into an approximately1.3-μm focal spot on 5±20μm thick stainless-steel targets.We discuss the applicability of these diagnostics to determine the best in-focus target position with approximately 5μm accuracy(i.e.,around half of the short Rayleigh length)and show that several diagnostics(in particular,3ωreflection and on-axis hard X-rays)can ensure this accuracy.We demonstrated target positioning within several micrometers from the focus,ensuring over 80%of the ideal peak laser intensity on-target.Our approach is relatively fast(it requires 10±20 laser shots)and does not rely on the coincidence of low-power and high-power focal planes.

Characteristics of Nutrient Salt Uptake Associated with Water Use of Corn as a Catch Crop at Different Plant Densities in a Greenhouse

Dent corn, as a catch crop used for salt removal, was cultivated at different densities, i.e., 7.3 （low density）, 59.7 （normal density）, and 119.5 plants m-2 （high density）, during a 50 d fallow period after cultivation of a commercial crop in a greenhouse, to analyze the characteristics of nutrient salt （N, K, Mg, and Ca） uptake by roots and to study the effect of plant density on the characteristics associated with crop water use. Leaf area index for the high and normal density treatments reached extremely high values of 24.3 and 14.9, respectively. These values induced higher transpiration rates that were estimated using the Penman-Monteith model with the incorporation of specific parameters for crop and greenhouse conditions. The total N, K, Mg, and Ca contents in the crop canopy at harvest were 26.8, 13.0, 1.0, and 1.7 g m-S, respectively, under the high density treatment. The dynamics of salt uptake rates for high, normal, and low density treatments were evaluated by assessing weekly changes in salt content, and were subsequently compared against the transpiration rate. A positive linear relationship was obtained between these 2 parameters for all 3 density treatments and all tested salts. Hence, higher transpiration rates caused higher salt uptake rates through water absorption. On the other hand, salt uptake efficiency per unit water use by cultivation was lower in the low density treatment. Therefore, management procedures with dense planting that induce higher transpiration rates and lower evaporation rate are extremely important for the effective cultivation of corn catch crops.