Properties of plasma radiation during discharges with improved confinement on HL-2A Tokamak

In the recent experiment on the HL-2A tokamak, two types of improved confinement regimes have been achieved in different configurations. One is the improved confinement regime in limiter configuration during electron cyclotron resonant heating （ECRH）, characterized by a sharp decrease in Hα emission accompanied by an increase in the total radiation of plasma, the line averaged electron density and the stored energy of plasma. The other is high confinement regime （H-mode） in divertor configuration during a combination of ECRH and Neutral beam injection （NBI） heating, characterized with edge localized modes （ELMs） besides the features mentioned above. The ELMs are found to be localized on the plasma edge （r/a ≥ 0.8）, causing average losses of particles and stored energy in the ranges of about 1 3% and 3-5% respectively during a single ELM event. So far, the ELMs observed in the HL-2A are type Ⅲ ELMs with low amplitude and high repetition frequency in a range from 200 Hz to 350 Hz. An investigation of the radiated power density profiles shows that radiative cooling effect plays a significant role in the transition back to the L-mode and the triggering of ELM events.

Improving Plasma Confinement by Controlling Hard X-Ray

Since runaway electrons and magnetohydrodynamics activity can contribute to serious damage and energy losses in tokamaks, the effect of an external electric field on runaway electrons and hard x-ray spectra is investigated. Parameters such as the plasma current, the hard x-ray photons count and the mean energy of runaway electrons are measured. Positive and negative voltages of 300 V are applied at lOms after the plasma initiation （while the plasma is forming）, at 15ms （while the plasma is stable） and at 20ms （while the plasma is fading away） to attain the most effective time of applying the external electric field. The number of hard x-ray photons has the most changes in the range of O-200 keV when the external electric fields are applied. Also in the duration of 20-30ms of plasma the greatest number of hard x-ray spectra is detected. When the external electric fields are applied, the mean energy of runaway electrons reduces significantly, especially at 15 ms （while the plasma is stab/e）.

Recent Progress in Plasma Control Studies on the Improvement of Plasma Performance in Heliotron J

Recent progress in plasma control studies on the improvement of plasma performance in Heliotron J is reviewed. The supersonic molecular beam injection （SMBI） fueling is successfully applied to Heliotron J plasma. A supersonic H2-beam is effectively injected to increase fueling efficiency and generate a peaked density profile. Local fueling with a short-pulsed SMBI can increase the core plasma density and avoid the degradation arising from edge cooling. Second harmonic electron cyclotron current drive （ECCD） experiments were conducted by launching a focused Gaussian beam with a parallel refractive index of -0.05 ≤ Nil 〈 0.6. Results show that the electron cyclotron （EC） driven current is determined not only by Nil but also by local magnetic field （B） structure where the EC power is deposited. Detailed analysis of the observed NI and B dependences is in progress with a ray-tracing simulation using the TRAVIS code. Fast ion velocity distribution was investigated using fast protons generated by ion cyclotron resonant frequency （ICRF） minority heating. For the standard configuration in Heliotron J, charge ex- change neutral particle analysis （CX-NPA） measurements show higher effective temperature of fast minority protons in the on-axis resonance case compared to that in the HFS （high field side） off-axis resonance case. However, the increase in bulk ion temperature in the HFS resonance case is larger than that in the on-axis resonance.

Numerical Simulation of Modified Radial Electric Field by LHCD

Based on the electron’s radial force equilibrium, the profiles of radial electric field in OH and LHCD phase are calculated by using a simulation code. The dependences of radial electron field on electron density and its profile and different current ratio, Irf/Ip, are given. The connections between the improvement of plasma confinement and the modified radial electric field by LHCD are discussed by comparing the calculated results with the experimental results.

Present Status of the Nd:YAG Thomson Scattering System Development for Time Evolution Measurement of Plasma Profile on Heliotron J

A new high repetition rate Nd：YAG Thomson scattering system is developed for the Heliotron J helical device. A main purpose of installing the new system is the temporal evolution measurement of a plasma profile for improved confinement physics such as the edge transport barrier （H-mode） or the internal transport barrier of the helical plasma. The system has 25 spatial points with -10 mm resolution. Two high repetition Nd：YAG lasers （〉 550 m J@ 50 Hz） realize the measurement of the time evolution of the plasma profile with ~10 ms time intervals. Scattered light is collected by a large concave mirror （D----800 mm, f/2.25） with a solid angle of -100 mstr and transferred to interference filter polychromators by optical fiber bundles in a staircase form. The signal is amplified by newly designed fast preamplifiers with DC and AC output, which reduces the low frequency background noise. The signals are digitized with a multi-event QDC, fast gated integrators. The data acquisition is performed by a VME-based system operated by the CINOS.

Improvement of Plasma Performance Using Carbon Pellet Injection in Large Helical Device

A cylindrical carbon pellet with a size of 1.2L x 1.2φ mm to 1.8L x 1.8φ mm and a velocity of 100 m/s to 300 m/s was injected into large helical device （LHD） for an efficient fueling based on its deeper deposition instead of hydrogen gas puffing and ice pellet injection. Electron density increment of Ane = 10^14 cm^-3 is successfully obtained by single carbon pellet injection without plasma collapse. Typical density and temperature of the ablation plasma of the carbon pellet, e.g., 6.5× 10^16 cm^-3 and 2.5 eV for CII, are examined respectively by spectroscopic method. A confinement improvement up to 50% compared to ISS-95 stellarator scaling is clearly observed in a relatively low-density regime of ne = 2 × 10^13 cm^-3 to 4×10^13 cm^-3, and high ion temperature Ti（0） of about 6 keV is also observed with an internal transport barrier at ne = 1.2 × 10^13 cm^-3. In particular, the improvement in the ion temperature largely exceeds that observed in hydrogen gas-puffed discharges, which typically ranges below 3 keV.

Improvement of silicon etching resolution using the confined etchant layer technique

WHEN scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) with feedback mode is used to etchcertain surface, the etchant molecules generated at a microelectrode diffuse to the surface andreact therein with the surface species, resulting in local etching pattern. It is noted that theetching resolution of SECM is dominantly determined by the size of the microelectrode.However, many experimental results have shown the significant influence of the lateral diffu-sion of etchant on the etching resolution. Therefore, a thin diffusion layer of the