Ralph C. Isler

Interaction of radio-frequency (RF) waves with the plasma in the near-field of a high-power wave launcher is now seen to be an important topic, both in understanding the channeling of these waves through the plasma boundary and in avoiding power losses in the edge. In a recent Letter, a direct non-intrusive measurement of a near antenna RF electric field in the range of lower hybrid (LH) frequencies ( E _LH ) was announced (2013 Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 215005). This measurement was achieved through the fitting of Balmer series deuterium spectral lines utilizing a time dependent (dynamic) Stark effect model. In this article, the analysis of the spectral data is discussed in detail and applied to a larger range of measurements and the accuracy and limitations of the experimental technique are investigated. It was found through an analysis of numerous Tore Supra discharges that good quantitative agreement exists between the measured and full-wave modeled E _LH when the launched power exceeds 0.5 MW. For low power the measurement becomes inaccurate utilizing the implemented passive spectroscopic technique because the spectral noise overwhelms the effect of the RF electric field on the line profile. Additionally, effects of the ponderomotive force are suspected at sufficiently high power.

An exploratory study was carried out in the long-pulse tokamak Tore Supra, to determine if electric fields in the plasma around high-power, RF wave launchers could be measured with non-intrusive, passive, optical emission spectroscopy. The focus was in particular on the use of the external electric field Stark effect. The feasibility was found to be strongly dependent on the spatial extent of the electric fields and overlap between regions of strong (>∼1 kV/cm) electric fields and regions of plasma particle recycling and plasma-induced, spectral line emission. Most amenable to the measurement was the RF electric field in edge plasma, in front of a lower hybrid heating and current drive launcher. Electric field strengths and direction, derived from fitting the acquired spectra to a model including time-dependent Stark effect and the tokamak-range magnetic field Zeeman-effect, were found to be in good agreement with full-wave modeling of the observed launcher.

More sensitive detection of charge exchange recombination lines from low-Z elements, and first-time detection from the medium-Z elements nickel and copper, has been achieved in DIII-D plasmas with a digital lock-in technique. That portion of the extreme UV spectrum varying synchronously in time with the square-wave modulation of a high energy, neutral heating beam is extracted by forming a scalar product of a correlation function with the data record of each pixel in the linear array detector. The usual, dense array of collisionally excited, metallic lines from the tokamak plasma is strongly suppressed, leaving only a sparse spectrum of lines dominated by charge exchange recombination transitions from fully stripped, low-Z elements. In plasmas with high metal content, charge exchange recombination lines from the Li-like ions of nickel and copper have been positively identified.

The flow velocities of deuterons and low charge-state carbon ions have been measured simultaneously in the main scrape-off-layer (SOL) in low-density plasmas in DIII-D, and the dependences of these flow fields on the direction of the cross-field drifts ( E × B and B × ∇B) have been investigated. These measurements were taken poloidally localized in the SOL region vertically opposite the divertor X-point. The carbon ion flows do not necessarily match those of the deuterons either in the direction with respect to the magnetic field lines or in magnitude, suggesting that physics effects apart from entrainment play a significant role in the impurity response. In configurations with the ion B × ∇B drift towards the divertor X-point, the parallel- B deuteron velocities at the plasma crown are high (−20 to −30 km s⁻¹ in the direction of the high field side (HFS) divertor), while they are nearly zero in configurations with the opposite B × ∇B drift direction. The flow direction of singly and doubly charged carbon ions is independent of the ion B × ∇B drift direction, and the ions flow at approximately −5 to −10 km s⁻¹ towards the HFS divertor. Simulations with the UEDGE code have been carried out to better understand the underlying physics processes. Inclusion of cross-field drifts in the simulations produced divertor solutions for density and temperature that agree significantly better with measured divertor parameters. These simulations do not, however, reproduce the measured flow fields at the crown for the configuration with the ion B × ∇B drift towards the divertor X-point. The UEDGE code has also been used to understand the influence of pumping at the HFS divertor plate, and a poloidal dependence in the radial transport coefficient.