Langmuir Probe Measurements of the Scrape-off Plasma in ISX-A

摘要

A fixed double Langmuir probe was used to investigate the temporal behavior of the scrape-off plasma in the ISX-A tokamak. During gas puffing, the ion saturation current dropped rapidly to a very low level while the line average density showed a steady increase. This sudden transition was due mainly to a density change of more than a factor of five while the electron temperature remained relatively constant at approximately 10 eV. This behavior was easily observed at points away from the limiter with mild and moderate gas puffing rates, and near the inner edge of the limiter with strong gas puffing. In order to explain the phenomenon, it is suggested that there may be two distinct layers in the scrape-off plasma and that the boundary between the layers moves inward toward the limiter. The existence of the boundary has been confirmed indirectly by sudden shifts of the plasma during feedback control experiments. (ERA citation 04:028465)