Lower Hybrid Current Drive and ion Bernstein wave heating experiments on PBX-M

摘要

This paper presents an overview of the experiments conducted on PBX-M to control on evaluate the feasibility and effect of current profile and pressure profile control on the plasma stability. Utilizing the inaccessibility of the Lower Hybrid waves, it has been possible to obtain a certain degree of power deposition localization and off-axis current drive. The effect of fast electron diffusion has been studied and found not to be a limiting factor; consequently, the current profile has been modified in a non-transient manner. More serious is the destabilization of global MHD modes, due to the change of the current profile, which can lead to disruption or to a rapid radial redistribution of the fast electron population. Experiments with Ion Bernstein wave heating have shown that power can be deposited off-aids and that the ion temperature can be modified locally. Application of IBW into a strongly Neutral Beam (NBI) heated H-mode plasma causes a substantial increase of thermal and particle confinement in the core of the plasma: this produces a localized bootstrap current sufficient to significantly raise the value of q(O). We propose to refer to this condition as the CH-mode.