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A heating source with off-axis electron cyclotron heating (ECH) alone produced a plasma with a quasi-steady-state hollow electron-temperature profile in the Large Helical Device. The clear formation of this quasi-steady-state hollow electron-temperature profile can be explained by adding the outward heat convection term to the diffusion term, as a simple model to describe the electron heat flux, using the energy conservation equation. In addition, we directly observed the non-locality of the non-diffusive (convective) contribution in transient electron thermal transport in the condition that power-modulated on-axis ECH was applied to the plasma sustained by off-axis ECH. The experimentally evaluated flux-gradient relation shows two different positive values of the electron heat flux at zero temperature gradient by going back and forth between positive and negative temperature gradient regions in the transport hysteresis phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A divertor simulation experimental module (D-module) in the tandem mirror GAMMA 10/PDX was used for the study of plasma detachment. In previous studies, it was difficult to measure far-upstream plasma parameters in the D-module, and only electrostatic probes on the target plate were used to perform electron temperature and density measurements. To study the detached plasma structure, a Thomson scattering (TS) system and a microwave interferometer system have been installed to measure the inside plasma parameters of the D-module, and a movable electrostatic probe has been placed at the inlet of the D-module to measure the inlet plasma density and temperature. The TS system in the central cell observed the electron temperature and density of the core plasma simultaneously. These measurements revealed the entire density and temperature structure from the core plasma to the divertor plate. The line average electron density measured by the microwave interferometer showed a rollover behavior during detachment. The results indicated that the ionization region was located around the center of the D-module, and it appears to move upstream along the axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A scalable system for real-time analysis of electron temperature and density based on signals from the Thomson scattering diagnostic, initially developed for and installed on the NSTX-U experiment, was recently adapted for the Large Helical Device and operated for the first time during plasma discharges. During its initial operation run, it routinely recorded and processed signals for four spatial points at the laser repetition rate of 30 Hz, well within the system's rated capability for 60 Hz. We present examples of data collected from this initial run and describe subsequent adaptations to the analysis code to improve the fidelity of the temperature calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multipass Thomson scattering (MPTS) technique is one of the most useful methods for measuring low-electron-density plasmas. The MPTS system increases Thomson scattering (TS) signal intensities by integrating all multipass (MP) signals and improving the TS time resolution by analyzing each pass signal. The fully coaxial MPTS system developed in GAMMA 10/potential-control and diverter–simulator experiments has a polarization-based configuration with image-relaying optics. The MPTS system can enhance Thomson scattered signals for improving the measurement accuracy and megahertz-order time resolution. In this study, we develop a new MPTS system comprising a laser amplification system to obtain continuous MP signals. The laser amplification system can improve degraded laser power and return an amplified laser to the MP system. We obtain continuous MP signals from the laser amplification system by improving the laser beam profile adjuster in gas scattering experiments. Moreover, we demonstrate that more MP signals and stronger amplified MP signals can be achieved via multiple laser injections to the laser amplification system in the developed MP system comprising a laser amplification system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) cross section imaging of individual gas cluster ion impact craters on Si(100) and Si(111) substrate surfaces is examined. The comparison between 3 and 24 kV cluster impacts from Ar and O2 gas sources is shown. Results for low fluence (101° ions/cm2) 24 kV Ar individual cluster impacts onto a Si(100) and Si(lll) substrate surfaces are compared with hybrid molecular dynamics (HMD) simulations. A HMD method is used for modeling impacts of Arn (n = 135, 225) clusters, with energies of 24-50 eV/atom, on Si(100) and Si(111) surfaces. On a Si(100), craters are nearly triangular in cross section, with the facets directed along the close-packed (111) planes. The Si(100) craters exhibit four-fold symmetry as imaged by cross-sectional HRTEM, and AFM top view, in agreement with modeling. In contrast, the shape of craters on a Si(111) shows a complicated six-pointed shape in the modeling, while AFM indicates three-fold symmetry of the impact. The lower energy 3 kV individual cluster impacts reveal the same crater shape in HRTEM cross section for both Ar and O[sub 2] gas clusters, but with shallower crater depth than for the higher-energy impacts. The kinetics of the Ar and O[sub 2] crater impacts may explain the successful use of higher-energy cluster impacts for etching material of higher initial surface roughness followed by the lower-energy impacts as an effective finishing step to achieve smoother surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study which examined characteristics of titanium dioxide films deposited by a reactive ionized cluster beam. Method of the study; Results and discussion; Conclusion.

Discusses the electrical properties of titanium dioxide films deposited by a reactive-ionized cluster beam. Electrical properties of titanium dioxide; Analysis of the titanium dioxide-silicon interface; Dielectric constant of the film after annealing.

Reports on the influence of ionized cluster beam acceleration voltage of refractive index and on film microstructure. Results of electron microscopy investigations; Index of refraction and etch rate; Application of Rutherford backscattering spectrometry.

Studies the spin-glass freezing in a nominally pure single crystal of the S=1 linear-chain Heisenberg antiferromagnet (LCHA) NENP. Characteristics of LCHA; Preparation of the sample; Discussion on the results of the study.

This paper evaluates the accuracy of electron temperature measurements and relative transmissivities of double-pass Thomson scattering diagnostics. The electron temperature (Te) is obtained from the ratio of signals from a double-pass scattering system, then relative transmissivities are calculated from the measured Te and intensity of the signals. How accurate the values are depends on the electron temperature (Te) and scattering angle (θ), and therefore the accuracy of the values was evaluated experimentally using the Large Helical Device (LHD) and the Tokyo spherical tokamak-2 (TST-2). Analyzing the data from the TST-2 indicates that a high Te and a large scattering angle (θ) yield accurate values. Indeed, the errors for scattering angle θ = 135° are approximately half of those for θ = 115°. The method of determining the Te in a wide Te range spanning over two orders of magnitude (0.01-1.5 keV) was validated using the experimental results of the LHD and TST-2. A simple method to provide relative transmissivities, which include inputs from collection optics, vacuum window, optical fibers, and polychromators, is also presented. The relative errors were less than approximately 10%. Numerical simulations also indicate that the Te measurements are valid under harsh radiation conditions. This method to obtain Te can be considered for the design of Thomson scattering systems where there is high-performance plasma that generates harsh radiation environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a software application of the sampling scope concept for fusion research. The time evolution of Thomson scattering data is reconstructed with a high temporal resolution during a modulated electron cyclotron resonance heating (MECH) phase. The amplitude profile and the delay time profile of the heat pulse propagation are obtained from the reconstructed signal for discharges having on-axis and off-axis MECH depositions. The results are found to be consistent with the MECH deposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comprehensive electrostatic gyrokinetic linear stability calculations for ion-scale microinstabilities in an LHD plasma with an ion-internal transport barrier (ITB) and carbon "impurity hole" are used to make quasilinear estimates of particle flux to explore whether microturbulence can explain the observed outward carbon fluxes that flow "up" the impurity density gradient. The ion temperature is not stationary in the ion-ITB phase of the simulated discharge, during which the core carbon density decreases continuously. To fully sample these varying conditions, the calculations are carried out at three radial locations and four times. The plasma parameter inputs are based on experimentally measured profiles of electron and ion temperature, as well as electron and carbon density. The spectroscopic line-average ratio of hydrogen and helium densities is used to set the density of these species. Three ion species (H,He,C) and the electrons are treated kinetically, including collisions. Electron instability drive does enhance the growth rate significantly, but the most unstable modes have characteristics of ion temperature gradient modes in all cases. As the carbon density gradient is scanned between the measured value and zero, the quasilinear carbon flux is invariably inward when the carbon density profile is hollow, so turbulent transport due to the instabilities considered here does not explain the observed outward flux of impurities in impurity hole plasmas. The stiffness of the quasilinear ion heat flux is found to be 1.7-2.3, which is lower than several estimates in tokamaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancement of the output power per gyrotron has been planned in the Large Helical Device (LHD). Three 77-GHz gyrotrons with an output power of more than 1MW have been operated. In addition, a high power gyrotron with the frequency of 154 GHz (1 MW/5 s, 0.5MW/CW) was newly installed in 2012, and the total injection power of Electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) reached 4.6MW. The operational regime of ECRH plasma on the LHD has been extended due to the upgraded ECRH system such as the central electron temperature of 13.5 keV with the line-averaged electron density ne_fir-=1×1019 m-3. The electron thermal confinement clearly improved inside the electron internal transport barrier, and the electron thermal diffusivity reached neoclassical level. The global energy confinement time increased with increase of ne_fir. The plasma stored energy of 530 kJ with ne_fir=3.2×1019 m-3, which is 1.7 times larger than the previous record in the ECRH plasma in the LHD, has been successfully achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have studied two types of spatio-temporal turbulence dynamics in plasmas in the Large Helical Device, based on turbulence measurements with high spatial and temporal resolution. Applying conditional ensemble-averaging to a plasma with Edge-Localized Modes (ELMs), fast radial inward propagation of a micro-scale turbulence front is observed just after ELM event, and the propagation speed is evaluated as ~100 m/s. A self-organized radial electric field structure is observed in an electrode biasing experiment, and it is found to realize a multi-valued state. The curvature of the radial electric field is found to play an important role for turbulence reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is found that the remnant island structure created by n/m=1/1 resonant magnetic perturbation field in the stochastic magnetic boundary of the Large Helical Device (LHD) [A. Komori et al., Nucl. Fusion 49, 104015 (2009)] has a stabilizing effect on formation of radiating plasma, realizing stably sustained divertor detachment operation with the core plasma being unaffected. The data from the several diagnostics, (profiles of electron temperature and density, radiation and temporal evolution of divertor particle flux) indicate selective cooling around X-point of the island and thus peaked radiation there, which is stabilized outside of the last closed flux surface throughout the detachment phase. The vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy measurements of high Z impurity (iron) emission shows significant decrease during the detachment, indicating core plasma decontamination. The results from the three-dimensional (3D) edge transport code, edge Monte Carlo 3D (EMC3) [Y. Feng et al., Contrib. Plasma Phys. 44, 57 (2004)]-EIRENE [D. Reiter et al., Fusion Sci. Technol. 47, 172 (2005)] show similar tendency in the radiation pattern. The island size and its radial location are varied to investigate the magnetic topology effects on the detachment control. The divertor particle flux and neutral pressure exhibit intermittent oscillation as well as modification of recycling pattern during the detachment, which are found to reflect the island structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Thomson scattering diagnostic systems are widely used for the measurements of absolute local electron temperatures and densities of fusion plasmas. In order to obtain accurate and reliable temperature and density data, careful calibrations of the system are required. We have tried several calibration methods since the second LHD experiment campaign in 1998. We summarize the current status of the calibration methods for the electron temperature and density measurements by the LHD Thomson scattering diagnostic system. Future plans are briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have developed an analysis method to improve the accuracies of electron temperature measurement by employing a fitting technique for the raw Thomson scattering (TS) signals. Least square fitting of the raw TS signals enabled reduction of the error in the electron temperature measurement. We applied the analysis method to a multi-pass (MP) TS system. Because the interval between the MPTS signals is very short, it is difficult to separately analyze each Thomson scattering signal intensity by using the raw signals. We used the fitting method to obtain the original TS scattering signals from the measured raw MPTS signals to obtain the electron temperatures in each pass. Published by AIP Publishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precise alignment of the laser path and collection optics in Thomson scattering measurements is essential for accurately determining electron temperature and density in tokamak experiments. For the last five years, during the development stage, the KSTAR tokamak's Thomson diagnostic system has had alignment fibers installed in its optical collection modules, but these lacked a proper alignment detection system. In order to address these difficulties, an alignment verifying detection device between lasers and an object field of collection optics is developed. The alignment detection device utilizes two types of filters: a narrow laser band wavelength for laser, and a broad wavelength filter for Thomson scattering signal. Four such alignment detection devices have been successfully developed for the KSTAR Thomson scattering system in this year, and these will be tested in KSTAR experiments in 2016. In this paper, we present the newly developed alignment detection device for KSTAR's Thomson scattering diagnostics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neural networks provide powerful approaches of dealing with nonlinear data and have been successfully applied to fusion plasma diagnostics and control systems. Controlling tokamak plasmas in real time is essential to measure the plasma parameters in situ. However, the χ2 method traditionally used in Thomson scattering diagnostics hampers real-time measurement due to the complexity of the calculations involved. In this study, we applied a neural network approach to Thomson scattering diagnostics in order to calculate the electron temperature, comparing the results to those obtained with the χ2 method. The best results were obtained for 103 training cycles and eight nodes in the hidden layer. Our neural network approach shows good agreement with the χ2 method and performs the calculation twenty times faster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wave detector, a newly designed magnetic probe, is installed in the large helical device (LHD). This wave detector is a 100-turn loop coil with electrostatic shield. Comparing a one-loop coil to this detector, this detector has roughly constant power coupling in the lower frequency range of 40 MHz, and it can easily detect magnetic wave in the frequency of a few megahertz. During high-harmonic fast wave heating, lower frequency waves (<10 MHz) were observed in the LHD for the first time, and for the power density threshold of lower frequency wave excitation (7.5 MHz) the power density of excited pumped wave (38.47 MHz) was approximately -46 dBm/Hz. These lower frequencies are kept constant for electron density and high energy particle distribution, and these lower frequency waves seem to be ion cyclotron waves caused by nonlinear wave-particle interaction, for example, parametric decay instability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An internal transport barrier (ITB) was observed in the electron temperature profile in the Large Helical Device [O. Motojima et al., Phys. Plasmas 6, 1843 (1999)] with a centrally focused intense electron cyclotron resonance microwave heating. Inside the ITB the core electron transport was improved, and a high electron temperature, exceeding 10 keV in a low density, was achieved in a collisionless regime. The formation of the electron-ITB is correlated with the neoclassical electron root with a strong radial electric field determined by the neoclassical ambipolar flux. The direction of the tangentially injected beam-driven current has an influence on the electron-ITB formation. For the counter-injected target plasma, a steeper temperature gradient, than that for the co-injected one, was observed. As for the ion temperature, high-power NBI (neutral beam injection) heating of 9 MW has realized a central ion temperature of 5 keV with neon injection. By introducing neon gas, the NBI absorption power was increased in low-density plasmas and the direct ion heating power was much enhanced with a reduced number of ions, compared with hydrogen plasmas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have calibrated the LHD yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) Thomson scattering system by using anti-Stokes rotational Raman scattering from air for the measurements of absolute electron-density profiles of LHD plasmas. The air Raman calibration was carried out at near atmospheric pressure and room temperature. Total uncertainty in measured electron densities is estimated to be ±15% or less. Electron densities obtained with the calibrated YAG Thomson scattering show good agreements with those measured by the LHD millimeter-wave interferometer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the design and performance of a multi-point (200) high repetition rate (4×50 Hz) Thomson scattering diagnostic installed on the Large Helical Device. A unique feature of this system is its oblique back scattering configuration, which enables us to observe the entire plasma region along a major radius on the midplane under a severely restricted port constraint. High throughput collection optics using a mosaic mirror of 1.5 m×1.8 m area yield high quality data even with 0.5 J pulse energy delivered from 50 Hz repetition rate Nd: yttrium–aluminum–garnet lasers. High repetition and high spatial resolution (2–4 cm) of the system enable us to study island evolution in the plasma. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the development and testing of a Thomson scattering system with an obliquely backscattered configuration with a novel, high throughput collection system on a plasma confinement device, the compact helical system. Laser beam optics; Necessity of optical fibers for transporting the light collected along the inclined image to the entrance of polychromators.

The radial electric field is driven to positive value by off-axis second harmonic electron cyclotron heating (ECH) in the Compact Helical System [Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research 1988, Nice (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1989), Vol. II, p. 411]. The observed positive electric field is associated with the outward particle flux enhanced with ECH. The enhanced particle flux triggered by the production of the electrons accelerated perpendicularly to the magnetic field with ECH results in the change of the electric field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]