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A passive visible spectroscopic diagnostic which may measure the profiles of line emission and continuum radiation simultaneously is first installed on HL-2A tokamak. The line-integrated brightness profiles nearly covering the whole plasma cross section are measured with the spatial resolution of 2.7 cm and temporal resolution of 10 ms. The absolute intensity calibration and relative sensitivity calibration among all the channels have been provided for this diagnostic. Graphite tiles to face the collective lens are installed on the inner vessel wall, which reduces the influence of wall reflection on the optical measurements. A local relatively-low temperature region, located at the plasma edge above the mid-plane and caused by plasma-baffle interaction, is confirmed by this diagnostic. The increase of the line-averaged Z ¯ e f f during auxiliary heating discharge is mainly due to the inward impurity transport. Assumed Zeff with flat profiles in Ohmic and NBI discharges, the line-integrated electron density profiles measured by the visible bremsstrahlung are in good agreement with the ones measured by the FIR interferometer.

In ASDEX Upgrade hybrid discharges, it is found that an externally applied n = 1 field preferentially distorts the plasma in the core, leading to significant flow damping there and elsewhere across the plasma radius. MARS-F/Q modeling of a neoclassical toroidal viscous NTV) torque that results from an amplified internal kink-type displacement in the plasma core is qualitatively consistent with the measured internal displacements, beta dependence, and rotation damping. Sensitivity studies indicate that the internal kink response and the resulting core flow damping critically depend on the plasma equilibrium pressure, the initial flow speed, the coil phasing and the proximity of q0 to 1. No appreciable flow damping is found for a βN plasma. A relatively slower initial toroidal flow results in a stronger core flow damping, due to the enhanced NTV torque. Weaker flow damping is achieved as q0 is assumed to be farther away from 1. Finally, a systematic coil phasing scan finds the strongest (weakest) flow damping occurring at the coil phasing of approximately 20 (200) degrees, quantitatively agreeing with experiments. This study points to the important role played by the internal kink response in plasma core flow damping in high-beta hybrid scenario plasmas such as that foreseen for ITER.

Since the last IAEA Fusion Energy Conference in 2018, significant progress of the experimental program of HL-2A has been achieved on developing advanced plasma physics, edge localized mode (ELM) control physics and technology. Optimization of plasma confinement has been performed. In particular, high-β N H-mode plasmas exhibiting an internal transport barrier have been obtained (normalized plasma pressure β N reached up to 3). Injection of impurity improved the plasma confinement. ELM control using resonance magnetic perturbation or impurity injection has been achieved in a wide parameter regime, including types I and III. In addition, impurity seeding with supersonic molecular beam injection or laser blow-off techniques has been successfully applied to actively control the plasma confinement and instabilities, as well as plasma disruption with the aid of disruption prediction. Disruption prediction algorithms based on deep learning are developed. A prediction accuracy of 96.8% can be reached by assembling a convolutional neural network. Furthermore, transport resulting from a wide variety of phenomena such as energetic particles and magnetic islands has been investigated. In parallel with the HL-2A experiments, the HL-2M mega-ampere class tokamak was commissioned in 2020 with its first plasma. Key features and capabilities of HL-2M are briefly presented.

The active control of internal transport barriers (ITBs) is an important issue to achieve high performance plasma in a fusion reactor. A critical challenge of ITB control is to increase the ITB position. The ITBs with internal kink modes (IKMs), such as fishbone (FB) instability and long-live mode (LLM) with mode number of m/n = 1/1 are frequently observed on HL-2A tokamak in neutral beam heated discharges. The correlation of FB instability/LLM with ITBs is analyzed in order to extend the ITB radius. It has been revealed that FB instability and LLM are often excited after the ITB formation. Therefore, FB instability and LLM play no role in triggering ITBs on HL-2A tokamak. On the other hand, they may slow down the outward radial expansion and then shrink the foot position of ITB, and damp the gradient growth of ion temperature and rotation velocity. Since the perturbation of LLM is weaker than that of FB instability, the shrinking effect of ITB foot and braking effect on gradient growth are slighter than those of FB instability. Compared with the LLM, FB instability routinely appears in plasmas with lower density, higher heating power and lower plasma current. In addition, large ITBs without IKMs are also discussed on HL-2A tokamak. The large ITB is the largest one, the FB ITB is the strongest one and the LLM ITB is the widest one in three ITBs, where the ‘large’, ‘strong’ and ‘wide’ qualifications correspond to ITB position ρ ITB, the normalized temperature gradient R/LT, and its width W/a. Therefore, the large ITB position may be obtained if the IKMs are effectively controlled in a tokamak.

The control of edge localized mode(ELM) in tokamaks has been intensively investigated with different techniques. Recently, ELM control with impurity seeding has also raised to be a hot topic. This paper reports the effect of the laser blow-off(LBO) impurity seeding on the pedestal turbulence and ELMs. It has been found that the seeded impurity could have dual impacts on pedestal instabilities, depending on the quantity of the injected impurity. The impurity enhances the pedestal turbulence and further mitigates the ELMs when its quantity exceeds a lower threshold. Instead, the impurities suppress the pedestal turbulence and suppress ELMs when the quantity of the injected particles reaches a second higher threshold. It has also been observed that the ion toroidal velocity increases due to the impurity seeding while the collision rate is increasing. In addition, the impurities reduce the velocity shear rate by changing the toroidal velocity term rather than by changing the pressure gradient term as observed in ELM mitigation with LHCD. The reduction of the E×B velocity shear rate enhances the pedestal turbulence possibly through the turbulence spectral shift process during ELM mitigation.

The influence of energetic particles (EPs) on the ideal internal kink mode, in rotating tokamak plasmas, is numerically investigated by simultaneously solving MHD-kinetic hybrid equations together with a toroidal momentum balance equation utilizing the MARS-Q code (Liu et al 2013 Phys. Plasmas 20 042503). The neoclassical toroidal viscous (NTV) torque, induced by precessional drift resonances of trapped energetic particles, acts as the momentum sink term to damp the plasma flow. Quasi-linear initial value simulations show local reduction of the flow amplitude and enhancement of the flow shear near the q = 1 rational surface (q is the safety factor) due to EP induced NTV. Both effects in turn destabilize the internal kink mode. These numerical findings are robust against the initial linear stability of internal kink, the initial plasma flow profile, as well as the equilibrium distribution model for EPs.

Turbulent transport of impurity ions with hollow density profiles (HDPs), which are widely observed in magnetically confined plasmas and desirable for fusion reactor, is self-consistently investigated. A full gyrokinetic description is employed for main and impurity ions. Instead of conventional ion temperature gradient (ITG, including impurity ITG) and trapped electron modes (TEMs), impurity modes (IMs), driven by impurity ion density gradient opposite to that of electrons, are considered. The impurity ion flux induced by IMs is shown to be approximately one order of magnitude higher than that induced by TEMs when both kinds of modes coexist. Main ITG and electron temperature gradient (ETG) are found to reduce influx of impurity ions significantly, resembling temperature screening effect of neoclassical transport of impurity ions. The simulation results such as peaking factor of the HDPs and the effects of main ITG are found in coincidence with the evidence observed in argon injection experiment on HL-2A tokamak. Thus, the IM turbulence is demonstrated to be a plausible mechanism for the transport of impurity ions with HDPs. A strong main ITG, ETG, and a low electron density gradient are expected to be beneficial for sustainment of HDPs of impurity ions and reduction of impurity accumulation in core plasma.

A phase tracking method based on Hilbert transform algorithm is applied to the nonlinear wave-wave coupling analysis on HL-2A tokamak. Synthetic signal analysis is given to show the principle of phase analysis for the detection of nonlinear coupling. If the phase difference between two coherent modes is synchronized with the phase of a third mode, these three modes are nonlinearly coupled, vice versa. The time evolution of the phase of a coherent mode could be computed with Hilbert transform for experimental data, and a phase tracking flowchart is summarized. On HL-2A tokamak, the nonlinear coupling among two Alfvén modes (AMs) and a tearing mode (TM) has been confirmed with bicoherence analysis (Shi et al 2017 Phys. Plasmas 24 042509). With Hilbert transform, it is clearly observed that the phase difference between two AMs Δθ 12 is synchronized with the phase of the TM θ TM. The synchronization is confirmed with normalized cross-correlation. An alternative to check this synchronization is to observe the histogram of the phase difference Δθ 12 − θ TM.

The impact of supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI) fuelling on plasma turbulence and shear flows, which forms a self-consistent state, has been studied in the HL-2A tokamak. The SMBI flattens the shear layer by collisional flow damping and increases the turbulence intensity. It is found that the SMBI can enhance the nonlinear regulation dynamics and acts as an external tool for turbulence quench via stimulating two dynamic processes. The SMBI-stimulated nonlinear interactions facilitate the L-H transition at the marginal heating power for accessing the H-mode. The effective reduction of the H-mode power threshold by SMBI is demonstrated. The result suggests that the SMBI could be a general tool for realization of controllable L-H transition via reducing the H-mode power threshold in future devices.

New mesoscale electric fluctuations (MSEFs) are identified in the edge plasmas of the HL-2A tokamak using multiple Langmuir probe arrays. The MSEFs, resulting from the synchronization and having components of dominant geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) and m/n = 6/2 potential fluctuations, are found at the same frequency as that of the magnetic fluctuations of m/n = 6/2 (m and n are poloidal and toroidal mode numbers, respectively). The temporal evolutions of the MSEFs and the magnetic fluctuations clearly show the frequency entrainment and the phase lock between the GAM and the m/n = 6/2 magnetic fluctuations. The results indicate that GAMs and magnetic fluctuations can transfer energy through nonlinear synchronization. The nonlinear coupling analyses show that the MSEFs couple to turbulence and low frequency zonal flows (LFZFs). This suggests that the MSEFs may contribute to the LFZF formation, reduction of turbulence level, and thus confinement regime transitions. The analysis of the envelope modulation demonstrates that both the MSEFs and the LFZFs modulate the turbulence while the MSEFs are modulated by the LFZFs.

The first Lower Hybrid (LH) experiments were carried out with a Passive-Active Multijunction (PAM) launcher in H-mode plasmas. The experiments were performed on the HL-2A tokamak with the new 3.7 GHz LHCD system, installed and tested by SWIP in collaboration with CEA/RFM. The ELMs and local gas impact on LH power coupling was studied in the experiments. The coupled LH power in HL-2A was 200-500kW at large gap at the first experiments and reaches 900 kW now in H-mode, while it reaches 1MW in L-mode. The LH experiments on HL-2A show that the PAM launcher is a viable concept for high performance scenarios. The LH power can be coupled at large plasma-launcher gap, and assist in triggering and sustaining H-modes. Finally, an overview of the RF heating systems for the tokamak HL-2M is given. HL-2M will dispose of a 4 MW LH system and a 8 MW ECRH system, both of which are currently under installation at SWIP.

The resonant interaction between energetic-particles and tearing mode is an unresolved physics issue at present. It is found for the first time in tokamaks that an unstable tearing mode with slowly rotating m/n=2/1 helicity, where m/n represent poloidal/toroidal mode-numbers, interacts with energetic-ions and results in amplitude-bursting/frequency-chirping fishbone-like activities. Nonlinear hybrid kinetic-MHD simulations with M3D-K code prove that the co-passing energetic-ions are responsible for the drive of tearing modes, and the wave-particle resonance condition is satisfied at $\omega_{\phi}-2\omega_{\theta}-\omega=0$, where $\omega_{\phi}$, $\omega_{\theta}$ and $\omega$ are the toroidal, poloidal angular frequencies of energetic-ions and the mode frequency respectively. These findings can help to understand the tearing mode induced energetic-particle loss and particle acceleration during the tearing mode reconnection in laboratory and space plasmas.

Research on beta induced Alfven eigenmodes (BAEs) driven by energetic ions has been carried out on the HL-2A tokamak. The BAEs can be observed in the cases of being beyond or below unity. The mode frequencies are around 60–95 kHz. The radial mode structures have been detected by the multi-channel microwave reflectometer and soft x-ray arrays. The results suggest that the BAEs are highly localized at the normalized radius of –0.26. Theoretical analyses based on the general fishbone-like dispersion relation and Alfven mode code support the experimental measurements in both mode frequencies and locations. The BAEs are found to be excited more easily in low electron density discharges. The coexistence of BAEs and reversed shear Alfven eigenmodes enables the estimation of directly from experiments.

The rhombohedral α - Ga1.2Fe0.8O3 ceramics have been synthesized by using a high pressure technique at a pressure of 5 GPa and a temperature of 800 °C from orthorhombic e - Ga1.2Fe0.8O3 ceramics, which were identified to be isostructural with α - Fe2O3 and α - Ga2O3. The low temperature magnetism has been studied for α - Ga1.2Fe0.8O3, the saturation magnetization is 0.26 μ B / Fe at 5 K, and the Morin temperature has not been found. Moreover, it is most probable that the spin reorientation of α - Ga1.2Fe0.8O3 has been found at 50 K resulted from the change of magnetic dipole anisotropy and single-ion anisotropy with temperature.

In Ga2−xFexO3 with the Pc21n orthorhombic structure, owing to the site disorder of Fe ions on the four nonequivalent sites of Fe1, Fe2, Ga1, and Ga2, there exists a significant amount of non-effective Fe ions with no contribution to the ferrimagnetic ordering. These non-effective Fe ions have been found to induce strong frequency dependent suppression of the peak height in the ac susceptibility, demonstrating the frustration effect in the ferrimagnetic ordering background.

An experiment on edge localized modes (ELMs) during the vertical swing is performed in HL-2A tokamak. ELM mitigation is observed when the plasma moves upward. The plasma column expands accompanied by a decrease in both lower triangularity and the absolute value of local magnetic shear at the outer mid-plane during the upward moving. The critical pressure gradient in pedestal is reduced for the mitigating case according to the linear simulation based on peeling-ballooning theory. The physics of the ELM crash process is also explored through nonlinear simulation. For the mitigating case, small current drive for low-n modes and a weak ion diamagnetic effect on high-n modes lead to a higher dominant mode and a wider growth rate spectrum, which result in weak turbulence transport and a small ELM size.

Non-linear interaction between the internal kink mode and toroidal plasma rotation is numerically studied using the MARS-Q code [Liu et al., Phys. Plasmas 20, 042503 (2013)]. Simulation results show core plasma flow damping due to various toroidal torques, generated by a weakly stable internal kink mode. The 3-D field perturbation induced torques, including the neoclassical toroidal viscous (NTV) torque, as well as that produced by the Maxwell and Reynolds stresses, act as sink terms in the toroidal momentum balance model. The NTV torque is found to play a dominant role in the flow damping in all cases considered in this study. The modification to the internal kink mode structure is observed during the flow damping. Whilst a steady state can be achieved in the coupled mode-flow evolution with a uniform initial flow, a sheared initial flow affects the linear stability of the mode and consequently changes the non-linear evolution. For cases where the steady state solution is achieved, the saturated plasma flow speed critically depends on the initial flow condition as well as the initial amplitude of the internal kink mode but is less sensitive to the on-axis safety factor q0, as long as the latter stays above 1.

Formation and evolution of quasi-interchange convection cell have been observed for the first time by an electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) system on the HL-2A tokamak. The instability with mode numbers of m/n = –1/–1 and a frequency of 2–4 kHz propagates in the electron diamagnetic drift direction. The mode downgrades the inner stored energy WE and enhances the divertor Hα signal, which indicates a degradation of plasma confinement. The ECEI reveals that the colder core temperature fluctuation distorts to a crescent shape, while a bubble originates from hot fluctuation gradually and draws into the concave side of the crescent. A finger-like structure can be observed during the convection process, and it presents a typical feature of the quasi-interchange model. The radial structure of the interchange mode obtained from electron cyclotron emission is quite narrow at the high field side but relatively wider at the low field side. Further analysis suggests that the discharge parameters are favorable for the excitation of interchange mode, and the stability criterion is violated in the core region. Moreover, the experimental frequency agrees with that given by the linear dispersion relation of interchange instability. The large grow rate suggests that the mode grows on a very short time scale.

Interactions among pedestal shear flows, turbulence, and the formation of the edge transport barrier have been studied in H-mode plasmas of the HL-2A tokamak by multi-channel Doppler reflectometry with high spatiotemporal resolution. Geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) has been observed during the L-I-H transition. It has been observed that the plasma transits into the I-phase when the mean E × B shear flow reaches a critical value. The bi-spectrum analysis has shown that there is a strong interaction between GAM and limit cycle oscillation (LCO), and the energy transfer is from GAM to LCO, suggesting that GAM can assist the L-I transition. The regulation of the edge turbulence by LCOs helps to build the steep pedestal and initialize the confinement improvement of the plasma. It has been found that the mean E × B shear flow is further increased just before the I-H transition, accompanied by the turbulence suppression, leading to the edge transport reduction and the pedestal formation. It has been demonstrated th...

A novel design of the three-step Langmuir probe (TSLP) array has been developed to investigate the zonal flow (ZF) physics in the HL-2A tokamak. Three TSLP arrays are applied to measure the three-dimensional (3D) features of ZFs. They are separated by 65 mm in the poloidal and 800 mm in the toroidal directions, respectively. The 3D properties of the geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) ZFs are presented. The poloidal and toroidal modes of the radial electric fields of the GAM perturbations are simultaneously determined in the HL-2A tokamak for the first time. The modes have narrow radial wave numbers (kr ρi = 0.03–0.07) and short radial scale lengths (2.4–4.2 cm). High coherence of both the GAM and the ambient turbulence separated by toroidal 22.5 ◦ along a magnetic field line is observed, which contrasts with the high coherence of the GAM and the low coherence of the ambient turbulence apart from the field line. The nonlinear three wave coupling between the turbulent fluctuations and the ZFs is a plausible mechanism for flow generation. The skewness and kurtosis spectra of the probability distribution function of the potential perturbations are contrasted with the corresponding bicoherence for the first time, which support the three wave coupling mechanism.

The array of autosomal recessive spastic ataxia of Charlevoix-Saguenay (ARSACS) has expanded worldwide after the first description in the Charlevoix-Saguenay region of Quebec. Here, we report a Chinese ARSACS patient presenting progressive peripheral neuropathy (CMTNS2=15) with horizontal gaze nystagmus and mild spastic gait. Genetic studies including whole exome sequencing (WES), Sanger sequencing and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array analysis revealed a novel hemizygous nonsense mutation (c.11803C>T, p.Gln3935X) of SACS and a 1.33Mb deletion involved in SACS on chromosome 13q12.12 in the patient. Our findings highlight the necessity of SACS mutation screening in the gene panel of inherited peripheral neuropathies, and stress the need of testing copy number variation (CNV) in SACS mutation screening.

CN x precursor powders (composition: 33.76 at.% C, 49.53 at.% N and 16.71 at.% H) having a turbostratic structure were obtained by pyrolyzing melamine. Following spark discharge treatment, the precursor becomes more ordered in structure. The order was increased with increasing treatment time. Photoluminescence (PL) analysis confirmed that the spark discharge had only a slight effect on the energy band of the turbostratic CN x powder, namely a blue shift of 11 nm in the emission spectrum of the precursor. By contrast, the high-speed impact treatment clearly promoted the mass transfer between the CN x particles.

The radial profiles of perpendicular flows in the presence of the magnetic island were firstly measured in the HL-2A tokamak by hopping the work frequency of the Doppler backward scattering reflectometer system along with a two-dimensional electron cyclotron emission imaging diagnostic identifying the island locations. It has been observed that across the O-point cut the perpendicular flow is quite small at the center of the island and strongly enhanced around the boundary of the island, resulting in a large increase of the flow shear in the outer half island, while across the X-point cut the flow is almost flat in the whole island region. Meanwhile it was found that the density fluctuations are generally weakened inside the island. The results indicate that both the perpendicular flow and the density fluctuation level are modulated by the naturally rotating tearing mode near the island boundary. The cross-correlation between the perpendicular flows and the oscillating electron temperature further reveals that the modulation of the perpendicular flow occurs mainly inside and in the vicinity of the island.

Edge localized mode (ELM) mitigation with lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) has been observed in the HL-2A tokamak. This mitigation effect is very sensitive to the parameters as the plasma density and the LHCD absorbed power, i.e., more easily to be observed for high density and large LHCD absorbed power. The divertor peak heat load released by ELM has been significantly reduced during the mitigation phase. The pedestal density gradient is slightly reduced during ELM mitigation, and the plasma rotation velocity and ion temperature are significantly reduced by LHCD. It has been found that the ELM mitigation is not synchronized with the LHCD, while it is synchronized with the increase of the pedestal turbulence, showing that the enhancement of the transport due to the pedestal turbulence can be the direct cause of the ELM mitigation.

We report an experimental result on the stabilization of the energetic–ion driven internal kink mode (ion fishbone) by electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH), observed for the first time in a toroidal plasma. The mode asserts itself a resistive branch close to the marginal stability point. The resulting fishbone mode depends not only on the injected power but also on the radial deposition location of ECRH, and the instability can be completely suppressed when the injected ECRH power exceeds certain threshold. Analysis by the fishbone dispersion relation, including the resistive effect, suggests that the magnetic Reynolds number plays a key role in the mode stabilization—it weakens the mode growth-rate and enhances the critical energetic–ion beta without changing the energetic–ion population. This ion fishbone stabilization mechanism can be important for future devices such as ITER, which has significant ECRH capability.

Stability of a special class of the infernal mode, i.e., the one which is localized near the plasma edge, is numerically investigated for a toroidal plasma, using the single fluid code MARS-F [Liu et al., Phys. Plasmas 7, 3681 (2000)] and magneto-hydrodynamic-kinetic hybrid code MARS-K [Liu et al., Phys. Plasmas 15, 112503 (2008)]. Unlike the peeling-ballooning instabilities, which are thought to be responsible for the onset of type-I edge localized modes, the edge localized infernal mode may be responsible for accessing certain quiescent H-mode regimes in tokamak discharges. The finite plasma pressure near the plasma edge drives this instability. The local flattening of the safety factor near a rational surface at the plasma edge region, due to the large bootstrap current contribution in H-mode plasmas, is a necessary condition for the mode instability. It is found that the plasma toroidal flow shear in the pedestal region, as well as the plasma resistivity, further destabilizes the edge localized infern...

Crystalline hexagonal B(N 1 m x C x ) and cubic B-C-N compounds have been synthesized from a precursor produced from melamine and boric acid by application of high temperature and high pressure. The synthesized products were characterized by X-ray diffraction. The lattice parameters for the hexagonal crystal are a=2.506 A, c=6.657 A, and that for the cubic crystal is a=3.596 A. The X-ray photoelectron spectra of the B-C-N compound indicate the presence of B-N, C-N, C-C, and B-C bonds, which suggests that boron, carbon, and nitrogen atoms all bond with one another and that the B-C-N crystal is a compound in which the three kinds of atoms are mixed atomically. The composition of the B-C-N compound is B 0.47 C 0.23 N 0.30 . A strong absorption band at 1000∼1120 cm m 1 attributable to the cubic B-C-N phase is observed in the infrared spectrum. The photoluminescence spectrum of hexagonal B-C-N powder measured at room temperature features a broad peak centered at 374 nm, corresponding to the band-edge emission ...

Multi-scale interactions have been observed recently in the HL-2A core NBI plasmas, including the synchronous coupling between kink mode and tearing mode, nonlinear couplings of TAE/BAE and TM near surface, AITG/KBM/BAE and kink mode near surface, and between kink mode and high-frequency turbulence. Experimental results suggest that several couplings can exist simultaneously, Alfvenic fluctuations have an important contribution to the high-frequency turbulence spectra, and the couplings reveal the electromagnetic character. Multi-scale interactions via the nonlinear modulation process maybe enhance plasma transport and trigger sawtooth-crash onset.

Edge localized mode (ELM) is successfully mitigated by helium and deuterium supersonic molecular beam injections (SMBIs) on HL-2A. During the ELM mitigation by SMBIs, gradients of ion temperature (T i) and electron density are softened in the pedestal. It has been observed that the averaged gradient of the T i decreases around 44% and the well depth of radial electric field (E r) is reduced by the SMBI during ELM mitigation. Furthermore, at least 20% decrements of T i have to be attained to achieve a noticeable increase (decrease) of the ELM frequency (amplitude). In addition, the duration of ELM mitigation with helium SMBI is much longer than that with deuterium, likely due to the higher level of recycling neutral gas compared to that of deuterium; in the case of ELM mitigation by helium SMBI, the recovery duration of the density gradient is much shorter (10–20 ms) than that of T i (up to 40 ms or longer), indicating the importance of the T i in the ELM mitigation by SMBI. Finally, it has been observed that the T i is reduced before the beginning of the ELM mitigation, suggesting that the mechanism of the ELM mitigation by SMBI is closely related to the cooling effect.

In HL-2A, the characteristics of the edge plasma instabilities and their effects on the dynamical evolution of the pedestal in H-mode plasmas have been investigated. In the edge pedestal region with steep pressure gradient, a quasi-coherent mode (QCM) has been observed in density fluctuations with a frequency range of 50–100 kHz. It appears during the edge localized mode (ELM)-free period after the L–H transition and prior to the first ELM. A threshold in the pedestal density gradient has been identified for the excitation of this mode. The QCM can also be observed during inter-ELM periods. It is excited early in the inter-ELM period, and disappears when the ELM onset starts. The radial wave-number of the mode is estimated with two radially separated reflectometers. It shows that the mode is radially propagating inward. The poloidal wave number estimated with the Langmuir probes is k θ ~ 0.43 cm−1. The mode propagates poloidally in the electron diamagnetic direction in the plasma frame. The toroidal mode number, deduced from Mirnov signals, is n ~ 7. The corresponding poloidal mode number is m ~ 21 according to the local safety factor value. The analysis for the dynamical evolution of the pedestal during the ELM cycle clearly shows that the mode is excited before the ELM onset. During and after the ELM crash, the mode disappears. It suggests that the QCM is driven by the pedestal density gradient, and the mode in return regulates the pedestal density evolution.

Ion internal transport barriers (iITBs) are first observed in neutral beam injection (NBI) heated plasmas at the HL-2A tokamak. The position of the barrier foot, in the stationary state, coincides with the q = 1 surface within its uncertainty of measurement. iITBs can develop more easily at the beginning of NBI heating. Also, iITBs are unstable for the sawtooth plasma. Simulations reveal that the thermal diffusivity of ions (χ i) inside the barrier can be as low as the neoclassical level. It is observed that the flow shear in the stationary iITB state reaches the level required for suppressing the ion temperature gradient mode instability, which indicates the important role of flow shear in sustaining the iITB.

Recent experimental results that are associated with the core-localized (i.e. normalized radius ρ&equals;r/a<0.5 ?> ) Alfvénic modes in HL-2A neutral beam injection (NBI) plasmas with weak magnetic shears are reported. In the different plasma parameter regions, the energetic ions produced by the NBI drive multiple Alfvénic instabilities, such as the toroidal Alfvén eigenmode (TAE), beta-induced Alfvén eigenmode, reversed shear Alfvén eigenmode (RSAE) and fishbone and energetic particle mode (EPM). Here, we focus on the high-frequency RSAE (HFRSAE) and resonant kinetic ballooning mode (rKBM). A group of downward-sweeping frequency coherent modes (HFRSAEs) with 100 f n = 3–7 are often observed with an increase in the edge safety factor, q a . Their measured frequency is more than that of the TAEs, and fmin∼fTAE ?> . The analysis suggests that these modes localize inside the high-order Alfvén eigenmode (AE) gap of the Alfvénic continuum, and their eigenfrequency and eigenfunction depend on the qmin ?> and q-profile. When the core plasma density is more than 3.0\times {{10}^{19}}$ ?> ne0>3.0×1019 ?> m−3 and the impurity or supersonic molecular beam enters the bulk plasma, the profiles of the plasma density/pressure peak, and the magnetic shear is weak or negative. In this case, a group of multi-harmonic coherent modes (rKBMs) with 30 f n = 2–9 are observed through multiple diagnostic techniques, and f∗pi/2 , where f∗pi&equals;ω∗pi/2π ?> is the diamagnetic drift frequency of the thermal ion. It is found that the HFRSAEs can transit into the rKBMs when the density profile suddenly peaks. Neutron monitoring outside the vacuum chamber demonstrates that the HFRSAE and rKBM both degrade the confinement of the energetic ions. The rKBM instabilities also affect the bulk plasma performance.

The ELM (edge localized mode) mitigation by SMBI (supersonic molecular beam injection) has been studied in the HL-2A H-mode plasmas. The ELM mitigation effect and its relationship with the deposition position of SMBI in the H-mode pedestal are reported for the first time experimentally. We found that when the deposition of SMBI is about 20% into the pedestal, the best ELM mitigation effect is achieved, which is identified by a significant increase of the ELM frequency and also a decrease of the ELM amplitude. The theoretical inference that no deep injection is needed is confirmed. The sand-pile model is used to simulate the ELM burst and explain the mitigation effect for different SMBI deposited positions. It is found that the gradient threshold is a key parameter in the process of the ELM mitigation, and there should be a local gradient threshold in the middle of the pedestal. When the deposition of SMBI is close to the edge of this region, the best ELM mitigation effect can be observed.

Magnesium fluoride (MgF 2 ) could be well bonded using solid state diffusion bonding. The bonding mechanism and the effects of parameters on light transmission are discussed. A good joint was one that could withstand a 17 MPa stress applied for 6 h in an evacuated chamber at 800–830°C to a sample with 2 mm thickness and had a transmittance of up to 85.7% of the unbonded MgF 2 . The decrease in transmission was due to the grain growth for a long time and/or high temperature annealing treatment. When the applied pressure was up to 25 MPa, it just reduced the transmission because the light was scattered by residual pores and grown grain. The pores and recrystallization zones near the interfacial layer scattered the light heavily.

The characteristics of beta-induced Alfven eigenmode (BAE) at L–I–H transitions have been investigated in the HL-2A experiments for the first time. It is found that a BAE of fBAE ~ 13.6 kHz coexists with the limit cycle oscillations of fLCO ~ 2.6 kHz and both disappear after the I–H transition in the discharges with L–I–H transitions. It is also found that the ambient turbulence is modulated by the radial electric field at the BAE frequency and that the level of density fluctuation gradually drops in L–I–H transitions, but it remains invariant in L–I–L ones. These results suggest a possible correlation between the BAE and the L–I–H transitions. The sudden disappearance of the BAE in L–I and I–H transitions has the similar effect of sawtooth crashes on triggering L–I–H transitions in the HL-2 A tokamak.

The dynamics of low?intermediate?high confinement transitions was studied using a four-step Langmuir probe in the HL-2A edge plasma. Two types (dubbed type-Y and type-J) of limit cycle oscillations (LCOs) with opposite temporal ordering between the radial electric field and turbulence were first observed. In type-Y, the turbulence grows first, followed by the localized electric field. In contrast, the electric field leads turbulence in type-J. In addition, the Reynolds stress gradient is found not enough to drive the LCO flow and the three-wave nonlinear coupling is weak there. The continuously increasing amplitude of magnetic fluctuations and the significant correlation between the magnetic fluctuation and the electron pressure gradient indicate an important role of diamagnetic drifts in the L?H transition. Mode numbers of magnetic fluctuations in the LCO frequency are identified to be m/n?=?1/0.

Two groups of frequency sweeping modes are observed and interpreted in the HL-2 A plasmas with qmin ~ 1. The tokamak simulation code calculations indicate the presence of a reversed shear q-profile during the existence of these modes. The mode frequencies lie in between TAE and BAE frequencies, i.e. ωBAE 1 and nqmin − m > 0, and another group of modes characterized by up-sweeping frequency with qmin drop, owing to qmin < 1 and nqmin − m < 0 before sawtooth crash. The kinetic Alfven eigenmode code analysis supports that the down-sweeping modes are kinetic reverse shear Alfven eigenmodes (KRSAEs), and the up-sweeping modes are RSAEs, which exist in the ideal or kinetic MHD limit. In addition, the down- and up-sweeping RSAEs both have fast nonlinear frequency behaviour in the process of slow frequency sweeping, i.e. producing pitch-fork phenomena. These studies provide valuable constraint conditions for the q-profile measurements.

Edge localized mode (ELM)-filament statistical characteristics and intermittent convective transport are studied during ELM mitigation (10–30 ms) induced by supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI) on the HL-2A tokamak. Langmuir probe data show that the burst rate of large amplitude filaments (δne > 4σ) decreases by 30–50% and their radial velocity decreases by 40–60%, which is an indication of an amplitude reduction. A decrease of long-range correlation along the magnetic flux surface is observed after SMBI, indicating a role of electron–ion collisionality on the filament parallel current in the ELM mitigation time. The transient particle and heat fluxes decrease about 40–50% and 50–60%, respectively. These observations indicate that SMBI might be an effective method to suppress the intermittent convective transport.

We report recent experimental results from HL-2A and KSTAR on ELM mitigation by supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI). Cold particle deposition within the pedestal by SMBI is verified in both machines. The signatures of ELM mitigation by SMBI are an ELM frequency increase and ELM amplitude decrease. These persist for an SMBI influence time τI. Here, τI is the time for the SMBI influenced pedestal profile to refill. An increase in fELMSMBI/fELM0 and a decrease in the energy loss per ELM ΔWELM were achieved in both machines. Physical insight was gleaned from studies of density and vΦ (toroidal rotation velocity) evolution, particle flux and turbulence spectra, divertor heat load. The characteristic gradients of the pedestal density soften and a change in vΦ was observed during a τI time. The spectra of the edge particle flux Γ ∼ 〈ṽrñe〉 and density fluctuation with and without SMBI were measured in HL-2A and in KSTAR, respectively. A clear phenomenon observed is the decrease in divertor heat load during the τI time in HL-2A. Similar results are the profiles of saturation current density Jsat with and without SMBI in KSTAR. We note that τI/τp (particle confinement time) is close to ∼1, although there is a large difference in individual τI between the two machines. This suggests that τI is strongly related to particle-transport events. Experiments and analysis of a simple phenomenological model support the important conclusion that ELM mitigation by SMBI results from an increase in higher frequency fluctuations and transport events in the pedestal. © 2014 IAEA, Vienna.