L-mode to H-mode transition triggered by sawtooth-induced heat flux in EAST.

• The causal link between the sawtooth-induced heat pulses at the plasma edge and a spontaneous L-H transition is proposed. • The edge turbulence level increases significantly when the sawtooth-induced heat pulse arriving at the plasma edge. • First time to see that the turbulent decorrelation rate increases significantly just before the L-H transition by experiment. • Both turbulent decorrelation rate and nonlinear energy transfer rate play key roles on the turbulence quench. H-modes induced by sawtooth events can be often observed in discharges with marginal auxiliary power injection in EAST. Poloidal flow shear at the very plasma edge, increasing ∼25% up to the threshold value, is observed just before the L-H transition by means of a fast reciprocating probe array in EAST. This suddenly risen poloidal flow shear, caused by the increased turbulent driven Reynolds force, is motived by the heat pulse originally released by a sawtooth crash at the plasma core. Associated with the critical poloidal flow shear, the local turbulent decorrelation rate increases significantly. The increased turbulent decorrelation rate compensated by nonlinear energy transfer rate from the turbulence to the low-frequency shear flows, exceeding the turbulence energy input rate, is sustained for several hundred microseconds till the turbulence quench happening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]