Electron profile stiffness and critical gradient studies.

Electron profile stiffness was studied in DIII-D L-mode discharges by systematically varying the heat flux in a narrow region with electron cyclotron heating and measuring the local change produced in ∇Te. Electron stiffness was found to slowly increase with toroidal rotation velocity. A critical inverse temperature gradient scale length 1/LC ∼ 3 m-1 was identified at ρ=0.6 and found to be independent of rotation. Both the heat pulse diffusivity and the power balance diffusivity, the latter determined by integrating the measured dependence of the heat pulse diffusivity on -∇Te, were fit reasonably well by a model containing a critical inverse temperature gradient scale length and varying linearly with 1/LT above the threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]