Reduced electron thermal transport in low collisionality H-mode plasmas in DIII-D and the importance of TEM/ETG-scale turbulence

• Published in: Nuclear fusion 2012-02, Vol.52 (2), p.023003-15
• Main Authors: Schmitz, L, Holland, C, Rhodes, T.L, Wang, G, Zeng, L, White, A.E, Hillesheim, J.C, Peebles, W.A, Smith, S.P, Prater, R, McKee, G.R, Yan, Z, Solomon, W.M, Burrell, K.H, Holcomb, C.T, Doyle, E.J, DeBoo, J.C, Austin, M.E, deGrassie, J.S, Petty, C.C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Fluid dynamics; Fluid flow; Ion temperature; Physics; Plasmas; Transmission electron microscopy; Transport; Turbulence; Turbulent flow
• ISSN: 0029-5515; 1741-4326
• DOI: 10.1088/0029-5515/52/2/023003

The first systematic investigation of core electron thermal transport and the role of local ion temperature gradient/trapped electron mode/electron temperature gradient (ITG/TEM/ETG)-scale core turbulence is performed in high temperature, low collisionality H-mode plasmas in the DIII-D tokamak. Wavenumber spectra of L-mode and H-mode density turbulence are measured by Doppler backscattering. H-mode wavenumber spectra are directly contrasted for the first time with nonlinear gyrokinetic simulation results. Core ITG/TEM-scale turbulence is substantially reduced/suppressed by E × B shear promptly after the L–H transition, resulting in reduced electron thermal transport across the entire minor radius. For small k θ ρ s , both experiment and nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations using the GYRO code show density fluctuation levels increasing with k θ ρ s in H-mode ( r / a = 0.6), in contrast to ITG/TEM-dominated L-mode plasmas. GYRO simulations also indicate that a significant portion of the remaining H-mode electron heat flux results directly from residual intermediate/short-scale TEM/ETG turbulence. Electron transport at substantially increased electron-to-ion temperature ratio ( T e / T i ⩾ 1, r / a ⩽ 0.35) has been investigated in ECH-assisted, quiescent H-mode plasmas. A synergistic increase in core electron and ion thermal diffusivity (normalized to the gyro-Bohm diffusivity) is found with applied ECH. From linear stability analysis, the TEM mode is expected to become the dominant linear instability with ECH due to increased electron-to-ion temperature ratio and a reduction in the ion temperature gradient. This is consistent with increased electron temperature fluctuations and core electron thermal diffusivity observed experimentally. The reduced ion temperature gradient likely results from a reduction in the ITG critical gradient due to increased T e / T i and reduced E × B shear. These studies are performed at collisonality ( , r / a ⩽ 0.6) and address transport in electron heat-dominated regimes, thought to be important in ITER due to α-particle heating.