Observation of persistent edge current driven by coaxial helicity Injection

Journal Article · Fri Jul 15 04:00:00 EDT 2005 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1941254· OSTI ID:20764359

Mueller, D; Nelson, B A; Hamp, W T; Redd, A J; Jarboe, T R; O'Neill, R G; Smith, R J ^[1]

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1. Princeton University, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, P.O. Box 453, Princeton, New Jersey 08543 (United States)

Coaxial Helicity Injection (CHI) has been used on the National Spherical Torus Experiment [Ono et al., Nucl. Fusion 40, 557 (2000)], the Helicity Injected Torus (HIT) [Nelson et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 3666 (1994)] and HIT-II [Jarboe et al., Phys. Plasmas 5, 1807 (1998)] to initiate plasma and to drive up to 400 kA of toroidal current. On HIT-II, CHI initiated discharges have been successfully coupled to Ohmic sustainment [Raman et al., Phys. Plasmas 11, 2565 (2004)]. This paper presents the first results on the use of CHI to demonstrate the persistence of edge current drive in a pre-established single null diverted inductive discharge. Edge current drive has the potential to improve plasma stability limits [Menard et al., Nucl. Fusion 37, 595 (1997)]. While most current drive methods drive current in the interior of the plasma, CHI is well suited for driving current in the edge plasma.

• OSTI ID: 20764359
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 12; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
BOUNDARY LAYERS
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
HELICITY
NSTX DEVICE
PLASMA
PLASMA CONFINEMENT
PLASMA INSTABILITY
SPHERICAL CONFIGURATION
STABILITY