Abstract
Plasma confinement in the vicinity of vacuum magnetic islands near the magnetic axis in the H-1NF heliac [S. M. Hamberger, Fusion Technol. 17, 123 (1990)] has been experimentally studied in a low temperature argon plasma. Experimental results indicate that, under favorable conditions, these low order (m=2) islands near the core of the plasma serve as "pockets" of higher electron density. This results in significant profile modifications including enhancement of the core radial electric field to a large positive value, possibly through an electron-root ambipolar condition. The characteristics of islands are found to be dependent on the plasma collisionality and island width.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 082503 |
| Journal | Physics of Plasmas |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 2010 |
Funding
The authors would like to thank Michael Shats (ANU, Canberra, Australia) and Chris Hegna (UW-Madison) for valuable discussions and H-1NF team for experimental operations. This work was performed on the H-1NF National Plasma Fusion Research Facility established by the Australian Government and operated by the Australian National University. This research was supported in part by the Australian Research Council Grant No. DP0344361 and the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with UT-Battelle, LLC.
