Inductive current density perturbations to probe electron internal transport barriers in tokamaks.

Improved electron energy confinement in tokamak plasmas, related to internal transport barriers, has been linked to nonmonotonic current density profiles. This is difficult to prove experimentally since usually the current profiles evolve continuously and current injection generally requires significant input power. New experiments are presented, in which the inductive current is used to generate positive and negative current density perturbations in the plasma center, with negligible input power.

Rapid and localized electron internal-transport-barrier formation during shear inversion in fully noninductive TCV discharges.

Clear evidence is reported for the first time of a rapid localized reduction of core electron energy diffusivity during the formation of an electron internal-transport barrier. The transition occurs rapidly (approximately = 3 ms), during a slow (approximately = 200 ms) self-inductive evolution of the magnetic shear. This crucial observation, and the correlation of the transition with the time and location of the magnetic shear reversal, lend support to models attributing the reduced transport to the local properties of a zero-shear region, in contrast to models predicting a gradual reduction due to a weak or negative shear.

Radial transport and electron-cyclotron-current drive in the TCV and DIII-D tokamaks.

Calculation of electron-cyclotron-current drive (ECCD) with the comprehensive CQL3D Fokker-Planck code for a TCV tokamak shot gives 550 kA of driven toroidal current, in marked disagreement with the 100-kA experimental value. Published ECCD efficiencies calculated with CQL3D in the much larger, higher-confinement DIII-D tokamak are in excellent agreement with experiment. The disagreement is resolved by including in the calculations electrostatic-type radial transport at levels given by global energy confinement in tokamaks.