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We report on comprehensive experimental studies of turbulence spreading in edge plasmas. These studies demonstrate the relation of turbulence spreading and entrainment to intermittent convective density fluctuation events or bursts (i.e. blobs and holes). The non-diffusive character of turbulence spreading is thus elucidated. The turbulence spreading velocity (or mean jet velocity) manifests a linear correlation with the skewness of density fluctuations, and increases with the auto-correlation time of density fluctuations. Turbulence spreading by positive density fluctuations is outward, while spreading by negative density fluctuations is inward. The degree of symmetry breaking between outward propagating blobs and inward propagating holes increases with the amplitude of density fluctuations. Thus, blob-hole asymmetry emerges as crucial to turbulence spreading. These results highlight the important role of intermittent convective events in conveying the spreading of turbulence, and constitute a fundamental challenge to existing diffusive models of spreading.

Experimental studies of the dynamics of shear flow and turbulence spreading at the edge of tokamak plasmas are reported. Scans of line-averaged density and plasma current are carried out while approaching the Greenwald density limit on the J-TEXT tokamak. In all scans, when the Greenwald fraction fG=n¯/nG=n¯/(Ip/πa2) increases, a common feature of enhanced turbulence spreading and edge cooling is found. The result suggests that turbulence spreading is a good indicator of edge cooling, indeed better than turbulent particle transport is. The normalized turbulence spreading power increases significantly when the normalized E×B shearing rate decreases. This indicates that turbulence spreading becomes prominent when the shearing rate is weaker than the turbulence scattering rate. The asymmetry between positive/negative (blobs/holes) spreading events, turbulence spreading power and shear flow are discussed. These results elucidate the important effects of interaction between shear flow and turbulence spreading on plasma edge cooling.

Viable magnetic fusion devices necessitate combining good confinement with effective power flux handling. A major concern for ITER, and devices beyond, is the divertor heat load width, which sets peak boundary heat loads on the plasma-facing materials. Current estimates of the heat flux width are narrow for future reactors. Here, we demonstrate how pedestal turbulence can expand into, or entrain, the stable scrape-off-layer and so broaden the heat flux width beyond these neoclassical predictions. Employing combined theoretical, computational, and experimental approaches, we focus on quiescent high confinement discharges on the DIII-D tokamak, but the results are of broader significance. Our findings uncover common trends in the edge turbulence intensity flux, the pressure perturbation skewness, and the turbulence mixing length, which together determine the heat flux width. This research demonstrates the physics of scrape-off-layer broadening by turbulence and highlights the promise of a turbulent pedestal for successful core-edge integration in ITER and future fusion devices. Nuclear fusion is one of the avenues pursued to generate carbon-free energy for an increasingly demanding world, but technical instrumental concerns remain, which will impact the realisation and performance of future fusion power plants. The authors employ a combined experimental, computational and theoretical approach, to elucidate the mechanism by which turbulence spreading sets the divertor (a component that extracts heat and ash produced by the fusion reaction) heat load width in fusion tokamak, and demonstrate common trends in the upstream edge turbulence intensity flux, the pressure perturbation skewness, and the turbulence mixing length, which together determine the downstream heat load width.

Abstract We report on the observation of spatially asymmetric turbulent structures with a long radial correlation length in the core of high-collisionality \\emph{H}{-}{m}ode plasmas on DIII-D tokamak. These turbulent structures develop from shorter wavelength turbulence and have a radially elongated structure. The envelope of turbulence spans a broad radial range in the mid-radius region, leading to streamer-like transport events. The underlying turbulence is featured by intermittency, long-term memory effect, and the characteristic spectrum of self-organized criticality. The amplitude and the radial scale increase substantially when the shearing rate of the mean flow is reduced below the turbulent scattering rate. The enhanced LRRC transport events are accompanied by apparent normalized energy confinement time degradation. The emergence of such LRRC transport events may serve as a candidate explanation for the degrading nature of H-mode core plasma confinement at high-collisionality on DIII-D tokamak.

Long-wavelength density fluctuations ( kρi <1) are studied using beam emission spectroscopy (BES) at the edge of DIII-D L-mode plasmas ( ρ = 0.88–1.1) in scenarios with electron cyclotron heating (ECH) power ramp ( PECH up to 1.5 MW), neutral beam injection (NBI) power ramp ( PNBI up to 2.5 MW), and injected torque scan (−1 < Tinj <0.6 Nm). We find that broadband turbulent density fluctuations ( f ∼ 20–120 kHz) have a non-Gaussian distribution. The skewness of δn/n changes sign from negative at ρ <0.95–0.97 to positive at ρ > 0.97, indicating the prevalence of density ‘voids’ at inner radii and density ‘blobs’ at outer radii and outside of the separatrix. The turbulence intensity flux ⟨v~rn~2⟩ is calculated to characterize turbulence spreading at the plasma edge. During ECH/NBI power ramps and at counter- Ip injected torque, ⟨v~rn~2⟩ is directed inward inside the separatrix, which is evidence of inward spreading of turbulence intensity from the edge gradient region caused by the inner propagation of density ‘voids’. Significantly weaker ⟨v~rn~2⟩ is observed with co- Ip torque. A correlation between co- Ip torque, turbulence intensity δn/n at ρ = 0.97, and increased srape-off layer (SOL) heat flux decay length λq is found in the torque scan scenario, showing that edge turbulence plays a material role in determining the SOL conditions and heat flux width.

Measurements of the turbulent density wavenumber spectrum, δnˆe(k⊥) , using the Doppler Back-Scattering (DBS) diagnostic are reported from DIII-D H-mode plasmas with electron cyclotron heating as the only auxiliary heating method. These electron-heated plasmas have low collisionality, νe∗<1 , Te/Ti>1 , and zero injected torque—a regime expected to be relevant for future fusion devices. We probe density fluctuations in the core (ρ ≈ 0.7) over a broad wavenumber range, 0.5⩽k⊥⩽16 cm−1 ( 0.1⩽k⊥ρs⩽5 ), to characterize plasma instabilities and compare with theoretical predictions. We present a novel synthetic DBS diagnostic to relate the back-scattered power spectrum, Ps(k⊥) —which is directly measured by DBS—to the underlying electron density fluctuation spectrum, δnˆe(k⊥) . The synthetic DBS Ps(k⊥) spectrum is calculated by combining the SCOTTY beam-tracing code with a model δnˆe(k⊥) predicted either analytically or numerically. In this work we use the quasi-linear code Trapped Gyro-Landau Fluid (TGLF) to approximate the δnˆe(k⊥) spectrum. We find that TGLF, using the experimental profiles, is capable of closely reproducing the DBS measurements. Both the DBS measurements and the TGLF-DBS synthetic diagnostic show a wavenumber spectrum with variable decay. The measurements show weak decay (k −0.6) for k < 3.5 cm−1, with k −2.6 at intermediate-k ( 3.5⩽k⩽8.5 cm−1), and rapid decay (k −9.4) for k > 8.5 cm−1. Scans of physics parameters using TGLF suggest that the normalized ∇Te scale-length, R/LTe , is an important factor for distinguishing microturbulence regimes in these plasmas. A combination of DBS observations and TGLF simulations indicate that fluctuations remain peaked at ITG-scales (low k) while R/LTe -driven TEM/ETG-type modes (intermediate/high k) are marginally sub-dominant.

Measurements of the turbulent density wavenumber spectrum, δne(k⊥), using the Doppler Back-Scattering (DBS) diagnostic are reported from DIII-D H-mode plasmas with electron cyclotron heating (ECH) as the only auxiliary heating method. These electron-heated plasmas have low collisionality, ν*e < 1, Te/Ti > 1, and zero injected torque – a regime expected to be relevant for future fusion devices. We probe density fluctuations in the core (ρ ≈ 0.7) over a broad wavenumber range, 0.5 ≤ k⊥ ≤ 16 cm–1 (0.1 ≤ k⊥ρs ≤ 5) to characterize plasma instabilities and compare with theoretical predictions. We present a novel synthetic DBS diagnostic to relate the back-scattered power spectrum, Ps(k⊥) – which is directly measured by DBS – to the underlying electron density fluctuation spectrum, δne(k⊥). The synthetic DBS Ps(k⊥) spectrum is calculated by combining the SCOTTY beam-tracing code with a model δne(k⊥) predicted either analytically or numerically. In this work we use the quasi-linear code TGLF to approximate the δne(k⊥) spectrum. We find that TGLF, using the experimental profiles, is capable of closely reproducing the DBS measurements. Both the DBS measurements and the TGLF-DBS synthetic diagnostic show a wavenumber spectrum with variable decay. The measurements show weak decay (k–0.6) for k < 3.5 cm–1, with k–2.6 at intermediate-k (3.5 ≤ k ≤ 8.5 cm–1), and rapid decay (k–9.4) for k > 8.5 cm–1. Scans of physics parameters using TGLF suggest that the normalized ∇Te scale-length, R/LTe, is an important factor for distinguishing microturbulence regimes in these plasmas. A combination of DBS observations and TGLF simulations indicate that fluctuations remain peaked at ITG-scales (low k) while R/LTe-driven TEM/ETG-type modes (intermediate/high k) are marginally sub-dominant.

Abstract The integration of a high-performance core and a dissipative divertor or the so-called “core-edge integration” has been widely identified as a critical gap for the design of future fusion reactors. In this letter, we report, for the first time, the direct experimental evidence of electron turbulence at DIII-D H-mode pedestal that correlates with the broadening of the pedestal and thus facilitates core-edge integration. In agreement with gyrokinetic simulations, this electron turbulence is enhanced by high ηe (ηe =Ln/LTe, where Ln is the density scale length and LTe is the electron temperature scale length), which is due to a strong shift between density and temperature pedestal profiles associated with a closed divertor. The modeled turbulence drives significant heat transport with lower pressure gradient and that may broaden the pedestal wider than the empirical and theory-predicted pedestal width scaling. Such a wide pedestal, coupled with a closed divertor, enables us to achieve a good core-edge scenario which integrates high-temperature low-collisionality pedestal (pedestal top temperature Te,ped>0.8keV and pedestal top collisionality *ped <1) with detached divertor conditions. This paves a new path in solving core-edge integration issue for future fusion reactors.

Sawteeth are one of the concerning instabilities in ITER and future burning plasma experiments. Sawtooth dynamics and its interaction with broadband plasma turbulence has been a challenge for predictive simulations of core transport in future fusion devices. This study provides new observations of core turbulence behavior during sawtooth oscillations in DIII-D hydrogen L-mode neutral beam injection heated plasmas in an inner wall limited configuration. A strong correlation of electron temperature and density turbulence levels with the sawtooth oscillation phase has been observed at locations inside the T e inversion radius and/or safety factor q = 1 magnetic surface. The T e turbulence amplitude in the core during the sawtooth ramp exhibits a critical T e gradient behavior inside but not near the T e inversion radius/q = 1 magnetic surface. The most unstable mode calculated from the trapped gyro-landau fluid turbulence simulations reveal a change from low-k ion-type to low-k electron-type modes from pre- to post- sawtooth crash time periods.

DIII-D experiments have achieved promising core–edge integrated plasma scenarios which combine a high-temperature low-collisionality pedestal (pedestal top temperature Te,ped > 0.8 keV and collisionality ν*ped < 1) with a partially detached divertor by leveraging the benefits of a low-density-gradient pedestal in a closed divertor. It is found that with a closed divertor and high heating power, strong gas puffing to achieve detachment moves the peak density gradient outward with respect to the maximum gradient of electron temperature and reduces the density gradient at the pedestal region, which correlates with shallow pedestal fuelling due to the closed divertor geometry. In high-current plasmas in particular, the pedestal top density is found to change little with gas puffing while the separatrix, density increases to allow access for divertor detachment. The separation between density and temperature pedestals results in a high- ηe well above the electron-temperature-gradient stability threshold. Electron turbulence is found to be enhanced in the pedestal and correlated with high ηe resulting from the pedestal shift. The pedestal is wider than the EPED scaling. A revised empirical width scaling is derived based on the combination of EPED scaling with ηe and highlights the important role of additional turbulence on the pedestal structure. The wide temperature pedestal facilitates the achievement of a high-temperature, low-collisionality pedestal and high global performance. Simultaneously, the outward shift of the density pedestal facilitates access to detached divertor conditions with low temperature and heat flux towards the target plate. This approach may be promising for closing the core–edge integration gap for future fusion reactors, which may have a weak-gradient density pedestal due to the highly opaque boundary plasmas.