Investigation of equilibrium, global modes and microinstabilities in the stellarator W7-AS

Equilibrium and stability properties in the WENDELSTEIN 7-AS stellarator are investigated experimentally and compared with theoretical predictions for particular cases. The topology of equilibrium magnetic surfaces and of global MHD modes is inferred from X-ray tomography. The predicted effects of externally driven currents and internal currents on the equilibrium surfaces could be confirmed experimentally. In particular the reduced Shafranov shift due to reduced Pfirsch-Schlueter currents in W7-AS could be verified. Up to the maximum accessible β ((β) ∼ 2%) plasmas can be confined without significant deterioration by pressure driven MHD-activity. However, global modes in the stable MHD spectrum such as global and toroidal Alfven eigenmodes (GAE, TAE) can be destabilised by energetic ions from neutral beam heating. These instabilities appear as very coherent low frequency modes (≤ 40 kHz) in the lower β regime without significant impact on the global confinement. At medium β very strong particle driven MHD modes with frequencies up to the range of 500 kHz can be observed. These modes can show nonlinear behaviour including periodic bursting and frequency chirping in combination with significant plasma energy losses. With increasing β Alfven modes are widely stable, because under these conditions the damping relative to the particle drive is increased. Besides the global mode activity small scale turbulent structures have been investigated in the plasma core and at the edge. The measured data of electron temperature, density and magnetic fluctuations do not yet allow to assess turbulence driven transport fluxes. However, correlations with the global confinement have been found, and the measured amplitudes are in the range expected to be relevant for anomalous transport. The observed dependence of the confinement on the edge rotational transform and magnetic shear can be explained in terms of enhanced transport at rational surfaces, however, the underlying mechanism is still unclear. (author)