Rapid further heating of tokamak plasma by fast-rising magnetic pulse

The object of the experiment was to study the rapid further heating of a tokamak plasma and its influence on confinement. For this purpose, a high-voltage theta-pinch pulse was applied to a tokamak plasma and production of a high-temperature (keV) plasma was ensured within a microsecond. The magnetic pulse is applied at the plasma current maximum parallel or antiparallel to the study toroidal field. In either case, the pulsed field quickly penetrates the plasma and the plasma resistivity estimated from the penetration time is about 100 times larger than the classical. A burst of energetic neutrals of approximately 1 μs duration was observed and the energy distribution had two components of the order of 1 keV and 0.1 keV in the antiparallel case. Doppler broadening measurement shows heating of ions to a temperature higher than 200 eV; however, the line profile is not always Maxwellian distribution. The X-rays disappear at the moment of applying the magnetic pulse and reappear about 100 μs later with an intensive burst, while both energy levels are the same (approximately 100 keV). (author)