Radiation profile measurements for edge transport barrier discharges in Compact Helical System using AXUV photodiode arrays

The formation of edge transport barrier (ETB) has recently been found in Compact Helical System (CHS) plasmas heated by co-injected neutral beam injection (NBI) with strong gas puffing. This regime is characterized by the appearance of the steep gradient of the electron density near the edge following the abrupt drop of hydrogen Balmer alpha (Hα) line intensity. In addition to single channel pyroelectric detector as a conventional bolometer, we have employed unfiltered absolute extreme ultraviolet (AXUV) photodiode arrays as a simple and low-cost diagnostic to investigate spatial and temporal variations of radiation emissivity in the ETB discharges. A compact mounting module for a 20 channel AXUV photodiode array including an in-vacuum preamplifier for immediate current-voltage conversion has successfully been designed and fabricated. Two identical modules installed in the upper and lower viewports provide 40 lines of sight covering the inboard and outboard sides within the horizontally elongated cross section of the CHS plasma with wide viewing angle. Although spectral uniformity of the detector sensitivity of the AXUV photodiode is unsatisfied for photon energies lower than 200 eV, it has been confirmed that the signals of AXUV photodiode and pyroelectric detector in the ETB discharges show roughly the same behavior except for the very beginning and end of the discharges. The results of the measurements in typical ETB discharges show that the signals of all the channels of the AXUV photodiode arrays begin to increase more rapidly at the moment of the transition than before. The rate of the increase is larger for the edge viewing chords than for the center viewing ones, which indicates the flattening of the radiation profile following the change in the electron density profile after the formation of the ETB. However, the signals for the edge chords tend to saturate after several tens of milliseconds, while they still continue to increase for the central chords until the back transition, which results in the peaking of the radiation profile near the plasma center. The possibility of accumulation of impurity ions will be discussed based on the electron density and temperature profile measured by Thomson scattering diagnostic. In the marginal discharge conditions near the power or density threshold for the ETB formation, we have often observed ELM-like spikes of the Hα emission intensity. The fast time response of the AXUV photodiode allows us to observe the dynamic behaviors of radiation profiles during such activities, which will also be presented. (author)