Roles of argon seeding in energy confinement and pedestal structure in JT-60U

The mechanism of improving energy confinement with argon seeding at high density has been investigated in JT-60U. Better confinement is sustained at high density by argon seeding accompanied by higher core and pedestal temperatures. The electron density profiles become flatter with increasing density in conventional H-mode plasmas, whereas peaked density profiles are maintained with argon seeding. Density peaking and dilution effects lower the pedestal density at a given averaged density. The pedestal density in the argon seeded plasmas, which is lower than that in plasmas with deuterium puff, enables the pedestal temperature to be higher, whereas the increase in the pedestal pressure with argon seeding is small. High pedestal temperature is a boundary condition for high core temperature through profile stiffness, which leads to better confinement with argon seeding. The density peaking is a key factor of sustaining better confinement in argon seeded H-mode plasmas. The radiative loss power density is predominantly enhanced in the edge region by argon puff. The role of argon seeding in the pedestal characteristics has also been examined. The pedestal width becomes larger continuously with edge collisionality, but is nearly independent of the presence of argon seeding. (paper)