Excitation of (2,1) neoclassical tearing modes by mode coupling with (1,1) internal mode in EAST

Abstract

Neoclassical tearing modes (NTM) are observed in discharges with auxiliary heating LH+ICRF and LH only during H-mode in EAST. The m/n = 2/1 NTM is triggered by strongly coupling with an m/n = 1/1 internal mode. Here, LH and ICRF are the abbreviations of lower hybrid resonance heating and ion cyclotron resonance frequency heating, respectively. The mode number of the NTM is m/n = 2/1, where m is the poloidal mode number and n is the toroidal mode number. Just before the triggering of NTMs, an m/n = 1/1 internal mode appears in the soft x-ray emission at plasma centre when the intensity of hard x-ray (IHX) reaches a critical value. The mode, characterized by frequency chirping in the spectrum, may be related to suprathermal electrons produced by LH. The saturated magnetic island width wsat of the NTM is strongly correlated with poloidal βp. Normalized βN,onset and the magnetic island critical width wcrit increase with electron temperature Te.