Cross-field plasma transport and main-chamber recycling in diverted plasmas on Alcator C-Mod

TLDR

Cross‑field particle transport rises steeply with SOL distance, dominating the main‑chamber recycling regime in Alcator C‑Mod where most plasma particles re‑enter the chamber walls instead of the divertor, implying that a tightly baffled divertor may fail to control neutral density and thus increase charge‑exchange heat losses and wall sputtering. The regime occurs when the flux‑surface‑averaged neutral density exceeds a critical threshold, making divertor outflow insufficient and forcing particle fluxes to grow with SOL distance; equivalently, when the cross‑field plasma flux across a surface surpasses a critical value. The regime is intrinsically linked to anomalous cross‑field transport, with measured effective diffusivities near the separatrix rising sharply with collisionality and convected heat fluxes increasing, indicating a critical density or collisionality beyond which a steady‑state plasma cannot be sustained even without radiation.

Abstract

Cross-field particle transport increases sharply with distance into the SOL and plays a dominant role in the `main-chamber recycling' regime in Alcator C-Mod, a regime in which most of the plasma particle efflux recycles on the main-chamber walls rather than flows into the divertor volume. This observation has potentially important implications for a reactor: contrary to the ideal picture of divertor operation, a tightly baffled divertor may not offer control of the neutral density in the main-chamber such that charge exchange heat losses and sputtering of the main-chamber walls can be reduced. The conditions that give rise to the main-chamber recycling regime can be understood by considering the plasma-neutral particle balance: when the flux surface averaged neutral density exceeds a critical value, flows to the divertor can no longer compete with the ionization source and particle fluxes must increase with distance into the SOL. This critical neutral density condition can be recast into a critical cross-field plasma flux condition: particle fluxes must increase with distance into the SOL when the plasma flux crossing a given flux surface exceeds a critical value. Thus, the existence of the main-chamber recycling regime is intrinsically tied to the level of anomalous cross-field particle transport. Direct measurement of the effective cross-field particle diffusivities Deff in a number of ohmic L mode discharges indicates that Deff near the separatrix strongly increases as plasma collisionality increases. Convected heat fluxes correspondingly increase, implying that there exists a critical plasma density (or perhaps collisionality) beyond which no steady state plasma can be maintained, even in the absence of radiation.