Experimental observation of turbulence transition and a critical gradient threshold for trapped electron mode in tokamak plasmas

Abstract

In HL-2A and J-TEXT ohmic confinement regimes, an electrostatic turbulence with quasi-coherent characteristics in spectra of density fluctuations was observed by multi-channel microwave reflectometers. These quasi-coherent modes (QCMs) were detectable in a large plasma region (r/a∼0.3−0.8). The characteristic frequencies of QCMs were in the range of 30–140 kHz. The mode is rotated in the electron diamagnetic direction. In the plasmas with QCMs, trapped electron mode (TEM) was predicted to be unstable by gyrokinetic simulations. The combined experimental results show that the TEM is survived in the linear ohmic confinement regime of plasmas. The quasi-coherent TEM was replaced by broad-band fluctuations when the plasma transits from linear to saturated ohmic confinement regime. The observation was strongly related to the turbulence transition from TEM to ion temperature gradient mode. A critical gradient threshold for TEM excitation in electron temperature gradient was directly found. The effect of TEM on density profile peaking was presented.