Investigations of H-mode plasmas triggered directly by pellet injection in the DIII-D tokamak

P Gohil; L R Baylor; T C Jernigan; K H Burrell; T N Carlstrom

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.644

Investigations of H-mode plasmas triggered directly by pellet injection in the DIII-D tokamak

Phys Rev Lett. 2001 Jan 22;86(4):644-7. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.644.

Authors

P Gohil¹, L R Baylor, T C Jernigan, K H Burrell, T N Carlstrom

Affiliation

¹ General Atomics, P.O. Box 85608, San Diego, California 92186-5608, USA.

PMID: 11177902
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.644

Abstract

The transition from low-confinement (L-mode) to high-confinement (H-mode) plasmas has been directly produced by injecting frozen deuterium pellets in the DIII-D tokamak. H-mode transitions were produced at edge electron and ion temperatures below the L-mode values. This implies that a critical edge temperature is not necessary for H-mode transitions. The experimentally determined edge plasma parameters were well below those predicted by several theories of the H-mode transition to trigger the H-mode, indicating a need for revision of these theories.