Recent Progress in Plasma Control Studies on the Improvement of Plasma Performance in Heliotron J

Recent progress in plasma control studies on the improvement of plasma performance in Heliotron J is reviewed. The supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI) fueling is successfully applied to Heliotron J plasma. A supersonic H2-beam is effectively injected to increase fueling efficiency and generate a peaked density profile. Local fueling with a short-pulsed SMBI can increase the core plasma density and avoid the degradation arising from edge cooling. Second harmonic electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) experiments were conducted by launching a focused Gaussian beam with -0.05 ? N|| ? 0.6. Results show that the EC driven current is determined not only by N|| but also by local magnetic field structure where the EC power is deposited. Detailed analysis of the observed N|| and B dependences is in progress with a ray-tracing simulation using the TRAVIS code. Fast ion velocity distribution was investigated using fast protons generated by ion cyclotron resonant frequency (ICRF) minority heating. For the standard configuration in Heliotron J, charge exchange neutral particle analysis (CX-NPA) measurements show higher effective temperature of fast minority protons in the on-axis resonance case compared to that in the HFS (high field side) off-axis resonance case. However, the increase in bulk ion temperature in the HFS resonance case is larger than that in the on-axis resonance.