EFDA-JET-PR(05)50

Measurement of the Instability Threshold for Toroidal Alfvén Eigenmodes in JET Plasmas with Forward and Reversed Magnetic Field

In this Letter we have investigated the effect of reversing the direction of the magnetic field and plasma current on JET, hence the ion B-drift direction, on the instability threshold of Toroidal Alfvén Eigenmodes (TAEs) with toroidal mode number (n) in the range n = 310. These modes are driven by MeV-energy protons produced by minority H(D) Ion Cyclotron Resonance Frequency heating. A larger fast ion drive is found to be required to destabilise the modes when the magnetic field and plasma current are reversed with respect to the usual JET configuration (i.e., when the ion B-drift is directed away from the divertor), with the difference decreasing for increasing n.
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EFDP05050 1.38 Mb