Electromagnetic emissions in the radio frequency (RF) range are detected in the highconfinement-mode (H-mode) plasma using a fast RF spectrometer on the KSTAR tokamak. The emissions at the crash events of edge-localized modes (ELMs) are found to occur as strong RF bursts with dynamic features in intensity and spectrum. The RF burst spectra (obtained with frequency resolution better than 10 MHz) exhibit diverse spectral features and evolve in multiple steps before the onset and through the ELM crash: (1) a narrowband spectral line around 200 MHz persistent for extended duration in the pre-ELM crash times, (2) harmonic spectral lines with spacing comparable to deuterium or hydrogen ion cyclotron frequency at the pedestal, (3) rapid onset (faster than ~1 μs) of intense RF burst with wide-band continuum in frequency which coincides with the onset of ELM crash, and (4) a few additional intense RF bursts with chirping-down narrow-band spectrum during the crash. These observations indicate plasma waves are excited in the pedestal region and strongly correlated with the ELM dynamics such as the onset of the explosive crash. Thus the investigation of RF burst occurrence and their dynamic spectral features potentially offers the possibility of exploring H-mode physics in great detail.

A second electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) system has been installed on the KSTAR tokamak, toroidally separated by 1/16th of the torus from the first ECEI system. For the first time, the dynamical evolutions of MHD instabilities from the plasma core to the edge have been visualized in quasi-3D for a wide range of the KSTAR operation (B0 = 1.7∼3.5 T). This flexible diagnostic capability has been realized by substantial improvements in large-aperture quasi-optical microwave components including the development of broad-band polarization rotators for imaging of the fundamental ordinary ECE as well as the usual 2nd harmonic extraordinary ECE.

Experiments of electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECH) power scan in KSTAR tokamak clearly demonstrate that both the cut-off density for non-local heat transport (NLT) and the threshold density for intrinsic rotation reversal can be determined by the collisionality. We demonstrate that NLT can be affected by ECH, and the intrinsic rotation direction follows the changes of NLT. The cut-off density of NLT and threshold density for rotation reversal can be significantly extended by ECH. The poloidal flow of turbulence in core plasma is in the electron and the ion diamagnetic direction in ECH plasmas and high density OH plasma, respectively. The auto-power spectra of density fluctuation are almost the same in the outer region for both ECH and OH plasmas. On the other hand, in the core region of ECH plasmas, the power spectra of the density fluctuations are broader than those of OH plasma. All these observations in macroscopic parameters and micro fluctuations suggest a possible link between the macro phenomena and the structural changes in microfluctuations.

A dual-frequency microwave imaging reflectometry system was commissioned to measure both coherent and turbulent electron density fluctuations in KSTAR plasmas. Imaging of the density fluctuations is achieved with an array of 16 vertically aligned detectors and two X-mode probe beam frequencies (tunable over 78–92 GHz between plasma discharges). The system provides the capability of fluctuation measurements with poloidal wavenumbers (kθ) up to ∼3 cm−1 at the maximum sampling rate of 2 MHz. Following extensive laboratory tests, the system was further tested with known coherent density fluctuations during the precursor oscillation of the m/n = 1/1 internal kink mode. The phase information of the reflected beam was compared with the precursor oscillation of the electron temperature measured by an electron cyclotron emission (ECE) radiometer. Density fluctuation levels (δne/ne) at two radial positions separated by the inversion radius (inside and outside) were comparable to temperature fluctuation levels (δTe/Te) from ECE signals. Subsequently, two correlation analysis methods were applied to turbulent fluctuation measurements in a neutral beam heated L-mode plasma to determine the mean poloidal rotation velocities of density fluctuations at two radial positions. The measured mean poloidal velocities were ∼8.4 km s−1 at r/a ∼ 0.6 and ∼5 km s−1 at r/a ∼ 0.7 in the clockwise direction, which differed by 1–2 km s−1 with the projected poloidal velocities from the toroidal rotation velocity measured by charge exchange recombination spectroscopy.

Quasi-coherent (QC) modes, known as a type of the trapped electron mode (TEM) turbulence, have been measured in the outboard core region of low-density electron cyclotron resonant heating (ECH) injected and ohmically heated L-mode plasmas on the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device. It appears that QC modes of 20-60 kHz occur or strengthen with an increase of the electron temperature to ion temperature ratio, but weaken or are fully suppressed by increased density/collisionality. Toroidal rotation shear, which is strongly related to the density/collisionality, also seems to stabilize the QC modes. Linear gyrokinetic simulations indicate that TEM is the most unstable mode at low densities where the QC modes are observed for both the ECH and ohmic plasmas. At high densities where the QC modes are suppressed, the most unstable mode is the ion temperature gradient (ITG) mode for the ECH plasmas but still TEM for the ohmic plasmas. In the ECH plasmas, it is found that the direction of the core toroidal intrinsic rotation is gradually reversed from the co-current to counter-current direction and the QC mode is suppressed as the line-averaged density increases, which can be explained by the transition of dominant micro-turbulence (TEM to ITG). However, in the ohmically heated plasmas, the acceleration of the core toroidal rotation is not fully explained by the TEM-ITG transition since the direction of the core toroidal rotation is counter-current direction when the QC mode is observed. Furthermore, the core toroidal rotation is accelerated to the counter-current direction even the line-averaged density decreases. Published by AIP Publishing. https://doi.