A quasiperiodic Er oscillation at a frequency of <4 kHz, much lower than the geodesic-acoustic-mode frequency, with a modulation in edge turbulence preceding and following the low-to-high (L-H) confinement mode transition, has been observed for the first time in the EAST tokamak, using two toroidally separated reciprocating probes. Just prior to the L-H transition, the Er oscillation often evolves into intermittent negative Er spikes. The low-frequency Er oscillation, as well as the Er spikes, is strongly correlated with the turbulence-driven Reynolds stress, thus providing first evidence of the role of the zonal flows in the L-H transition at marginal input power. These new findings not only shed light on the underlying physics mechanism for the L-H transition, but also have significant implications for ITER operations close to the L-H transition threshold power.

The fast electron flux driven by Lower Hybrid Wave (LHW) in the scrape-off layer (SOL) in EAST is analyzed both theoretically and experimentally. The five bright belts flowing along the magnetic field lines in the SOL and hot spots at LHW guard limiters observed by charge coupled device and infrared cameras are attributed to the fast electron flux, which is directly measured by retarding field analyzers (RFA). The current carried by the fast electron flux, ranging from 400 to 6000 A/m 2 and in the direction opposite to the plasma current, is scanned along the radial direction from the limiter surface to the position about 25 mm beyond the limiter. The measured fast electron flux is attributed to the high parallel wave refractive index n jj components of LHW. According to the antenna structure and the LHW power absorbed by plasma, a broad parallel electric field spectrum of incident wave from the antennas is estimated. The radial distribution of LHW-driven current density is analyzed in SOL based on Landau damping of the LHW. The analytical results support the RFA measurements, showing a certain level of consistency. In addition, the deposition profile of the LHW power density in SOL is also calculated utilizing this simple model. This study provides some fundamental insight into the heating and current drive effects induced by LHW in SOL, and should also help to interpret the observations and related numerical analyses of the behaviors of bright belts and hot spots induced by LHW. V C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

Integrated studies of the scaling of divertor power footprint widths with plasma current in Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) L-mode plasmas are carried out through experiments and modeling. The divertor power widths, which consist of the scrape-off layer power decay length λq and the heat spreading S, are calculated from the measurements of divertor Langmuir probes (div-LPs) and scrape-off layer plasma simulation (SOLPS). A strong inverse scaling of both λq (mm) and S (mm) from the div-LP with plasma current Ip (MA) is demonstrated, with the regressions being λq=4.37Ip−1.04±0.075 and S=2.31Ip−0.997±0.047. However, a much weaker inverse scaling of λq with Ip is shown by the measurement of outer mid-plane reciprocating probes, which gives λq,RP=6.56Ip−0.31±0.056. It indicates that the connection length may have played a stronger role in the negative scaling of λq with Ip than radial transport. A similar conclusion can also be drawn from a comparison of the simulation of the plasma current scan with a set of fixed radial transport and another set of coefficient modified by Ip. This indicates that plasma configuration with a longer connection length is a better L-mode operational scenario for diverted tokamaks.