The bifurcation nature of the electrostatic structure is studied in the toroidal helical plasma of the Compact Helical System ͑CHS͒ ͓K. Matsuoka et al., Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research, Nice, 1988 ͑International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1989͒, Vol. 2, p. 411͔. Observation of bifurcation-related phenomena is introduced, such as characteristic patterns of discrete potential profiles, and various patterns of self-sustained oscillations termed electric pulsation. Some patterns of the electrostatic structure are found to be quite important for fusion application owing to their association with transport barrier formation. It is confirmed, as is shown in several tokamak experiments, that the thermal transport barrier is linked with electrostatic structure through the radial electric field shear that can reduce the fluctuation resulting in anomalous transport. This article describes in detail spatio-temporal evolution during self-sustained oscillation, together with correlation between the radial electric field and other plasma parameters. An experimental survey to find dependence of the temporal and spatial patterns on plasma parameters is performed in order to understand systematically the bifurcation property of the toroidal helical plasma. The experimental results are compared with the neoclassical bifurcation property that is believed to explain the observed bifurcation property of the CHS plasmas. The present results show that the electrostatic property plays an essential role in the structural formation of toroidal helical plasmas, and demonstrate that toroidal plasma is an open system with a strong nonlinearity to provide a new attractive problem to be studied.

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A 200 keV heavy ion beam probe (HIBP) on the compact helical system heliotron/torsatron uses a newly proposed method in order to control complicated beam trajectories in nonaxisymmetrical devices. As a result, the HIBP has successfully measured potential profiles of the toroidal helical plasma. This article will describe the results of the potential profile measurements, together with the HIBP system and procedures to realize the method.

Fishbone-like burst modes (FBs) and toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes (TAEs) excited by energetic ions were observed for the first time in CHS heliotron/torsatron plasmas heated by co-injected neutral beams, where the rotational transform is increased by the induced beam driven current. FBs of m = 3/n = 2 (where m, n are the poloidal and toroidal mode numbers) induce a pulsed increase in the energetic ion loss flux. FBs of m = 2/n = 1 induce sawtooth oscillations in the latter half of a discharge where the plasma β becomes high. Only when the beam velocity exceeds about half of the central Alfvén velocity and the net plasma current is induced to the required level are TAEs with n = 1 and n = 2 excited; these are localized in the plasma core region, where the magnetic shear is appreciably reduced by the net plasma current. So far, TAE induced energetic ion loss has not been observed.