Absolute measurements of poloidal rotation velocity with the accuracy up to 1 km/s ͑2 pm in wavelength͒ were done using charge exchange spectroscopy in a large helical device. Radial profiles of the absolute Doppler shift of charge exchange emission with a beam are obtained from spectra measured with four sets of optical fiber arrays that view downward and upward at the poloidal cross section with and without neutral beam injection. By arranging the optical fiber from four arrays close to each other at the entrance slit, the apparent Doppler shift due to aberrations of the spectrometer and due to interference of the cold component ͑the charge exchange between He-like oxygen and thermal neutrals 8 pm from the charge exchange emission with a beam͒ can be eliminated from the measurements. The measured poloidal rotation velocity is 1-3 km/s in the electron diamagnetic direction at half of the plasma minor radius.

Remarkable progress in the physical parameters of net-current free plasmas has been made in the Large Helical Device (LHD) since the last Fusion Energy Conference in Chengdu, 2006 (O.Motojima et al., Nucl. Fusion 47 (2007. The beta value reached 5 % and a high beta state beyond 4.5% from the diamagnetic measurement has been maintained for longer than 100 times the energy confinement time. The density and temperature regimes also have been extended. The central density has exceeded 1.0×10 21 m -3 due to the formation of an Internal Diffusion Barrier (IDB). The ion temperature has reached 6.8 keV at the density of 2×10 19 m -3 , which is associated with the suppression of ion heat conduction loss. Although these parameters have been obtained in separated discharges, each fusion-reactor relevant parameter has elucidated the potential of net-current free heliotron plasmas. Diversified studies in recent LHD experiments are reviewed in this paper.

Recent large helical device experiments revealed that the transition from ion root to electron root occurred for the first time in neutral-beam-heated discharges, where no nonthermal electrons exist. The measured values of the radial electric field were found to be in qualitative agreement with those estimated by neoclassical theory. A clear reduction of ion thermal diffusivity was observed after the mode transition from ion root to electron root as predicted by neoclassical theory when the neoclassical ion loss is more dominant than the anomalous ion loss. Neoclassical ion transport is important in stellarator plasmas, because the helical ripple losses are comparable to or sometimes even higher than the anomalous losses in contrast to those in tokamaks. The crucial issues of neoclassical ion transport are (1) the reduction of ion thermal diffusivity due to a large positive radial electric field in the electron root [1][2][3], and (2) the reduction of ion thermal diffusivity due to the optimization of the magnetic field structure (s optimization) [3][4][5][6]. However, there has been no experimental study to test these issues on the neoclassical ion transport in stellarator plasmas. This is because the transition of the radial electric field from small negative (ion root) to large positive (electron root) was observed only in plasmas with the assistance of electron cyclotron heating (ECH), where electron heating is dominant [7][8][9][10][11]. The ion temperature is much lower than the electron temperature because ions are heated only by the energy exchange between ions and electrons. In these experiments, the significant increase of electron temperature and a clear reduction of electron thermal diffusivity were observed in the plasma core in the electron root. However, no reduction of ion thermal diffusivity was observed because of the lack of direct ion heating. There have been no experimental results to show the improvement of ion transport in the electron root, although a significant improvement of ion transport (rather than the electron transport) is predicted by the neoclassical theory [6]. This paper describes the experimental results of the neoclassical feature of ion transport for the first time, the reduction of ion thermal diffusivity due to the transition to the large positive electric field (electron root), and/or the optimization of the magnetic field structure (s optimization).The large helical device (LHD) [12] is a Heliotron device (poloidal period number L 2, and toroidal period number M 10) with a major radius of R ax 3.5 4.1 m, an average minor radius of 0.6 m, and magnetic field up to 3 T. The radial electric field ͑E r ͒ is derived from the poloidal and toroidal rotation velocity and pressure gradient of neon impurity measured with charge exchange spectroscopy [13] at the midplane in LHD (vertically elongated cross section) using a radial force balance. The radial force balance equation can be expressed as E r ͑en I Z I ͒ 21 ͑≠p I ͞≠r͒ 2 ͑y u B f 2 y f B u ͒, where B f and B u are toroidal a...

The energy confinement and thermal transport characteristics of net current free plasmas in regimes with much smaller gyroradii and collisionality than previously studied have been investigated in the Large Helical Device (LHD). The inward shifted configuration, which is superior from the point of view of neoclassical transport theory, has revealed a systematic confinement improvement over the standard configuration. Energy confinement times are improved over the International Stellarator Scaling 95 by a factor of 1.6 ±0.2 for an inward shifted configuration. This enhancement is primarily due to the broad temperature profile with a high edge value. A simple dimensional analysis involving LHD and other medium sized heliotrons yields a strongly gyro-Bohm dependence (τEΩ ∝ ρ*-3.8) of energy confinement times. It should be noted that this result is attributed to a comprehensive treatment of LHD for systematic confinement enhancement and that the medium sized heliotrons have narrow temperature profiles. The core stored energy still indicates a dependence of τEΩ ∝ ρ*-2.6 when data only from LHD are processed. The local heat transport analysis of discharges dimensionally similar except for ρ* suggests that the heat conduction coefficient lies between Bohm and gyro-Bohm in the core and changes towards strong gyro-Bohm in the peripheral region. Since the inward shifted configuration has a geometrical feature suppressing neoclassical transport, confinement improvement can be maintained in the collisionless regime where ripple transport is important. The stiffness of the pressure profile coincides with enhanced transport in the peaked density profile obtained by pellet injection.

Alfvén eigenmodes destabilized by energetic particles in Heliotron J, a low magnetic shear helical axis stellarator/heliotron with four toroidal equilibrium field periods, are investigated with MEGA, a hybrid simulation code for energetic particles interacting with a magnetohydrodynamic fluid. The objectives of this study are to validate the MEGA simulation results on Alfvén eigenmodes in Heliotron J, and to clarify the properties of Alfvén eigenmodes. The experimentally observed global Alfvén eigenmode (GAE) was reproduced with MEGA simulations based on the experimental bulk plasma temperature and density profiles. Beside GAE, GAE was also observed with lower amplitude and linear growth rate. The frequency and spatial location of GAE are close to those of the experimentally observed energetic particle mode (EPM). For GAE, it was found that the three-dimensional spatial profile of the GAE was primarily composed of n = 2 harmonics while the contribution from the other toroidal mode numbers such as n = 2 ± iNfp was weak, where ‘i’ and ‘Nfp’ are arbitrary integer and toroidal field period, respectively. This indicates that the coupling of harmonics with the same toroidal mode number through toroidicity is dominant for the GAE spatial profile, and the coupling with the different toroidal mode numbers through helicity and bumpiness has minor effects. For GAE, the coupling of harmonic through toroidicity is weaker than that of GAE. The non-linear evolutions of the GAE and GAE destabilized by energetic particles with a bump-on-tail distribution and a slowing-down distribution were compared. Weak dependence of the linear growth rate for both and modes on charge-exchange time were implied.