The phenomena of island healing and configuration transition induced by high-power electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) have been investigated in the island divertor configuration on the J-TEXT tokamak. Experimental results reveal that the size of the edge open magnetic island with mode number m/n = 3/1 decreases substantially under specific ECRH conditions. This process, referred to as island healing, occurs when ECRH with a power of 500 ∼600 kW is deposited in the plasma core or when 250 kW of ECRH is deposited at = 0.5 a, where a is the minor radius. The reduction of the island width makes the island divertor ineffective and transition into the limiter configuration. A model incorporating the influence of ECRH on the scrape-off layer thermoelectric current is proposed to explain the observed changes in the edge magnetic topology of the island divertor configuration. These findings suggest that ECRH should be deposited at the plasma core with carefully controlled power to ensure the stable and compatible operation of ECRH and the island divertor configuration in tokamaks. The results can provide insights into achieving robust operation of an island divertor in tokamaks.
This paper investigates how high-power electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) can reduce the size of the edge magnetic island in the island divertor configuration on the J-TEXT tokamak. The results show that ECRH can 'heal' the island, making the divertor ineffective and transitioning to a limiter configuration. This suggests ECRH should be carefully controlled to ensure stable island divertor operation in tokamaks.