High-frequency fluctuation and EHO-like mode in the H-mode pedestal on the EAST tokamak

In the pedestal region of the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) during high confinement mode plasma operations with radio-frequency heating, two distinct fluctuations are observed: high-frequency fluctuations (HFFs) and edge harmonic oscillation-like (EHO-like) modes. The HFFs are characterized by intermittent fluctuations with a broadband frequency range of and a poloidal wave number () greater than . On the other hand, the EHO-like mode exhibits characteristics similar to magnetohydrodynamics (MHD)-like modes with n = 1−5 and lower poloidal wave numbers (). During the pedestal establishing phase following the L–H transition, a significant concurrent presence of HFF and EHO-like modes in high-density pedestal regions has been noted. In this phase, the EHO-like mode not only modulates the amplitude of the HFF but also engages in nonlinear interactions. The occurrence of EHO-like mode and HFF is associated with particle transport toward the divertor, though it is notably less than that caused by edge coherent modes. During the inter-edge localized mode (ELM) period, a significant decrease in the baseline is observed whenever the low frequency fluctuation (LFF) weakens and the HFF grows, prior to each large ELM. One possible explanation is that the rapid increase of shear stabilizes the LFF and destabilizes the HFF, which lowers the pedestal transport and enables the further growth of the pedestal until the onset of the ELM.