The purpose of this study is the investigation of the non-linear plasma response of transport due to stochastic effects. On the Large Helical Device, perturbation coils create a resonant magnetic perturbation (RMP) with the m/n = 1/1 and 2/1 Fourier components. Depending on the plasma conditions, the perturbation either enhances or heals the natural m/n = 1/1 magnetic island. For the case of an amplified island the enhanced heat and particle transport across the island causes a rather significant reduction in the confinement. For a healed island, there is a small decrease in beta with increasing perturbation current. These changes coincide with an increasing width of the open stochastic volume at the plasma edge near the x-point. Systematic experiments are performed, changing the amplitude of the perturbation linearly with IRMP in the range from 0 to 2.7 kA. Two scenarios are investigated: first, the discharge is ramped up with an external perturbation already superimposed on the main magnetic field. Second, the external perturbation is applied to the plasma already ignited (similar to experiments with RMPs in tokamaks). As will be shown, there is a clear difference in the size of the 1/1 island and the dependence of ne and Te on the perturbation when comparing these two scenarios. A hysteresis is observed up to a certain amplitude of the external perturbation. The particle transport and confinement are affected substantially in the discharges with a pre-existing magnetic perturbation. Interestingly, a global reduction in Te and ne is observed above a certain value of perturbation current in both cases. However, for the same island width, the plasma reacts differently to the applied perturbation depending on the direction of the ramp. For ramp-downs, we observe steeper electron density and temperature gradients, which leads to better plasma performance.
The interaction between plasma rotation, stochastic fields and tearing mode excitation by external perturbation fields