Experimental scalings of scrape-off layer particle flux width by outboard divertor Langmuir probes for deuterium and helium plasmas on EAST

Abstract

Abstract The scrape-off layer (SOL) power width (λq ) is an important parameter for predicting the heat load on divertor targets for future magnetically confined devices. Currently, the underlying physics for λq scaling is not fully understood. This paper extends the previous SOL particle flux width (λjs, λq ≈ λjs is assumed, js is the measured ion current density used as a proxy for particle flux) scaling measured by the inboard divertor Langmuir probes (Div-LPs) in deuterium plasmas (Liu et al 2019 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 61 045001) to the λjs scalings measured by the outboard Div-LPs in both deuterium and helium plasmas on EAST. A systematic method has been used to correct the upper-outer Div-LP measurements to reduce the measurement uncertainty of λjs . About 520 discharges are selected for the construction of six databases (H-mode, L-mode, and Ohmic for deuterium and helium plasmas) to scale λjs . Since the published λq scalings do not fit EAST λjs well in the databases, four separate λjs scalings are proposed using statistical method to minimize the scaling parameters. It is found that λjs has a robust scaling dependence on the plasma line-averaged density ( n ˉ e ) for both deuterium and helium plasmas and a strong positive scaling dependence on the divertor leg length (L div,leg). The scaling exponent of the stored energy agrees well with the previous λq /λjs scalings for deuterium plasmas. The near unity scaling exponents of edge safety factor and L div,leg reveal the importance of parallel connection length in determining λjs . The positive scaling dependence of λjs on n ˉ e and the 2 ∼ 4 times larger scaling amplitude compared with the published λq scalings probably indicate the turbulence broadening of λjs on EAST. The comparison of λjs for deuterium and helium plasmas using the constructed databases shows no significant difference. Statistical comparison of the normalized λjs with different ELM types suggests that the grassy-ELM λjs is slightly larger than the inter large-ELM (type-I ELM) λjs for both deuterium and helium plasmas.