Oblique electron-cyclotron-emission radial and phase detector of rotating magnetic islands applied to alignment and modulation of electron-cyclotron-current-drive for neoclassical tearing mode stabilization

TL;DR

This paper presents a two-channel oblique ECE radiometer on DIII-D that localizes magnetic islands and modulates electron cyclotron current drive in real-time for improved neoclassical tearing mode stabilization.

Contribution

It introduces a novel oblique ECE diagnostic system that directly modulates ECCD in phase with island rotation, enhancing stabilization efficiency.

Findings

Oblique ECE signals effectively localize magnetic islands.

Real-time modulation of ECCD synchronized with island O-point.

Radial alignment checked via phase difference between channels.

Abstract

A two channel oblique electron cyclotron emission (ECE) radiometer was installed on the DIII-D tokamak and interfaced to 4 gyrotrons. Oblique ECE was used to toroidally and radially localize rotating magnetic islands and so assist their electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) stabilization. In particular, after manipulations operated by the interfacing analogue circuit, the oblique ECE signals directly modulated the current drive in synch with the island rotation and in phase with the island O-point, for a more efficient stabilization. Apart from the different toroidal location, the diagnostic view is identical to the ECCD launch direction,which greatly simplified the real-time use of the signals. In fact, a simple toroidal extrapolation was sufficient to lock the modulation to the O-point phase. This was accomplished by a specially designed phase shifter of nearly flat response over the 1-7kHz range. Moreover, correlation analysis of two channels slightly above and below the ECCD frequency allowed checking the radial alignment to the island, based on the fact that for satisfactory alignment the two signals are out of phase.