As the power available in the initial phase of the ITER operation will be limited, accessing the high confinement mode （H-mode） with low heating power will be a critical issue. In the recent experiment on EAST, the H-mode was obtained for the first time with lower hybrid current drive （LHCD） wave only. Reciprocating Langmuir probe measurements at the outer midplane showed that the electron density ne and electron tempel：ature Te in the scrape-off layer （SOL） were significantly reduced in the ELM-free phase, resulting in the increase of lower-hybrid wave （LHW） reflection. It was found that the power loss Ploss was comparable during the L-H transition, by comparing the adjacent L-mode and H-mode discharge. The Da emission, Te and ne decreased rapidly in the time scale of about 1 ms, and the radial electric field Er turned positive in this process near the last closed flux surface. Multiple L-H-L transitions were observed during a single shot when the applied LHW power was marginal to the threshold. The floating potential （Vf） had negative spikes corresponding with the Da signal, and Er oscillation evolved into several intermittent negative spikes just before the L-H transition. In some shots, dithering was observed just before the L-H transition.
Divertor plasma properties for lower single-null （LSN） configuration in EAST, under a water-cooling graphite wall condition, are presented. A typical shot is selected for analyzing electron temperature, density and power flux at targets. Both higher electron density and lower electron temperature are found at the inboard target, compared to those at the outboard target. A higher power flux is also found to be at the outboard target because of in-out asymmetries for LSN-shaped discharge.
A single-channel far-infrared （FIR） laser interferometer was developed to measure the line averaged electron density on the EAST tokamak. The structure of the single-channel FIR laser interferometer is described in detail. The evolution of density sawtooth oscillation was measured by means the FIR laser interferometer, and was identified by electron cyclotron emission （ECE） signals and soft X-ray intensity. The discharges with and without sawtooth were compared with each other in the Hugill diagram.
Ion＇s toroidal velocity, vt, in both the outermost 4 cm of the confined region and the scrap-off layer of Ohmic L-mode plasmas in EAST was measured using Mach probes. At about 1 cm inside the separatrix a local minimum in vt was observed, from which a cocurrent rotation increased both inwards and outwards. The radial width of the vt dip was 1 cm to 2 cm, and both the density and electron temperature profiles exhibited steep gradients at this dip position. It was observed in both divertor and limiter configurations. To find out its origin, the toroidal torques induced by neutral friction, neoclassical viscosity, collisional perpendicular shear viscosity, ion orbit loss and turbulent Reynolds stress were estimated using the measured parameters. Our results indicate that in this particular parameter regime the neutral friction was the dominant damping force. The calculated cocurrent toroidal torque by the neoclassical viscosity dominates over those from the collisional perpendicular shear viscosity, ion orbit loss and turbulent Reynolds stress. These results are potentially important for the understanding of boundary conditions for the intrinsic toroidal momentum in tokamak plasmas.
Intermittent convective transport at the edge and in the scrape-off layer （SOL） of EAST was investigated by using fast reciprocating Langmuir probe. Holes, as part of plasma structures, were detected for the first time inside the shear layer. The amplitude probability distribution function of the turbulence is strongly skewed, with positive skewed events （＂blobs＂） prevailing in the SOL region and negative skewed events （＂holes＂） dominant inside the shear layer. The statistical properties coincide with previous observations from JET. The generation mechanism of blobs and holes is also discussed. In addition burst structure and dynamics character of them are also presented.
In this work, population coefficients of hydrogen＇s n = 3 excited state from the hydrogen collisional-radiative （CR） model, from the data file of DEGAS 2, are used to calculate the photon emissivity coefficients （PECs） of hydrogen Balmer-α （n = 3 →n = 2） （Hα）. The results are compared with the PECs from Atomic Data and Analysis Structure （ADAS） database, and a good agreement is found. A magnetic surface-averaged neutral density profile of typical double-null （DN） plasma in EAST is obtained by using FRANTIC, the 1.5-D fluid transport code. It is found that the sum of integral Dα and Hα emission intensity calculated via the neutral density agrees with the measured results obtained by using the absolutely calibrated multi-channel poloidal photodiode array systems viewing the lower divertor at the last closed flux surface （LCFS）. It is revealed that the typical magnetic surface-averaged neutral density at LCFS is about 3.5×10^16 m^-3 .
