Regimes of improved confinement and stability in DIII-D obtained through current profile modifications

Several regimes of improved confinement and stability have been obtained in recent experiments in the DIII-D tokamak by dynamically varying the toroidal current density profile to transiently produce a poloidal magnetic field profile with more favorable confinement and stability properties. A very peaked current density profile with high plasma internal inductance, [ell][sub i], is produced either by a rapid change in the plasma poloidal cross section or by a rapid change in the total plasma current. Values of thermal energy confinement times nearly 1.8 times the JET/DIII-D ELM-free H-mode thermal confinement scaling are obtained. The confinement enhancement factor over the ITER89-P L-mode confinement scaling, H, is as high as 3. Normalized toroidal beta, [beta][sub N], greater than 6%-m-T/MA and values of the product [beta][sub N]H greater than 15 have also been obtained. Both the confinement and the maximum achievable [beta] vary with [ell][sub i] and decrease as the current profile relaxes. For strongly shaped H-mode discharges, in addition to the current density profile peakedness, as measured by [ell][sub i] other current profile parameters, such as its distribution near the edge region, may also affect the confinement enhancement.