Studies of impurity mode and ion temperature gradient mode in toroidal plasmas

The impurity mode and ηi mode driven by impurity ions with outwardly peaked density profiles, near the boundary of tokamak plasmas, and the ion temperature gradient, respectively, are studied in high-temperature toroidal plasmas. The gyrokinetic theory is applied and finite Larmor radius effects of both hydrogenic and impurity ions are included. It is found that the impurity mode is enhanced by the ion temperature gradient. In addition, the impurity ions with outwardly peaked density profiles are demonstrated to have destabilizing effects on the ηi mode. These two modes are strongly coupled to each other so that it is impossible to distinguish between them when both the driving mechanisms are strong enough to drive the corresponding mode unstable independently. The correlation of the results with nonlinear simulations and the experimental observations are discussed.