B. Labombard et al., Cross-field plasma transport and main-chamber recycling in diverted plasmas on Alcator C-Mod, NUCL FUSION, 40(12), 2000, pp. 2041-2060
Cross-field particle transport increases sharply with distance into the SOL
and plays a dominant role in the 'main-chamber recycling' regime in Alcato
r C-Mod, a regime in which most of the plasma particle efflux recycles on t
he main-chamber walls rather than floss into the divertor volume. This obse
rvation has potentially important implications for a reactor: contrary to t
he ideal picture of divertor operation, a tightly baffled divertor may not
offer control of the neutral density in the main-chamber such that charge e
xchange heat losses and sputtering of the main-chamber walls can be reduced
. The conditions that give rise to the main-chamber recycling regime can be
understood by considering the plasma-neutral particle balance: when the fl
ux surface averaged neutral density exceeds a critical value, flows to the
divertor can no longer compete with the ionization source and particle flux
es must increase with distance into the SOL. This critical neutral density
condition can be recast into a critical cross-field plasma flux condition:
particle fluxes must increase with distance into the SOL when the plasma fl
ux crossing a given flux surface exceeds a critical value. Thus, the existe
nce of the main-chamber recycling regime is intrinsically tied to the level
of anomalous cross-field particle transport. Direct measurement of the eff
ective cross-field particle diffusivities D-eff in a number of ohmic L mode
discharges indicates that D-eff near the separatrix strongly increases as
plasma collisionality increases. Convected heat fluxes correspondingly incr
ease, implying that there exists a critical plasma density (or perhaps coll
isionality) beyond which no steady state plasma can be maintained, even in
the absence of radiation.