Studies of drift waves in a toroidal heliac

Abstract

Low frequency, coherent density fluctuations have been studied for three typical magnetic configurations in the helical axis stellarator SHEILA using Langmuir probe techniques. The parametric dependence, the threshold magnetic field, the frequency spectrum and the spatial structure of the fluctuations are measured experimentally. Mode analyses are made in a magnetic coordinate system. Both the mode numbers thus obtained and the smallness of the directly measured values of k/sub ///(k perpendicular to /k/sub /// approximately 100) indicate a close correspondence between the helicity of the fluctuations and the field lines. These experimental results are consistent with a collisional drift wave model, derived from a linearized two-fluid theory, related to the heliac geometry. Density reduction associated with the fluctuations is clearly observed and is consistent with rough estimates of the cross-field particle flux due to the fluctuations.