Résumé

This paper reports on the results of recent experiments performed on the JET tokamak on toroidal Alfvén eigenmodes (TAEs) with toroidal mode number (n) in the range up to |n|=7. The stability properties of these medium-nTAEs are investigated experimentally using a set of compact in-vessel antennas, providing a direct and real-time measurement of the frequency, damping rate and amplitude for each individual toroidal mode number. The measurements, reported here, of the damping rate (γ/ω) for these medium-n modes were obtained during a deuterium to helium to hydrogen changeover experimental campaign, and are used to infer the effect of the plasma effective isotopic composition (AEFF) on the stability properties of these medium-n TAEs. We find that the damping rate of n=1 TAEs decreases approximately as γ/ω∼1/AEFF as reported previously, but only for modes whose frequency is close to the centre of the n=1 toroidal gap and for density and current profiles giving an open gap structure. Conversely, for n>=3 TAEs we find that their damping rate approximately increases as γ/ω∼AEFF.

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