Electron temperature and density profiles of C-2W FRC plasmas in different experimental configurations

One of the experimental goals of the recently constructed C-2W advanced field-reversed configuration (FRC) [1] experiment is to increase the plasma electron temperature. The unique design of C-2W includes additional inner divertors on both sides of the central confinement vessel, each with bias electrodes and flexible field configuration that determines the plasma edge condition. C-2W also has increased total neutral beam power, higher pulsed formation fields for creating hotter colliding compact toroids at startup, and the ability to ramp up the equilibrium field during FRC confinement. The C-2W Thomson scattering system, built in parallel with the C-2W device, plays a critical role in characterizing C-2W plasma performance by measuring the electron temperature and density profile evolution for both the FRC core plasma and the open field region jet plasma. The effects of different experimental configuration on plasma electron temperature will be presented and discussed.

[1] M.W. Binderbauer et al., AIP Conf. Proc. 1721, 030003 (2016)