Radiative divertor experiments in DIII-D with D ₂ injection

Deuterium gas injected into ELMing H mode divertor discharges in the DIII-D tokamak typically reduced the total power at the divertor target ∼ 2 times and the peak heat flux ∼3 to 5 times with modest (< 10%) degradation in plasma energy confinement. The parameter range for the discharges investigated was: I _p = 1.0-2.0 MA, q ₉₅ ≈ 2.9-6.0 and total input power ≲20 MW. Most of this reduction in heat flux occurred at the sudden formation of a high density, highly radiating region located between the outboard divertor separatrix strike point and the X point. This divertor behaviour is associated with a 'partially detached' divertor plasma condition, which is referred to in this paper as the partially detached divertor (PDD) regime. With the onset of the PDD, typically at a line averaged density of 0.6 to 0.7 times the Greenwald density limit, an abrupt reduction in plasma electron pressure (≳4 times) was observed at the outboard divertor separatrix strike point; at the same time, however, only a modest (≲30%) change in the electron pressure was observed upstream near the outboard midplane separatrix. The data suggest that significant plasma momentum loss occurred between the high density, highly radiative region and the (downstream) divertor separatrix target. Plasma performance showed little degradation with the onset of the PDD regime. Deuterium injection made only modest changes in the temperature and density profile shapes near the midplane separatrix of the main plasma. The PDD approach is shown to be compatible with discharges operating at low safety factor (i.e. q ₉₅ ≅ 2.9) and to be effective in significantly reducing toroidal asymmetry in observed divertor plasma properties (e.g., heat flux). The potential for operating in a steady state has been demonstrated using feedback control of the neutral pressure outside the main plasma.