Roles of argon seeding in energy confinement and pedestal structure in JT-60U

Urano, Hajime; Nakata, Motoki; Aiba, Nobuyuki; Kubo, Hirotaka; Honda, Mitsuru; Hayashi, Nobuhiko; Yoshida, Maiko; Kamada, Yutaka; JT-60 Team

Physics picture of improving energy confinement with argon seeding at high density has been investigated in JT-60U. Better confinement is sustained at high density by argon seeding accompanied by higher core and pedestal temperatures. Peaked density profiles are kept with argon seeding. Density peaking and dilution effects lower the pedestal density at a given averaged density. The pedestal density in the argon seeded plasmas which is relatively lower than that in a single deuterium puff enables the pedestal temperature to be higher. The density peaking is a key factor of sustaining better confinement in argon seeded H-mode plasmas.