Efficient generation of closed magnetic flux surfaces in a large spherical tokamak using coaxial helicity injection

Phys Rev Lett. 2006 Oct 27;97(17):175002. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.175002. Epub 2006 Oct 27.

Abstract

A method of coaxial helicity injection has successfully produced a closed flux current without the use of the central solenoid in the NSTX device, on a size scale closer to a spherical torus reactor, for a proof-of-principle demonstration of this concept. For the first time, a remarkable 60 times current multiplication factor was achieved. Grad-Shafranov plasma equilibrium reconstructions are used to verify the existence of closed flux current. In some discharges the generated current persists for a surprisingly long time approximately 400 ms.