Suppression of plasma fluctuations in the transition to the improved-confinement regime when the current is raised rapidly in the FT-2 tokamak

Collective scattering of CO2-laser radiation is used to study the microturbulence of the plasma in the FT-2 tokamak when the current is rapidly raised, while the magnetic-field shear is varied appreciably. The experiment exhibited suppression of the plasma fluctuations, the appearance time of which was correlated with the transition of the discharge to the improvedconfinement regime. The resulting data are evidence that the suppression of the oscillations occurred predominantly in the central zone of the tokamak, and a suppression-extending phenomenon or hysteresis is detected. The evolution of the spectral characteristics of the fluctuations during the suppression is analyzed, using model calculations of the magnetic-field shear.