First experimental observation of "Staircase" high confinement mode in tokamak plasma
Abstract In magnetically confined nuclear fusion, the achievement of ignition necessitates the tokamak plasma in a high confinement state known as H-mode. A major challenge encountered in the standard H-mode is the abrupt collapse of its ultrathin edge layer. Here, we report a first experimental demonstration that a stable H-mode can be sustained by a staircase plasma profile. The basic physical picture is: by staircasing the plasma profile, the potential free energy stored in one single large edge layer is distributed into multiple mesoscale layers throughout the entire plasma volume. Consequently, the large scale edge collapse is converted into small scale desynchronized fluctuations, effectively reducing the risk of violent relaxation event. This finding uncovers a new benign high confinement regime of the tokamak plasma.
Authors
- W. Y. Zhai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5477-7339)
- Zhe Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3778-7452)
- Z.B. Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7640-9844)
- X.X. He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1088-4845)
- W.L. Zhong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8217-9400)
- Guoliang Xiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7475-7098)
- Y. Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1411-1257)
- Yihan Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1947-2206)
- Yiren Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8080-8338)
- Zhiyi Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6762-9332)
- A.S. Liang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4922-9853)
- Zeyu Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3932-9244)
- Wei Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9382-6295)
- T.F. Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3820-5821)
- Rui Ke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0117-0098)
- M. Choi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2825-6484)
- G.Q. Dong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4289-4060)
- Xinliang Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1342-2858)
- Xin Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8690-4275)
- Na Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7949-5330)
- Guangzhou Hao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2310-6134)
- Jinbang YUAN
- Weice Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5584-1210)
- Yifei 逸飞 LIU 刘
- Yifeng Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0368-9566)
- Min Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3059-7026)
- Yu Zhou
- Lei Xue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4948-095X)
- Shaobo Gong
- Yuqi Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-9114-8743)
- Wei Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5109-966X)
- Yihang Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7068-8708)
- Xiaogang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-4509-5741)
- YANG Shuosu
- Yu He
- ZHOU Yujie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3251-781X)
- LI Zhengji
- Chao Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9953-7606)
- Liang Liu
- Jiquan Li
- B Li
- Min Jiang
- Xiao Quan Ji
- Zhibin Guo
- Zhuo Wang
Institutions
- Southwest Research Institute (US)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- Harbin Institute of Technology (CN)
- Fudan University (CN)
- Korea Institute of Fusion Energy (KR)
- Institute of Plasma Physics (CN)
- Institute of Modern Physics (CN)
- Southwestern Institute of Physics (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nuclear Fusion
- Published
- 2026-11-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/aebcf9
- Primary Topic
- Magnetic confinement fusion research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00