Experiments on the hydrogen gas breakdown for plasma initiation in the KAERIT tokamak are described. The influence of the applied loop voltage, toroidal magnetic field, gas filling pressure, error magnetic field, and preionization is studied. It is co...
Experiments on the hydrogen gas breakdown for plasma initiation in the KAERIT tokamak are described. The influence of the applied loop voltage, toroidal magnetic field, gas filling pressure, error magnetic field, and preionization is studied. It is concluded that the magnitude of the error field is the most important factor for successful discharge initiation. The gas breakdown voltage becomes minumum when the external compensating field most effectively corrects the net error field. Even though preionization effect is not prominent, it is exhibited more easily in the case of worse confinement. Discharge initiation conditions experimentally determined are compared with those calcuated from a theoretical model. Some other unknown physical processes maintain the operation range somewhat narrower than predicted by the present theoretical model. However, this model is adequate for the breakdown phase of tokamaks.