Zonal flow generation in the improved confinement mode plasma and its role in confinement bifurcations

Abstract

Unstable fluctuations develop in the initially quiescent plasma in the improved confinement mode of the H-1 heliac when the radial electric field (Er) shear exceeds some critical value. These unstable Er shear-driven modes are shown to generate zonal-flow-like poloidally symmetric potential structures, similar to those generated in the low confinement mode (Shats M G and Solomon W M 2002 Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 045001). The structures modulate their parent waves, the background Er shear and the fluctuation-driven radial transport. The onset of zonal flows is observed as a precursor to the plasma confinement bifurcation to an even higher confinement regime.

We discuss the interband light tunneling in a two-dimensional periodic photonic structure, as studied recently in experiments for optically induced photonic lattices [Trompeter et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 053903 (2006)]. We identify the Zener tunneling regime at the crossing of two Bloch bands, which occurs in the generic case of a Bragg reflection when the Bloch index crosses the edge of the irreducible Brillouin zone. Similarly, higher-order Zener tunneling involves four Bloch bands when the Bloch index passes through a high-symmetry point on the edge of the Brillouin zone. We derive simple analytical models that describe the tunneling effect, and calculate the corresponding tunneling probabilities.