Abstract. Bifurcation nature of potential profile of a toroidal helical plasma is investigated in the Compact Helical System (CHS), using a heavy ion beam probe. The measurements reveal that there exist three main branches of potential profiles in electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) heated plasmas with low density of ne 0.5×1013cm- 3. The branches with higher central potential exhibit a rather strong radial electric field shear that should result in fluctuation reduction and formation of transport barrier. Lissajous expression is useful to extract the bifurcation characteristics of potential structure.
IAEA 2001