Abstract. Potential and density/temperature fluctuation at L-H transition are measured by the heavy ion beam probe (HIBP) on JFT-2M. It has been observed that the time scale of potential change is as fast as 10-100 s when the input power ( Pin) is larger than the L-H threshold power ( Pth). When Pin Pth , the confinement is improved gradually step by step with sawteeth crashes accompanied with the decrease of potential. After a few sawteeth crashes, potential drops rapidly to the level of the ELM-free H-mode. From the gradual change of the potential with assuming that dEr/dr is a key to form and to sustain the transport barrier, the criterion of the dEr/dr is less than (1.2±0.4)×103kV/m2. At an ELM just before H-L transition, the potential inside the separatrix also shows the rapid positive jump. The time scale of the positive jump and its recover to its negative value is about 40sec and 150sec, respectively. Before the H-L transition, the time between ELMs and/or dithering transition becomes shorter and the plasma finally goes back to L-mode.
IAEA 2001