Study of near scrape-off layer (SOL) temperature and density gradient lengths with Thomson scattering

Improvements to the Thomson scattering diagnostic have enabled the study of near scrape-off layer (SOL) decay lengths in the 2014 ASDEX Upgrade experimental campaign. A database of H-mode discharges has been studied using a two-line fit method for the core and log-linear fit for the near SOL region under both attached and detached divertor conditions. SOL electron temperature T_e profiles have been found to have a radial exponential decay distribution which does not vary poloidally, consistent with the two-point model. In attached H-mode regimes, a log-linear regression shows that the SOL upstream dataset has the same main parametric dependencies as the scaling inferred from downstream Infrared camera measurements. A simple collisional relation from two-point model is found to best relate the upstream decay lengths and downstream divertor power widths. The SOL T_e gradient length appears to be independent of T_e pedestal parameters, but may correlate with the pedestal electron pressure parameters. Both the pedestal and SOL density and T_emperature scale lengths are linearly correlated with an almost constant gradient ratio, η_e. The smaller gradient ratio η_e and the fact that the Spitzer-Härm model is more valid, agrees with the studied plasma lying in the collisional regime. A transition to flat SOL ne profiles, previously reported for L-mode plasmas in many machines, has been observed in AUG detatched H-mode regimes. When the flattening of density profile happens in H-mode detached plasmas, the broadening of near SOL T_e decay length λ_Te,u also appears which may be good news for future machines.