Observation of rapid frequency chirping instabilities driven by runaway electrons in a tokamak

We report the first observation of chirping instabilities driven by runaway electrons (REs) in a tokamak. The instabilities are accessed during the post-disruption RE beam stage in a low density background plasma ( m-3) on DIII-D. The chirping instabilities are observed when a decelerating loop voltage is applied to the RE beam. The frequency chirping is detected in two distinct frequency bands: 0.1-10 MHz and 30-80 MHz. The mode frequency increases linearly when the toroidal magnetic field sensed by the RE beam increases. The frequency chirps by 0.3-2.4 MHz on a timescale of 1 ms. Modification of the RE distribution function is directly measured during the chirping in the low-frequency band consistent with the hole-clump model for frequency chirping. The low-frequency instabilities also correlate with an increase of intermittent RE loss from the plasma. These observations provide a novel experimental platform for fundamental studies of nonlinear chirping. They also support continued investigation of opportunities to utilize kinetic instabilities for RE mitigation in a tokamak reactor.