Continuous control over azimuthal flow and shear in the edge of the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) has been achieved using a biasable limiter which has allowed a careful study of the effect of flow shear on pressure-gradient-driven turbulence and transport in the LAPD. The LAPD rotates spontaneously in the ion diamagnetic direction; positive limiter bias first reduces, then minimizes (producing a near-zero shear state), and finally reverses the flow into the electron diamagnetic direction. Degradation of particle confinement is observed in the minimum shearing state and a reduction in the turbulent particle flux is observed with increasing shearing in both flow directions. Near-complete suppression of the turbulent particle flux is observed for shearing rates comparable to the turbulent autocorrelation rate measured in the minimum shear state. Turbulent flux suppression is dominated by amplitude reduction in low-frequency ($<10\mathrm{kHz}$) density fluctuations. An increase in fluctuations for the highest shearing states is observed with the emergence of a coherent mode which does not lead to net particle transport. The variations of density fluctuations are fit well with power laws and compare favorably to simple models of shear suppression of transport.

• Received 12 June 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.135002