Effect of impurity source locations on up-down asymmetry in impurity distributions in the ergodic layer of large helical device

•Impurity emission from the ergodic layer of LHD have strong up-down asymmetries.•Emission profiles with different impurity sources are measured by VUV spectroscopy.•CII, CIII, CIV, NeVII, NeVIII, ArVII, ArVIII, and WVI exhibit the asymmetry. A space-resolved spectroscopy using a 3m normal incidence vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) spectrometer was developed to measure the VUV emission profiles in wavelength range of 300–3200Å from impurities in the edge plasmas in Large Helical Device (LHD). The edge plasma of the LHD is characterized by stochastic magnetic fields with three-dimensional structure intrinsically formed by helical coils called the “ergodic layer”. The VUV spectroscopy has revealed that intensity profiles of the impurity emission from the ergodic layer have strong up-down asymmetries, namely, the emission intensities are quite different between top and bottom plasma edges. Observations of the up-down asymmetries are summarized on the following impurity line emissions: (1) CII 1335.71Å (2s-2p), CIII 977.02Å (2s-2p), and CIV 1548.20Å (2s-2p) from intrinsic carbon impurity ions sputtered from the carbon divertor plates, (2) NeVII 465.22Å (2s-2p), NeVIII 770.41Å (2s-2p), ArVII 585.75Å (3s-3p), and ArVIII 700.24Å (3s-3p) from Ne or Ar ions introduced in plasmas by gas puffing, and (3) WVI 639.68Å (5d-6p) from W ions introduced in plasmas by pellet injection.