The Wendelstein 7-X experiment is a concept test for properties of reactor relevant plasmas in advanced stellarators. Prominent features include a modular superconducting coil assembly, a five-fold toroidal symmetry, and a helical magnetic axis. Due to the optimization process, W7-X is characterized by a vacuum magnetic field configuration with smooth magnetic surfaces, improved magnetic field configuration with smooth magnetic surfaces, improved equilibrium properties with a weak dependence of rotational transform and shear on the plasma pressure β, good magneto-hydrodynamic stability properties due to magnetic well stabilization, reduced neoclassical transport losses and negligible bootstrap current in the long mean-free-path regime, good collisionless α-particle confinement in an equivalent reactor, and, as a technical aspect, good feasibility of the superconducting modular coils. W7-X will be heated by continuous electron cyclotron resonance heating and pulsed neutral beam injection and ion cyclotron resonance heating. The envisaged parameters are Te⩽10 keV, Ti⩽6 keV central densities ⩽3×1020 m−3 with an averaged 〈β〉⩽5%. Despite the complicated geometrical structure, all basic diagnostics are compatible with W7-X. Generally, diagnostic methods and applications in a stellarator are not different from those in tokamaks. However, special efforts are being made to equip the experiment with those diagnostics necessary to measure the quantities directly related with the optimization of the machine: the verification of the predicted magnetic topology and characterization of the configuration throughout the entire parameter range, the identification of equilibrium and stability, and the determination of the confinement properties. The article describes the strategy developed which assures that the detailed measurement needs of the W7-X experimental program can be met.

Thomson scattering is a widely used standard diagnostic for Te,ne measurements in fusion plasmas. Experience on W7-AS has shown, however, that during strong electron cyclotron resonance heating, the scattering spectra can be distorted by superthermal electrons. In addition, model calculations have shown that the distortion depends on the local magnetic field geometry. The Thomson diagnostic planned for W7-X provides for the first time, sufficient access to the vacuum vessel to probe several scattering geometries, allowing for scattering vectors parallel, perpendicular, and oblique with respect to the magnetic field. Furthermore, a detection system with high spectral resolution is foreseen so that there will be a good chance to reconstruct the two-dimensional electron distribution fe(v⊥,v∥).

An overview of the W7-X concept, parameters and planned diagnostics is given. W7-X allows access for all fusion plasma relevant diagnostics, despite its complex three-dimensional geometry resulting from the HELIAS (helical advanced stellarator) concept and its realization with superconducting coils. Special efforts have been made for diagnostics which are relevant for parameters related to the optimization of the configuration, e.g. very small Shafranov shift, reduced neoclassical transport losses in LMFP and plateau, small bootstrap current and good confinement of fast particles at high β. The island divertor concept needs exact local measurements in this region. Suitable diagnostics will be installed.

Electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) at the W7-AS stellarator is performed two systems of comparable heating power at 70 GHz (0.8 MW, 3 s) and 140 GHz (0.9 MW, 0.4 s). Experiments with 140 GHz open a new parameter window with high density operation up to 1.1 × 1020 m−3. H mode transitions were observed in high density discharges at 2.5 T and at lower density at 1.25 T. The operational window for the stellarator H mode with emphasis on the density and power threshold and the influence of gas puffing on the H transitions are discussed. Perturbation experiments with modulated ECRH power were performed to determine the heat transport and the power deposition profile. Density control is achieved in combined heating with neutral beam injection (NBI) despite the beam particle fuelling, whereas with NBI alone a steady density rise is observed. The impact of combined heating on the impurity confinement was investigated. Electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) was studied in different magnetic field configurations and the influence of trapped particles on the ECCD efficiency was examined experimentally and compared with theory.

The upgraded NB heating power on W7-AS allowed extension of the accessible parameter space. In first experiments, a remarkable increase of the ion temperatures was obtained. The results are discussed on the basis of a detailed transport analysis which confirms the neoclassical nature of the ion transport up to the 1 mfp regime. The maximum NB heating power was applied to investigate beta limits. Although beta values close to the predicted stability limit could be reached, no clear indication of a limit has been found so far. Several experimental observations on W7-AS point to the necessity of a divertor. The feasibility of a divertor making use of the natural islands in an optimized stellarator was investigated, and a possible solution for an island divertor on W7-AS is outlined.

Parameter scans in density, heating power and isotope mass have been carried out in W7-AS. ECRH at a frequency of 140 GHz has allowed to study the density scaling of the energy confinement time of ECRH plasmas up to densities of 1020 m−3. In power scans it has been tried to relate the power degradation of the energy confinement to a local plasma parameter. Transport analyses using power balance an heat wave techniques indicate that the transport coefficient does not depend on the electron temperature or related parameters. This observation can be reconciled with power degradation if the transport coefficient is formally allowed to vary with changes in the heating power on a faster than the diffusive time scale. Such a transport process describes also the observations in the dynamic phases following large changes in the heating power.

A review of experiments with ECRH- and NBI-heated plasmas in W7-AS is given. Global results of W7-AS are summarized. Particular emphasis is put on electron cyclotron current drive, comparative analysis of electron heat transport derived from power balance and perturbative studies, and particle transport under combined ECRH- and NBI-heating conditions. The role of the plasma boundary field configuration as a necessary condition for the existence of the H-mode in W7-AS is discussed and first observations of coherent global Alfven eigenmodes and turbulent temperature fluctuations in the plasma core are reported.

The local electron and ion heat transport as well as the particle and impurity transport properties in stellarators are reviewed. In this context, neoclassical theory is used as a guideline for the comparison of the experimental results of the quite different confinement concepts. At sufficiently high temperatures depending on the specific magnetic configuration, neoclassical predictions are confirmed by experimental findings. The confinement properties in the LMFP collisionality regime are discussed with respect to the next stellarator generation, for which at higher temperatures the neoclassical transport is expected to become more important.

The electron energy balance is analyzed for equivalent low-density electron cyclotron resonance heated (ECRH) discharges with highly peaked central power deposition in the stellarators W7-A [Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 28, 43 (1986)], L-2 [Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research, Berchtesgaden, 1976 (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1977), Vol. 2, p. 115] and W7-AS [Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research, Baltimore, 1982 (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1983), Vol. 3, p. 141]. Within the long mean-free path (LMFP) collisionality regime in stellarators, the neoclassical electron heat diffusivity χe can overcome the ‘‘anomalous’’ one. The neoclassical transport coefficients are calculated by the dkes code (Drift Kinetic Equation Solver) [Phys. Fluids 29, 2951 (1986); Phys. Fluids B 1, 563 (1989)] for these configurations, and the particle and energy fluxes are estimated based on measured density and temperature profiles. Neoclassical transport in the LMFP regime is minimum in W7-A and maximum in L-2, the standard configurations in W7-AS are in between. The radial electric field is estimated from the ambipolarity condition of only neoclassical particle fluxes. For these types of discharges in the quite different stellarator configurations, only the ‘‘electron root’’ exists in the innermost region, and, at the outer radii, only the ‘‘ion root.’’ In the region where both roots are found, a rather narrow shear layer in the poloidal plasma rotation is expected. Especially for W7-AS, a significant improvement of the neoclassical confinement is predicted in the ‘‘electron root’’ region. On the ‘‘ion root’’ side of the predicted ‘‘shear layer,’’ both the neoclassical energy and particle fluxes agree quite well with the experimental findings. At outer radii, the neoclassical fluxes are much lower. The predicted improvement for the ‘‘electron root’’ region is not found experimentally.

Dimensionally similar discharges and energy confinement of the W7-AS stellarator were investigated. The results presented, as well as other confinement properties of the net-current-free stellarator, are different from what is known from tokamaks. As expected from global scaling laws for stellerator confinement, the local transport coefficients of dimensionally similar discharges show a gyro-Bohm-like parameter dependence.

The theoretical and experimental development of stellarators has removed some of the specific deficiencies of this configuration, viz., the limitations in β, the high neoclassical transport, and the low collisionless confinement of α particles. These optimized stellarators can best be realized with a modular coil system. The W7-AS experiment [Plasma Phys. Controlled Fusion 31, 1579 (1989)] has successfully demonstrated two aspects of advanced stellarators, the improved equilibrium and the modular coil concept. Stellarator optimization will much more viably be demonstrated by W7-X [Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion Research, Proceedings of the 12th International Conference, Nice, 1988 (IAEA, Vienna, 1989), Vol. 2, p. 369], the successor experiment presently under design. Optimized stellarators seem to offer an independent reactor option. In addition, they supplement, in a unique form, the toroidal confinement fusion program, e.g., energy transport is anomalous in stellarators too, but possibly more easily understandable in the frame of existing theoretical concepts than in tokamaks.