Abstract In recent deuterium experiments on the large helical device (LHD), we succeeded in expanding the temperature domain to higher regions for both electron and ion temperatures. Suppression of the energetic particle driven resistive interchange mode (EIC) by a moderate electron temperature increase is a key technique to extend the high temperature domain of LHD plasmas. We found a clear isotope effect in the formation of the internal transport barrier in high temperature plasmas. A new technique to measure the hydrogen isotope fraction was developed in the LHD in order to investigate the behavior of the isotope mixing state. The technique revealed that the non-mixing and the mixing states of hydrogen isotopes can be realized in plasmas. In deuterium plasmas, we also succeeded in simultaneously realizing the formation of the edge transport barrier (ETB) and the divertor detachment. It is found that resonant magnetic perturbation plays an important role in the simultaneous formation of the ETB and the detachment. Contributions to fusion reactor development from the engineering point of view, i.e. negative-ion based neutral beam injector research and the mass balance study of tritium, are also discussed.