Excitation, propagation, and damping of electron Bernstein waves in tokamaks

Abstract

The conventional ordinary O-mode and the extraordinary X-mode in the electron cyclotron range of frequencies are not suitable for core heating in high-β spherical tokamak plasmas, like the National Spherical Torus Experiment [M. Ono, S. Kaye, M. Peng et al., in Proceedings of the 17th International Atomic Energy Agency Fusion Energy Conference (International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, 1999), Vol. 3, p. 1135], as they are weakly damped at high harmonics of the electron cyclotron frequency. However, electron Bernstein waves (EBW) can be effective for heating and driving currents in spherical tokamak plasmas. Power can be coupled to EBWs via mode conversion of either the X-mode or the O-mode. The two mode conversions are optimized in different regions of the parameter space spanned by the parallel wavelength and wave frequency. The conditions for optimized mode conversion to EBWs are evaluated analytically and numerically using a cold plasma model and an approximate kinetic model. From geometric optics ray tracing it is found that the EBWs damp strongly near the Doppler-broadened resonance at harmonics of the electron cyclotron frequency.