Experimental Research on Lower Hybrid Current Drive in Superconducting Tokamak HT-7

Abstract

Fundamental experiments on lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) have been undertaken on HT-7 superconducting tokamak. The experiments on LHCD efficiency reveal its dependence on plasma density and the toroidal magnetic field. Furthermore, the experiments on HT-7 successfully demonstrate the ability for LHCD to sustain long pulse tokamak discharges, such as discharges with full non-inductive current drive for several seconds. The experimental study to improve plasma confinements by LHCD suggests that the improvement should be due to the change of current profile. It has also been demonstrated by the experiments that the lower hybrid wave may lead to an enhanced ionization of particles in the region where the wave is deposited.