High Power Gyro-Devices for Plasma Heating and Other Applications

Abstract

Gyrotron oscillators are mainly used as high power millimeter wave sources for electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH), electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD), stability control and diagnostics of magnetically confined plasmas for generation of energy by controlled thermonuclear fusion. The maximum pulse length of commercially available 1 MW gyrotrons employing synthetic diamond output windows is 5 s at 110 GHz (CPI and JAERI-TOSHIBA), 12 s at 140 GHz (FZK-CRPP-CEA-TED) and 10 s at 170 GHz (GYCOM and JAERI-TOSHIBA), with efficiencies slightly above 30%. Total efficiencies of 45–50 % have been obtained using single-stage depressed collectors (SDC). The energy world record of 160 MJ (0.89 MW at 180 s pulse length and 140 GHz) at power levels higher than 0.8 MW has been achieved by the European FZK-CRPP-CEA-TED collaboration at FZK. Operation at the 1st and the 2nd harmonic of the EC frequency enables gyrotrons to act as medium power step-tunable mm- and sub-mm wave sources in the frequency range from 38 GHz (fundamental) to 889 GHz (2nd harmonic) for plasma diagnostics, EC plasma discharges for generation of multi-charged ions, high-frequency broadband electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and medical applications. Gyrotrons have also been successfully used in materials processing. Such technological applications require gyrotrons with the following parameters: f ≥ 24 GHz, Pout = 4–50 kW, CW, η ≥ 30%. Future applications which await the development of novel high-power gyro-amplifiers include high resolution radar ranging and imaging in atmospheric and planetary science as well as deep-space and specialized satellite communications and RF drivers for next-generation high-gradient linear accelerators (supercolliders). The present paper reviews the state-of-the-art and future prospects of gyro-devices and their applications.