ICRH of JET and LHD Majority Ions at Their Fundamental Cyclotron Frequency

Abstract

Results of the experimental studies of ICRH at the fundamental cyclotron frequency of the majority deuterons in JET plasmas with near‐tangential deuteron neutral beam injection (NBI) are presented. 1D, 2D and 3D ICRH modeling indicated that several ITER relevant mechanisms of heating may occur simultaneously in this heating scheme: fundamental ion cyclotron resonance heating of majority and beam D ions, impurity ion heating and electron heating due to Landau damping and TTMP. These mechanisms were studied in JET experiments with a ∼90% D, 5% H plasma including traces of Be and Ar. Up to 2MW of ICRH power was applied at 25 MHz to NBI heated plasmas. In most of the discharges the toroidal magnetic field strength was 3.3T, but in one it was equal to 3.6T. The E+ component of the electric field governs the ion cyclotron heating of not too fast particles. The Doppler shifted RF absorption of the beam deuterons away from the cold resonance at which E+ is small was exploited to enhance the RF power absorption efficiency. Fundamental ICRH experiments were also carried out in LHD hydrogen plasma with high energy hydrogen NBI. ICRH was performed at 38MHz with injected power <1 MW. The effect of fundamental ICRH was clearly demonstrated in both machines.