Investigation of electron cyclotron current drive efficiency on the J-TEXT tokamak

Abstract

Electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) efficiency research is of great importance for the neoclassical tearing mode (NTM) stabilization. Improving ECCD efficiency is beneficial for the NTM stabilization and the ECCD power threshold reduction. ECCD efficiency has been investigated on the J-TEXT tokamak. The electron cyclotron wave (ECW) power scan was performed to obtain the current drive efficiency. The current drive efficiency is derived to be approximately η 0 = (0.06–0.16) × 1019 A m−2 W−1 on the J-TEXT tokamak. The effect of the residual toroidal electric field has been included in the determination of the current drive efficiency, which will enhance the ECCD efficiency. At the plasma current of I p = 100 kA and electron density of n e = 1.5 × 1019 m−3, the ratio of Spitzer conductivity between omhic (OH) and ECCD phases is considered and the experimental data have been corrected. The correction results show that the current drive efficiency η 1 caused by the fast electron hot conductivity decreases by approximately 79%. It can be estimated that the driven current is approximately 24 kA at 300 kW ECW power.