Ion cyclotron emission measurements during JET deuterium-tritium experiments

Abstract

In the course of the Preliminary Tritium Experiment in JET, where combined deuterium and tritium neutral beam injection generated a DT fusion power of 1.7 MW, ion cyclotron emission (ICE) was measured in the frequency range v ⩽ 180 MHz. The ICE spectra contain superthermal, narrow, equally spaced emission lines, which correspond to successive cyclotron harmonics of deuterons or alpha particles at the outer midplane, close to tile last closed flux surface at major radius R approximately 4.0 m. Above about 100 MHz the lines merge into a relatively intense continuum. The ICE signal fluctuates rapidly in time, and is extinguished whenever a large amplitude edge localized mode (ELM) occurs. In pure deuterium and mixed DT discharges ICE spectra are similar in form, but on changing from pure D to mixed D+T neutral beam injection at constant power, the intensity of the ICE rises in proportion to the increased neutron flux: this indicates that fusion alpha particles-and not beam ions-provide the free energy to generate ICE. The JET ICE database, which now extends over a range of six decades in signal intensity, shows that the time averaged ICE power increases almost linearly with total neutron flux. The rise and fall of the neutron flux during a single discharge is closely followed by that of the ICE signal, which is delayed by a time of the order of the fusion product slowing down time. This feature is well modelled by a TRANSP code simulation of the density of deeply trapped fusion products reaching the plasma edge. Calculations reveal a class of fusion products, born in the core, which make orbital excursions of sufficient size to reach the outer midplane edge. There, the velocity distribution has a ring structure, which is found to be linearly unstable to relaxation to obliquely propagating waves on the fast Alfven-ion Bernstein branch at all ion cyclotron harmonics. The paper shows how ICE provides a unique diagnostic for fusion alpha particles