Production of sheared flow during ion cyclotron resonance heating in tokamak plasmas

Abstract

An approach of producing the poloidal ion rotation by using ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) is presented in core tokamak plasmas. The mechanism employed here is inducing a poloidal density inhomogeneity by rf cyclotron heating and then destabilizing the anomalous Stringer spin-up. A criterion for destabilization of the poloidal ion rotation in the presence of a rf wave is given, which depends on the ratio of the characteristic time of inhomogeneous density formation to the ion collision time. The numerical results have shown that the poloidal ion rotation can be destabilized in the present ICRH power level.