Studies of Spectral Broadening of the Lower Hybrid Wave Line in the Current-Drive Regimes and Ion Heating at the FT-2 Tokamak

Abstract

The experiments at the FT-2 tokamak are described that were focused on clearing up the role of the parametric decay instabilities in decreasing the generation efficiency of the non-inductive current excited by the electromagnetic waves in the lower hybrid frequency range. The most discussed instability of such kind is the decay of the pump wave into the daughter high-frequency waves and the low-frequency ion–acoustic quasi-modes. The studies performed have shown that, under conditions of the FT-2 experiment, the ion–acoustic instability has no decisive effect on the decrease in the efficiency of the lower hybrid current drive.