On the influence of alpha-particle cyclotron damping on the lower hybrid current drive

Some preliminary results of the influence of the cyclotron harmonic damping of lower hybrid waves by thermonuclearly produced alpha-particles are presented. Recently, the usefulness of the lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) in reactor regime was doubted in connection with this effect. The quasilinear change of the slope of the alpha-particle distribution function is taken into account. Analytical estimates are obtained showing that at a sufficiently high wave energy density the power absorped by alpha-particles saturates (in the approximation used). For the parameters of a hybrid reactor, the saturated power was found much lower than that computed from the linear theory. It seems, therefore, that, at least for hybrid reactor conditions, the alphaparticles need not represent a serious obstacle to LHCD. Some further aspects of this effect are discussed.The authors are grateful to Drs. R. Klima, V. A. Petrílka and J. Preinhealter for valuable discussions.     

Electron current drive by fusion-product-excited lower hybrid drift instability

We present first principles simulations of the direct collisionless coupling of the free energy of fusion-born ions into electron current in a magnetically confined fusion plasma. These simulations demonstrate, for the first time, a key building block of some "alpha channeling" scenarios for tokamak experiments. Spontaneously excited obliquely propagating waves in the lower hybrid frequency range undergo Landau damping on resonant electrons, drawing out an asymmetric tail in the electron parallel velocity distribution, which carries a current.     

Monte Carlo simulation of lower hybrid current drive in tokamaks

In this paper, we present a method for noninductive current drive studies based on three-dimensional simulation of test particle orbits. A Monte Carlo momentum diffusion operator is developed to model the wave-particle interaction. The scheme can be utilized in studies of current drive efficiency as well as in examining the current density profiles caused by waves with a finite parallel wave number spectrum and a nonuniform power deposition profile in a toroidal configuration space of arbitrary shape. Calculations performed with a uniform power deposition profile of lower hybrid waves for axisymmetric magnetic configurations having different aspect ratios and poloidal cross-section shape confirm the semianalytic estimates for the current drive efficiency based on the solutions of the flux surface averaged Fokker-Planck equation for configurations with circular poloidal cross section. The consequences of the combined effect of radial diffusion, magnetic trapping and radially nonhomogeneous power deposition and background plasma parameter profiles are investigated     

Effect of multijunction grill length on its lower hybrid current drive efficiency

The distance between the junction of subsidiary waveguides in the main waveguide and the grill mouth has an important influence upon the spectrum of radiated waves, the total reflection coefficient, the power distribution among the separate waveguides and the actual phases of incident waves. This effect is nearly as important as that of the phase shift between the adjacent waveguides and it is necessary to carry out optimization with respect to this parameter in the grill design.     

Particle pinch with fully noninductive lower hybrid current drive in Tore Supra

Recently, plasmas exceeding 4 min have been obtained with lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) in Tore Supra. These LHCD plasmas extend for over 80 times the resistive current diffusion time with zero loop voltage. Under such unique conditions the neoclassical particle pinch driven by the toroidal electric field vanishes. Nevertheless, the density profile remains peaked for more than 4 min. For the first time, the existence of an inward particle pinch in steady-state plasma without toroidal electric field, much larger than the value predicted by the collisional neoclassical theory, is experimentally demonstrated.     

Improved lower hybrid current drive efficiency with IBW heating in the HT-7 tokamak

Lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) efficiency in the HT-7 tokamak is observed to increase about 30% with ion Bernstein wave (IBW) heating. The current drive efficiency as high as has been reached in HT-7 thanks to an LHCD/IBW synergy. The IBWs are significantly coupled to the fast electrons produced by the lower hybrid waves, thus results in higher fast electron photon temperature in the combined LHCD + IBW scenario. The interaction of LHCD + IBW improved current drive efficiency.     

Hot electrical conductivity in lower hybrid current drive plasmas in the HT-7 tokamak

The interaction between the hot electrical conductivity and the residual electric field have been investigated in lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) experiments with non-zero loop voltage in the HT-7 tokamak. It has been found that the hot electrical conductivity contribute significantly to the current drive in partial non-inductively sustained plasmas. The hot electrical conductivities under different lower hybrid power levels and different parallel refractive indexes have been obtained. It is comparable to the Spitzer conductivity in high power LHCD experiments.     

Observation of zero current density in the core of jet discharges with lower hybrid heating and current drive

Simultaneous current ramping and application of lower hybrid heating and current drive (LHCD) have produced a region with zero current density within measurement errors in the core ( r/a< or =0.2) of JET tokamak optimized shear discharges. The reduction of core current density is consistent with a simple physical explanation and numerical simulations of radial current diffusion including the effects of LHCD. However, the core current density is clamped at zero, indicating the existence of a physical mechanism which prevents it from becoming negative.     

Characteristics of electron cyclotron resonance plasma formed by lower hybrid current drive grill antenna

A 3.7 GHz system, which is meant for LHCD experiments on ADITYA tokamak, is used for producing ECR discharge. The ECR discharge is produced by setting the appropriate resonance magnetic field of 0.13 T, with hydrogen at a fill pressure of about 5 × 10⁻⁵ Torr. The RF power, up to 10 kW (of which ∼50% is reflected back), with a typical pulse length of 50 ms, is injected into the vacuum chamber of the ADITYA tokamak by a LHCD grill antenna and is used for plasma formation. The average coupled RF power density (the RF power/a typical volume of the plasma) is estimated to be ∼5 kW/m³. When the ECR appears inside the tokamak chamber for the given pumping frequency (f = 3.7 GHz) a plasma with a density (n _e) ∼ 4 × 10¹⁶ m⁻³ and electron temperature ∼8 eV is produced. The density and temperature during the RF pulse are measured by sets of Langmuir probes, located toroidally, on either side of the antenna. H_α signals are also monitored to detect ionization. An estimate of density and temperature based on simple theoretical calculation agrees well with our experimental measurements. The plasma produced by the above mechanism is further used to characterize the ECR-assisted low voltage Ohmic start-up discharges. During this part of the experiments, Ohmic plasma is formed using capacitor banks. The plasma loop voltage is gradually decreased, till the discharge ceases to form. The same is repeated in the presence of ECR-formed plasma (RF pre-ionization), formed 10 ms prior to the loop voltage. We have observed that (with LHCD-induced) ECR-assisted Ohmic start-up discharges is reliably and repeatedly obtained with reduced loop voltage requirement and breakdown time decreases substantially. The current ramp-up rates also decrease with reduced loop voltage operation. These studies established that ECR plasma formed with LHCD system exhibits similar characteristics as reported earlier by dedicated ECR systems. This experiment also addresses the issue of whether ECR plasma formed with grill antenna exhibits similar behavior as that formed by single waveguide ECR antenna. Our experimental observations suggest that the characteristics of (LHCD system-induced) ECR-assisted Ohmic start-up discharges show similar properties, reported earlier with normal ECR-assisted Ohmic start-up discharges and hence LHCD system may be used as ECR system at reduced toroidal magnetic field for other applications like wall conditioning.      

Experiments on the propagation of lower hybrid waves in a toroidal plasma

The propagation of the lower hybrid waves is investigated in a toroidal afterglow plasma by using a pair of the half-turned strip lines. It is confirmed that experimental results of propagation in a toroidal plasma well agree with calculated ones from the cold plasma theory.     

Complete stabilization of neoclassical tearing modes with lower hybrid current drive on COMPASS-D. RF teams

Lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) with modest powers ( approximately 10% of the total power input) has been used for the first time to completely stabilize performance limiting neoclassical tearing modes in many COMPASS-D tokamak discharges. The stabilizing effect in these experiments is consistent with a reduction in the free energy available in the current profile to drive tearing modes (i.e., the stability index, delta(')) resulting from favorable current gradients (from the LHCD driven current) around the rational surface.     

Self-reversal phenomena of toroidal current by reversing the external toroidal field in helicity-driven toroidal plasmas

In order to understand self-organization in helicity-driven systems, we have investigated the dynamics of low-aspect-ratio toroidal plasmas by decreasing the external toroidal field and reversing its sign in time. Consequently, we have discovered that the helicity-driven toroidal plasma relaxes towards the flipped state. Surprisingly, it has been observed that not only toroidal flux but also poloidal flux reverses sign spontaneously during the relaxation process. The self-reversal of the magnetic fields is attributed to the nonlinear growth of the n=1 kink instability of the central open flux.     

Interpretation of toroidal current and loop voltage temporal evolution during RF-current drive experiment on the T-7 tokamak

A simple analytical model is developed and solved to describe time evolution of the loop voltage and toroidal current when RF and inductive current drive take place simultaneously. A relation for the real value of the RF driven current has been obtained under these conditions. Comparison with experimental data from T-7 tokamak allows to estimate the role of the skin effect during RF current drive.The authors would like to thank A. Ya. Kislov for the basic data on the T-7 tokamak transformer. They are also indebted to V. V. Parail and G.V. Pereverzev for many clarifying discussions.     

Caldeira-Leggett model, Landau damping, and the Vlasov-Poisson system

The Caldeira-Leggett Hamiltonian describes the interaction of a discrete harmonic oscillator with a continuous bath of harmonic oscillators. This system is a standard model of dissipation in macroscopic low temperature physics, and has applications to superconductors, quantum computing, and macroscopic quantum tunneling. The similarities between the Caldeira-Leggett model and the linearized Vlasov-Poisson equation are analyzed, and it is shown that the damping in the Caldeira-Leggett model is analogous to that of Landau damping in plasmas (Landau, 1946 [1]). An invertible linear transformation (Morrison and Pfirsch, 1992 [18]; Morrison, 2000 [19]) is presented that converts solutions of the Caldeira-Leggett model into solutions of the linearized Vlasov-Poisson system.     

Analysis of Landau damping in radially inhomogeneous plasma column

The Landau damping behavior in a cylindrical inhomogeneous warm magnetized plasma waveguide has been studied.The radial inhomogeneity for different characteristic lengths(L0) with strong spatial dispersion has been taken into account.The analyses have been considered for two limits ωce ωpe and ωce ωpe. Due to the radial inhomogeneity of the plasma, all essential equations for studying the Landau damping are calculated in the Bessel–Furrier and differential Bessel–Furrier expansions. The dependence of Landau damping on the inhomogeneity, temperature and external magnetic field for electrostatic modes is scrutinized and described in detail through numerical calculations. The associated numerical results are presented and discussed.