Fokker-planck study of tokamak electron cyclotron resonance heating

A Fokker－Planck study is carried out for tokamak electron cyclotron resonance heating by writing the quasi-linear diffusion operator into a form adaptive to the collision operator and considering the wave absorption characteristics of both the O-mode and the X-mode in different magnetic surfaces. Though the Fokker－Planck code is non-relativistic in nature, however, if the relativistic resonance condition for the nearly perpendicularly propagating waves is treated suitably, we can obtain correct results. The energy loss mechanism through anomalous transport is also modelled using a suitable loss term. In the heating phase, the electron distribution deviates from the Maxwellian distribution substantially, which leads to non-linear absorption characteristics. The wave damping rate is non-linear and changes with time. The electron pressure is usually anisotropic under different conditions: p_{e⊥}/p_{e‖}>2 for different D_0 and τ_e.