Broadening of microwave heating beams in the DIII-D tokamak by edge turbulence

We have demonstrated for the first time that turbulent plasma density fluctuations in the edge of the DIII-D tokamak are responsible for substantial broadening of an injected microwave beam by successful quantitative comparison between experimental observations and first principles 2D full-wave simu...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nuclear fusion 2023-03, Vol.63 (4)
Main Authors: Brookman, M. W., Holland, L. A., Thomas, M. B., Austin, M. E., Barada, K., Gentle, K. W., La Haye, R. J., Leddy, J. B., Petty, C. C., Rhodes, T. L., Yan, Z., Vann, R. G. L., Köhn-Seemann, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
experiments
microwave beam broadening
microwaves
Physics
plasma heating
plasma turbulence
simulations
tokamaks
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We have demonstrated for the first time that turbulent plasma density fluctuations in the edge of the DIII-D tokamak are responsible for substantial broadening of an injected microwave beam by successful quantitative comparison between experimental observations and first principles 2D full-wave simulations. The broadening of the beam has important implications for control of tokamak discharges through localized electron cyclotron deposition needed for eliminating magnetohydrodynamic instabilities. This new predictive capability is mandatory to design & operate present & future tokamaks in such a way that microwave heating schemes achieve their intended objectives.
ISSN:0029-5515