Modelling Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating and Fast Wave Current Drive in Tokamaks

Abstract: Fast magnetosonic waves in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies have the potential to heat plasma and drive current in a thermonuclear fusion reactor. A code, SELFO-light, has been developed to study the physics of ion cyclotron resonantheating and current drive in thermonuclear fusion reactors. It uses a global full wave solver LION and a new 1D Fokker-Planck solver for the self-consistent calculations of the wave field and the distribution function of ions.In present day tokamak experiments like DIII-D and JET, fast wave damping by ions at higher harmonic cyclotron frequencies is weak compared to future thermonuclear tokamak reactors like DEMO. The strong damping by deuterium, tritium and thermonuclear alpha-particles and the large Doppler width of fast alpha-particles in DEMO makes it difficult to drive the current when harmonic resonance layers of these ionspecies are located at low field side of the magnetic axis. At higher harmonic frequencies the possibility of fast wave current drive diminishes due to the overlapping of alpha-particle harmonic resonance layers. Narrow frequency bands suitable for the fast wave current drive in DEMO have been identified at lower harmonics of the alpha-particles. For these frequencies the effect of formation of high-energy tails in the distribution function of majority and minority ion species on the current drive have been studied. Some of these frequencies are found to provide efficient ion heating in the start up phase of DEMO. The spectrum where efficient current drive can be obtained is restricted due to weak electron damping at lower toroidal mode numbers and strong trapped electron damping at higher toroidal mode numbers. The width of toroidal mode spectra for which efficient current drive can be obtained have been identified, which has important implications for the antenna design.