A two-dimensional integral full-wave model is used to calculate poloidal forces driven by mode conversion in tokamak plasmas. In the presence of a poloidal magnetic field, mode conversion near the ion-ion hybrid resonance is dominated by a transition from the fast magnetosonic wave to the slow ion cyclotron wave. The poloidal field generates strong variations in the parallel wave spectrum that cause wave damping in a narrow layer near the mode conversion surface. The resulting poloidal forces in this layer drive sheared poloidal flows comparable to those in direct launch ion Bernstein wave experiments.

Control of plasma uniformity in a capacitive discharge using two very high frequency power sources

A computational scheme is developed which permits tractable calculation of three-dimensional full-wave solutions to the Vlasov-Maxwell equations under typical ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) experimental conditions. The method is unique in that power deposition to the plasma is determined via the anti-Hermitian part of a truncated warm plasma dielectric operator, rather than as the result of an assumed phenomenological collision frequency. The resulting computer code allows arbitrary variation of density, temperature, magnetic field and minority concentration in the poloidal plane by performing a convolution of poloidal modes to produce a coupled system of differential equations in the radial variable. By assuming no inhomogeneity along the toroidal axis, an inverse transform over kg is performed, yielding the global three-dimensional fast wave field solutions. The application of the code to TFTR-like plasmas shows a mild resonance structure in antenna loading related to the changing number of wavelengths between the antenna and the resonance layer.

Magnetically confined plasmas can contain significant concentrations of nonthermal plasma particles arising from fusion reactions, neutral beam injection, and wave-driven diffusion in velocity space. Initial studies in one-dimensional and experimental results show that nonthermal energetic ions can significantly affect wave propagation and heating in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies. In addition, these ions can absorb power at high harmonics of the cyclotron frequency where conventional two-dimensional global-wave models are not valid. In this work, the all-orders global-wave solver AORSA [E. F. Jaeger et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 195001 (2003)] is generalized to treat non-Maxwellian velocity distributions. Quasilinear diffusion coefficients are derived directly from the wave fields and used to calculate energetic ion velocity distributions with the CQL3D Fokker-Planck code [R. W. Harvey and M. G. McCoy, Proceedings of the IAEA Technical Committee Meeting on Simulation and Modeling of Thermonuclear Plasmas, Montreal, Canada, 1992 (USDOC NTIS Document No. DE93002962)]. For comparison, the quasilinear coefficients can be calculated numerically by integrating the Lorentz force equations along particle orbits. Self-consistency between the wave electric field and resonant ion distribution function is achieved by iterating between the global-wave and Fokker-Planck solutions.