Scattering of radio frequency waves by blob-filaments

摘要

Radio frequency waves used for heating and current drive in magnetic confinement experiments must traverse the scrape-off-layer (SOL) and edge plasma before reaching the core. The edge and SOL plasmas are strongly turbulent and intermittent in both space and time. As a first approximation, the SOL can be treated as a tenuous background plasma upon which denser filamentary field-aligned blobs of plasma are superimposed. The blobs are approximately stationary on the rf time scale. The scattering of plane waves in the ion-cyclotron to lower-hybrid frequency range from a cylindrical blob is treated here in the cold plasma fluid model. Scattering widths are derived for incident fast and slow waves, and the scattered power fraction is estimated. Processes such as scattering-induced mode conversion, scattering resonances, and shadowing are investigated.