Plasma Heating and Current Drive Using Intense, Pulsed Microwaves

摘要

The use of powerful new microwave sources, e.g., free-electron lasers and relativistic gyrotrons, provide unique opportunities for novel heating and current-drive schemes in the electron-cyclotron and lower-hybrid ranges of frequencies. These high-power, pulsed sources have a number of technical advantages over conventional, low-intensity sources; and their use can lead to improved current-drive efficiencies and better penetration into a reactor-grade plasma in specific cases. The Microwave Tokamak Experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will provide a test for some of these new heating and current-drive schemes. This paper reports theoretical progress both in modeling absorption and current drive for intense pulses and in analyzing some of the possible complications that may arise, e.g., parametric instabilities and nonlinear self-focusing. 22 refs., 9 figs., 1 tab. (ERA citation 14:003997)