Experiments on Hot-Electron ECRH in the Tandem Mirror Experiment-Upgrade

摘要

Experiments have begun on the Tandem Mirror Experiment Upgrade (TMX-U) using electron-cyclotron resonant heating (ECRH) to generate the hot electron populations required for thermal barrier operation (Energy E/sub eh/ approx. 50 keV, density n/sub eh/ < 5 x 10 exp 12 , and hot-to-cold fraction n/sub eh/n approx. 0.9). For this operation, rf power produced by 28-GHz gyrotrons is injected with extraordinary mode polarization at both fundamental and second harmonic locations. Our initial experiments, which concentrated on startup of the hot electrons, were carried out at low density (< 1 x 10 exp 12 cm exp -3 ) where Fokker-Planck calculations predict high heating efficiency when the electron temperature (T/sub e/) is low. Under these conditions, we produced substantial hot electron populations (diamagnetic energy > 400 J, E/sub eh/ in the range of 15 to 50 keV, and n/sub eh//n > 0.5). (ERA citation 08:022633)