APPLIED PHYSICS

THE SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL JOURNAL


No. 6 Founded in 1994 Moscow 2008


Ion cyclotron resonance heating of a hydrogen plasma in the L-2M stellarator

A. I. Meshcheryakov, M. S. Berezhetskiy, A. E. Morozov, Yu. I. Nechaev
A. M. Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russia

   The radiation impedance of the poloidal antenna installed in the vacuum chamber of the L-2M stellarator is measured as a function of the mean density of a hydrogen plasma under ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) conditions. When the stellarator magnetic field was weaker than the cyclotron resonance field for high-frequency heating radiation at 20 MHz, it was found that up to ten toroidal resonance oscillation modes with different wavenumbers K=1-10 m-1 were excited in the plasma. Computer simulations of the generation and propagation of fast magnetosonic (FMS) waves reveal the excitation of precisely the same modes. It is confirmed that toroidal modes in a plasma can be excited by magnetic probes. By using model magnetic probe signals and by comparing them with the experimental signals, it is shown that toroidal modes are excited during the propagation of FMS waves in the direction of the stellarator magnetic field. PACS: 52.50.-b

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