Mainz 2022 – scientific programme

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P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 19: Poster II

P 19.10: Poster

Thursday, March 31, 2022, 16:00–17:30, P

ECRH in early plasma formation — •Albert Johansson and Pavel Aleynikov — Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Wendelsteinstraße 1, 17491 Greifswald

Electron Cyclotron Resonant Heating (ECRH) is important for the operation of current and future fusion devices, and is the main plasma heating mechanism in the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator. Although ECRH at high plasma temperatures and densities is routinely used in experiments and understood theoretically, a complete theoretical description of ECRH at the early stages of plasma formation (breakdown) has yet to be derived. Among the critical questions is the possibility of using higher--harmonics during startup in W7-X and effect of the ECRH-assisted startup in ITER.

In current work we seek to determine the minimum microwave beam power necessary to achieve breakdown, i.e., plasma formation, in conditions similar to the W7-X stellarator. We aim to accurately describe the cyclotron--wave interaction in the early stages of plasma formation, including both beam parameters and magnetic field structure.

Here, a fully relativistic integratable Hamiltonian system for an obliquely propagating beam in a much larger homogeneous magnetic field is derived. It is used to find the non--linear particle trajectories, and thus their energy gain, for various beam parameters.