In the system of electron cyclotron heating, highly overmoded, corrugated circular waveguides are used. To analyze propagating mode content in the waveguide, burn patterns of the thermal paper placed on the waveguide aperture are observed at several positions. Theoretical burn patterns are obtained by taking into account a nonlinear grayscale response of the thermal paper to the calculated power profiles. We have developed a new method of mode analysis by nonlinear optimization, which is based on an iterative error reduction of differences between observed and theoretical patterns. To examine the status of polarization, the transformation between hybrid modes and linearly polarized (LP) modes is derived. The method is applied to the 82.7-GHz transmission line connected with the gyrotron. The propagating wave is linear polarized and consists of [approximately]4% of the LP11 odd mode, [approximately]95% of the LP01 mode, and [approximately]1% of other modes. The calculated burn pattern is similar to the observed one, like a plateau. By using both center of power and weighted averages of the perpendicular wavenumber in these profiles, offset and tilting angles of an injecting electromagnetic beam to the waveguide entrance are inferred. These are verified to be consistent with the results by the coupling code of a Gaussian beam with hybrid modes.
Electron cyclotron heating (ECH) experiments with 200 kW and 400 kW gyrotrons at the frequency of 53.2 GHz have been performed in Compact Helical System (CHS). Microwave power from both gyrotrons is transmitted with quasi‐optical transmission line and highly focused on the mid‐plane of CHS. The main purpose of these experiments is to understand the heating and energy transport mechanisms in CHS at the low collisional regime. The combination of the magnetic field, focal position and polarization enables the investigation of the on/off axis local heating effect with fundamental and second harmonic ECH.
By using a lower hybrid current drive, changes in the amplitude and phase of reflected signals at the four-waveguide grill as well as decreases in the edge plasma density measured by double probes could be monitored. The influence of the plasma density and its gradient at the grill mouth on the coupling between waveguides and a plasma was investigated using a simplified linear grill theory based on a step plus ramp density model. It was confirmed from a comparison with the theoretical analysis that changes in waveguide coupling during current drive were mainly caused by a decrease of the density in the scrape-off plasma.
For the upper electron cyclotron wave launcher on the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER), the use of a 'remote steering antenna' based on the imaging properties of square waveguides is planned. To characterize launchers of this type, low-power experiments on a four-side corrugated square waveguide, with a scanning mirror at the input of the waveguide, were performed in the frequency range 140–160 GHz.It is shown that elliptical polarization, which is necessary for the electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD), can be transmitted without depolarization and that the usable steering range of the antenna is at least 20°.Low-power measurements demonstrate that mitre bends can be integrated into the waveguide, practically without extra loss. Detailed calorimetric measurements for this set-up confirm this statement for the polarization perpendicular to the scanning plane, whereas excess loss is measured for the parallel polarization. Various modifications of mitre bends are investigated and results are discussed.
This paper reports on the results of an experimental investigation into electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) using the fundamental O-mode in the large helical device (LHD). The aim of the experiment is to understand the mechanism of the selective excitation of the O-mode EC wave and, thereby, optimize the performance of the ECRH. The polarization angle and the ellipticity of the electric field of the incident high power millimetre waves were varied in the experiment using a pair of grating polarizers. The responses of the plasma stored energy and electron temperature were measured to evaluate the effects. The optimum values of the polarization angle and the ellipticity for the ECRH were identified experimentally. A simple model of power branching between the O- and X-modes is introduced in order to interpret the observed experimental results. Specific to the ECRH in the LHD configuration, the effect of magnetic shear in the plasma peripheral region is considered.
This paper presents an experiment in which the phase- and amplitude-flattened output of a 168 GHz gyrotron was converted into the HE/sub 11/ mode, the basic transmitting mode in corrugated waveguides, by means of an external matching box (MBOX) comprising two curved-surface mirrors. In estimating the coupling efficiency between the gyrotron output wave and the HE/sub 11/ mode, an improved method was proposed in which the reconstructed phase of the gyrotron output wave at four distances are averaged. From the phase reconstruction with averaging, it was found that 76% of the gyrotron output coupled into the HE/sub 11/ mode in a corrugated waveguide, while a coupling efficiency of 85% was calculated for an ideal gyrotron output. A detailed discussion on the MBOX performance as well as the accuracy of phase reconstruction shows that this low coupling efficiency is due to the nonideality of the actual gyrotron output and that designing the MBOX mirrors based on the actual measurement at the gyrotron window can improve the coupling efficiency.
In the Large Helical Device (LHD) programme, one of the key research issues is to enhance helical plasma performance through edge plasma control. For the first time in the LHD programme, the edge plasma control was performed with a local island divertor (LID) that is a closed divertor, utilizing an m/n = 1/1 island generated externally by which 20 small perturbation coils, and fundamental LID functions were demonstrated experimentally. It was found that the outward heat and particle fluxes crossing the island separatrix flow along the field lines to the rear of the divertor head, where carbon plates are placed to receive the heat and particle loads. Accordingly, high efficient pumping was demonstrated, which is considered to be the key in realizing high temperature divertor operations, resulting in an improvement in energy confinement. In this experiment, relatively good energy confinement is achieved in the high density regime at a magnetic axis position, Rax, of 3.75?m. Results of edge modelling are also presented by using the EMC3-EIRENE code.
