Improved L-mode discharges using ion cyclotron resonance frequency heating on Tore Supra

Recent results of ion cyclotron minority heating have been obtained with an improved L-mode confinement, close to ELMy H-mode prediction, at relatively high density. The confinement exceeds the standard L-mode by a factor up to 1.7. The improvement of the confinement is observed in both electron and ion channels with reduction of heat diffusivities. This improved confinement regime presents some features similar to the results previously observed in many tokamaks: ALCATOR C-MOD [1] with ICRH, and radiation improved confinement (RI) mode with neutral beam injection in TEXTOR [2], TFTR [3], DIII-D [4].