Electron Cyclotron Resonance Plasma Heating in a Flaring Magnetic Field Zone

Electron Cyclotron Resonance plasma heating as well as Ion Cyclotron Resonance are successfully applied on the ERIC stable isotope separation device, in operation at CEN‐Saclay. In this experiment, the plasma is created in the flaring magnetic field zone of a superconducting coil by ionizing the vapour issued from a sputtering plate (or a Joule oven), by electron cyclotron heating using 10, 18 or 29 GHz, 1.5 kW klystrons. A three‐fluid model has been developed in order to describe the plasma source. In a first step, the values of the absorbed HF power, appearing in the equation of electrons energy conservation have to be determined. For this purpose, a ray tracing model is used. The preliminary results of the calculation are presented in this paper. The electron distribution function is assumed to be Maxwellian. The temperature effects are taken into account in the dielectric tensor. The polarization is also determined at any point of the wave propagation in the plasma.