Initial fast wave heating and current drive experiments on the DIII-D tokamak

Heating and current drive experiments have been performed on the DIII-D tokamak using a 4-strap fast wave antenna at power up to 1.7 MW at 30--60 MHz. Minority heating experiments using D(H) showed effective wave absorption, confirming that the antenna was launching the fast wave. Experiments on the direct absorption of fast waves by electrons through Landau damping and transit-time magnetic pumping were performed at 60 MHz. These experiments showed effective heating of electrons, with a global heating efficiency comparable to that of neutral injection, even when the calculated single-pass dumping was as small as 5%. It is believed that effective multiple-pass damping is taking place. Fast wave current drive experiments were performed with a toroidally directional spectrum obtained by {pi}/2-phasing of the antenna straps. Although non-inductive currents of up to 160 kA were found, the magnitude of the non-inductive current did not decrease when the wave spectrum was reversed. These results are presently under investigation.