Electron Bernstein Wave Heating and Emission in the TCV Tokamak

Electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) of high-density tokamak plasmas is limited because of reflections of the waves at so-called wave cutoffs. Electron Bernstein wave (EBW) heating (EBWH) via a double mode conversion process from ordinary (O)-mode, launched from the low field side, to extraordinary (X)-mode and finally to Bernstein (B)-mode offers the possibility of overcoming these density limits.

In this paper, the O-X mode conversion dependence on the microwave injection angle is demonstrated experimentally. The dependence on the injection angle is studied in high-density plasmas in H-mode, in the presence of magnetohydrodynamic activity, edge-localized modes, and sawteeth. The results of localized heat deposition at an overdense location are presented, demonstrating EBWH for the first time via the O-X-B mode conversion process in a standard aspect-ratio tokamak. The results of global and local power deposition are compared with ray-tracing calculations. Moreover, a temperature increase due to EBWH is observed.

Initial EBW emission measurements with a newly installed ECRH reception launcher are presented. The inverse double mode conversion process B-X-O is observed by measuring the emission for several frequencies at an optimum angle.