Fast-Wave Current Drive in a Toroidal Plasma

J. Goree; M. Ono; P. Colestock; R. Horton; D. McNeill; H. Park

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.55.1669

Fast-Wave Current Drive in a Toroidal Plasma

J. Goree, M. Ono, P. Colestock, R. Horton, D. McNeill, and H. Park

Phys. Rev. Lett. 55, 1669 – Published 14 October 1985

Abstract

Fast-wave current drive is demonstrated in the Princeton ACT-I toroidal device. The fast Alfvén wave, in the range of high ion-cyclotron harmonics, produced 40 A of current from 1 kW of rf power coupled into a plasma by a fast-wave loop antenna. This wave excites a steady current by damping on the energetic tail of the electron distribution function in the same way as lower-hybrid current drive, except that fast-wave current drive is appropriate for higher plasma densities.

Received 26 June 1985

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.55.1669

Authors & Affiliations

J. Goree^*, M. Ono, P. Colestock, R. Horton^†, D. McNeill, and H. Park

Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544

^*Current address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Ia. 52242.
^†Current address: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, Cal. 94550.