Threshold of parametric decay instability accompanying electron Bernstein wave heating in spherical tokamaks

Evgeniy Gusakov (1) , Alexander Surkov (1)

1 HTPPL - High Temperature Plasma Physics Laboratory

The parametric instability of upper hybrid wave decay into back scattered upper hybrid wave and lower hybrid wave is considered for conditions of inhomogeneous plasma of spherical tokamaks. The possibility of absolute instability is demonstrated and the corresponding threshold is determined. It is shown that the threshold power increases with pump frequency and electron temperature. Threshold power is estimated for typical parameters of experiment in MAST tokamak. It is shown that in this case parametrical reflection arises, if probing power exceeds 90W/cm^2, which gives 30 kW for a beam of 10 cm radius.

Mots clés: plasma; RF heating; Bernstein waves; spherical tokamak; parametric decay; instability

Domaines: Physique des plasmas [physics.plasm-ph]

Evgeniy Gusakov, Alexander Surkov. Threshold of parametric decay instability accompanying electron Bernstein wave heating in spherical tokamaks. 2005. ⟨hal-00001866v3⟩