Plasma heating and improvement of lower hybrid current drive efficiency by electron cyclotron waves on EAST

¹ Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, P. R. China
² CEA, IRFM, Saint Paul-lez-Durance, France

^* Corresponding author: xhd@ipp.ac.cn

Published online: 23 February 2023

Abstract

The electron cyclotron (EC) system on EAST consists of four gyrotrons with a frequency of 140 GHz (second harmonic of the extraordinary mode), each of which is expected to deliver a maximum power of 1.0 MW and be operated at 100-1000 s pulse length. Significant progress in long-pulse operation has been achieved recently, including the pulse duration up to 1056 s with EC power injected into plasma of 0.55 MW and the pulse duration of 310 s with EC power of 1.6 MW (output by 3 gyrotrons). High electron temperature (Te >12 keV) plasma measured by Thomson scattering was produced with the combination of EC and lower hybrid (LH) waves. It is found that the plasma heating effect depends on the EC power location greatly. By adjusting the EC power location, the plasma current profile can be modified. As a consequence of the increment of electron temperature by electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH), the lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) efficiency is improved, benefiting for the long-pulse operation. In addition, a synergy effect between EC and LH current drive was observed in steady-state operation on EAST.