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arXiv · 1608.07273

Quasi-optical theory of microwave plasma heating in open magnetic trap

A. G. Shalashov·A. A. Balakin·E. D. Gospodchikov·T. A. Khusainov
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Abstract

Microwave heating of a high-temperature plasma confined in a large-scale open magnetic trap, including all important wave effects like diffraction, absorption, dispersion and wave beam aberrations, is described for the first time within the first-principle technique based on consistent Maxwell's equations. With this purpose, the quasi-optical approach is generalized over weakly inhomogeneous gyrotrotropic media with resonant absorption and spatial dispersion, and a new form of the integral quasi-optical equation is proposed. An effective numerical technique for this equation's solution is developed and realized in a new code QOOT, which is verified with the simulations of realistic electron cyclotron heating scenarios at the Gas Dynamic Trap at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (Novosibirsk, Russia).

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A. G. Shalashov, A. A. Balakin, E. D. Gospodchikov, T. A. Khusainov. 2016-11-04. Quasi-optical theory of microwave plasma heating in open magnetic trap. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4967765

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