Coupling Of An ICRF Antenna To The Plasma In The Tokamak

Theoretical and experimental investigations on advanced Tokamak are the major concerns in present controlled fusion research. Studies on heating in plasma with RF waves are of great significance for the steady-state operation of the future nuclear fusion reactors and the high-performance operation of the plasmas. In this article, the coupling of an ICRF antenna to the plasma in the Tokamak is investigated. Some important results are as follows.The Maxwell equations in the vacuum and the fast magnetosonic waves equations in the plasma are resolved respectively, with the use of slab plasma model combined with a 3-D antenna model, by employing the method of full waves and a fourth-order Runge-Kutta numerically integrating scheme, on the condition that fast magnetosonic waves are absorbed completely in the plasma and the electromagnetic characters of the plasma are described with the dielectric tensor of "cool" plasma. The coupling power spectra and the coupling resistance of the antenna are obtained by numerically calculating. The results show that the radiation power of the antenna is concentrated in certain spectrum scope, that great differences exist in the radiation power of different spectra, and that the coupling resistance, which decides the coupling efficiency of antenna, is determined by geometrical size and the parameters of the plasma. Compared with the results got by using the 2-D antenna model, the currentresults are closer to the phenomena observed in the experimental investigations.