Title:	Electron Cyclotron Heating of Plasmas
Authors:	Guest, Gareth
Keywords:	Electron Cyclotron Heating of Plasmas
Issue Date:	2009
Publisher:	Wiley-VCH
Description:	In the late 1950s as part of the International Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion Research Program, several small independent groups started investigating the possibility of using microwave power to create magnetically con fi ned, hot-electron plasmas. This process became know variously as electron cyclotron heating (ECH) or electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) in recognition of the key role played by resonant absorption of the microwave power at the electron gyrofrequency (often called the cyclotron frequency ). Of these, the group under R.A. Dandl at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory was unique in using continuous wave (cw) microwave power and large DC magnets to produce steady-state plasmas. Unlike pulsed discharges, this steady-state operation permitted ongoing adjustments of the gas pressure, microwave power, and magnetic fi eld strength as well as extensive diagnostic measurements of the plasma properties. By the early 1960s, it was clear that these plasmas could be operated in regimes that exhibited some remarkable properties. Although the plasmas were con fi ned in simple magnetic mirrors and theoretically predicted to be susceptible to large-scale plasma instabilities, it was foundthatiftheambientgaspressurewassuitablyadjustedtheycouldbeoperatedin completely stable, steady-state regimes. Moreover, they contained two or more distinct populations of electrons: a low-temperature group with temperatures of some 10s of electron volts together with high-temperature populations with temperatures in excess of 100 keV and kinetic pressures of at least 5% of the magnetostatic pressure of the con fi ning magnetic fi eld. Dandl s group devoted the next two decades to an intense study of a sequence of increasingly powerful and sophisticated embodiments of these remarkable ECH plasmas.
URI:	http://10.6.20.12:80/handle/123456789/76408
ISBN:	978-3-527-40916-7
Appears in Collections:	Chemistry

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