Studies of the density limit of the lower-hybrid waves with microwave back-scattering

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K18303
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Nuclear fusion studies
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Tsujii Naoto 東京大学, 大学院新領域創成科学研究科, 助教 (20707351)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 核融合 / 球状トカマク / プラズマ / 低域混成波 / マイクロ波診断

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To investigate the propagation and absorption of lower-hybrid waves in the spherical tokamak plasma, we attempted to developed a microwave scattering diagnostic which can measure small density fluctuations of the lower-hybrid waves. We have newly developed a microwave scattering simulation to analyze the measurement result quantitatively, and to optimize the scattering diagnostic design. We have built two scattering diagnostics which are sensitive to different parameter spaces and attempted to detect LH waves, but we were not able to measure any signal above the noise floor during the project period. We will continue to improve the accuracy of our numerical simulations and develop a microwave diagnostic which can measure LH waves directly.

Free Research Field

核融合プラズマ