Alfvenic behaviour of alpha particle driven ion cyclotron emission in TFTR

Abstract

Ion cyclotron emission (ICE) has been observed during D-T discharges in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR), using RF probes located near the top and the bottom of the vacuum vessel. Harmonics of the alpha cyclotron frequency ( Omega a,) evaluated at the outer midplane plasma edge are observed at the onset of the beam injection phase of TFTR supershots and persist for approximately 100-250 ms. These results are in contrast with observations of ICE in JET, in which harmonics of Omega a evolve with the alpha population in the plasma edge. Such differences are believed to be due to the fact that newly born fusion alpha particles are super-Alfvenic near the edge of JET plasmas, while they are sub-Alfvenic near the edge of TFTR supershot plasmas. In TFTR discharges with edge densities such that newly born alpha particles are super-Alfvenic, alpha cyclotron harmonics are observed to persist. These results are in qualitative agreement with numerical calculations of growth rates due to the magnetoacoustic cyclotron instability