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RF sheaths rectification can be the reason for operational limits for Ion Cyclotron Range of Frequencies (ICRF) heating systems via impurity production or excessive heat loads. To simulate this process in realistic geometry, the Self-consistent Sheaths and Waves for Ion Cyclotron Heating (SSWICH) code is a minimal set of coupled equations that computes self-consistently wave propagation and DC plasma biasing. The present version of its wave propagation module only deals with the Slow Wave assumed to be the source of RF sheath oscillations. However the ICRF power coupling to the plasma is due to the fast wave (FW). This paper proposes to replace this one wave equation module by a full wave module in either 2D or 3D as a first step towards integrated modelling of RF sheaths and wave coupling. Since the FW is propagative in the main plasma, Perfectly Matched Layers (PMLs) adapted for plasmas were implemented at the inner side of the simulation domain to absorb outgoing waves and tested numerically with tilted BD in Cartesian geometry, by either rotating the cold magnetized plasma dielectric tensors in 2D or rotating the coordinate vector basis in 3D. The PML was further formulated in cylindrical coordinates to account for for the toroidal curvature of the plasma. Toroidal curvature itself does not seem to change much the coupling. A detailed 3D geometrical description of Tore Supra and ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) antennas was included in the coupling code. The full antenna structure was introduced, since its toroidal symmetry with respect to the septum plane is broken (FS bars, toroidal phasing, non-symmetrical structure). Reliable convergence has been obtained with the density profile up to the leading edge of antenna limiters. Parallel electric field maps have been obtained as an input for the present version of SSWICH.

In the present paper, the perturbation of the launched power spectrum of the Lower Hybrid wave at the separatrix by electron density fluctuations in the scrape-off layer is investigated. Considering a slab geometry with magnetic field lines parallel to the toroidal direction, the full wave equation is solved using Comsol Multiphysics r for a fully active multi-junction like LH antenna made of two modules. When electron density fluctuations are incorporated in the dielectric tensor over a thin perturbed layer in front of the grill, it is shown that the power spectrum may be strongly modified from the antenna mouth to the plasma separatrix as the wave propagates. The diffraction effect leads to the appearance of multiple satellite lobes with randomly varying positions, a feature consistent with the recently developed model that has been applied successfully to high density discharges on the Tokamak Tore Supra corresponding to the large spectral gap regime [Decker J. et al. Phys. Plasma 21 (2014) 092504]. The perturbation is found to be maximum for the Fourier components of the fluctuating spectrum in the vicinity of the launched LH wavelength.

In tokamak fusion plasmas, coherent fluctuations in the form of blobs or filaments are routinely observed in the scrape-off layer. In this paper we develop an analytical formalism for the scattering of radio frequency waves by filaments which are cylindrical with their major axis aligned along the toroidal magnetic field lines. Since the magnitude of the ratio of the density inside the filaments to the background density is generally of order 1, the geometric optics approximation cannot be used to describe the scattering. A full-wave model is formulated which assumes that the plasma is cold and that the plasma in the cylindrical filament has uniform density. The background plasma, in which the filament is present, is also assumed to be cold and uniform. The theoretical framework applies to the scattering of any plasma wave.

With the return to full metal walls - a necessary step towards viable fusion machines - and due to the high power densities of current-day ICRH (Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating) or RF (radio frequency) antennas, there is ample renewed interest in exploring the reasons for wave-induced sputtering and formation of hot spots. Moreover, there is experimental evidence on various machines that RF waves influence the density profile close to the wave launchers so that waves indirectly influence their own coupling efficiency. The present study presents a return to first principles and describes the wave-particle interaction using a 2-time scale model involving the equation of motion, the continuity equation and the wave equation on each of the time scales. Through the changing density pattern, the fast time scale dynamics is affected by the slow time scale events. In turn, the slow time scale density and flows are modified by the presence of the RF waves through quasilinear terms. Although finite zero order flows are identified, the usual cold plasma dielectric tensor - ignoring such flows - is adopted as a first approximation to describe the wave response to the RF driver. The resulting set of equations is composed of linear and nonlinear equations and is tackled in 1D in the present paper. Whereas the former can be solved using standard numerical techniques, the latter require special handling. At the price of multiple iterations, a simple ’derivative switch-on’ procedure allows to reformulate the nonlinear problem as a sequence of linear problems. Analytical expressions allow a first crude assessment - revealing that the ponderomotive potential plays a role similar to that of the electrostatic potential arising from charge separation - but numerical implementation is required to get a feeling of the full dynamics. A few tentative examples are provided to illustrate the phenomena involved.

Several experiments on different machines and in different fast wave (FW) heating regimes, such as hydrogen minority heating and high harmonic fast waves, have found strong interactions between radio-frequency (RF) waves and the scrape-off layer (SOL) region. This paper examines the propagation and the power loss in the SOL by using the full wave code AORSA, in which the edge plasma beyond the last closed flux surface (LCFS) is included in the solution domain and a collisional damping parameter is used as a proxy to represent the real, and most likely nonlinear, damping processes. 3D AORSA results for the National Spherical Torus eXperiment (NSTX), where a full antenna spectrum is reconstructed, are shown, confirming the same behavior found for a single toroidal mode results in Bertelli et al, Nucl. Fusion, 54 083004, 2014, namely, a strong transition to higher SOL power losses (driven by the RF field) when the FW cut-off is moved away from in front of the antenna by increasing the edge density. Additiona...