Evaluation of Wave Dispersion, Mode-Conversion, and Damping for ECRH With Exact Relativistic Corrections

The complex dispersion functions of Eq. (3) in Ref. 1 have recently been computed accurately and reliably over their entire range of parameters, without recourse to the usual ‘‘slightly‐relativistic’’ approximation, which may have difficulty for oblique incidence.2 In the future, the local dispersion properties of ECRF waves will be reevaluated for parameters of interest to ECRF conditions in several existing and proposed fusion experiments, with particular emphasis on the damping and mode‐conversion of both ordinary and extraordinary waves to electrostatic waves near the upper hybrid and cyclotron frequencies.