Ion cyclotron heating in TMX-U

Ion cyclotron heating (ICH) is applied to TMX-U to improve the thermal barrier performance by reducing the passing ion collisionality. During its development, measurements of the antenna loading resistance, R p , and the absorption efficiency, η, were compared with calculations with the antenna design code ANTENA over a wide range of densities and frequencies. Good agreement in R p was obtained in the short wavelength slow wave regime but not for long wavelength fast waves because the experimental magnetic field gradients are not modelled in ANTENA. Similarly, η is much larger experimentally (40%) than in ANTENA (10%) due to the magnetic beach in TMX-U. In its application, ICH successfully decreased the passing ion collisionality tenfold but did not extend thermal barrier plugging to higher density, indicating that collisional barrier filling is not currently limiting TMX-U performance.