On the parasitic absorption in FWCD experiments in JET ITB plasmas

Fast wave current drive (FWCD) experiments have been performed in JET plasmas with electron internal transport barriers produced with LHCD. Because of a large fraction of parasitic absorption, owing to weak single pass damping, the inductive nature of the plasma current and the interplay between the RF-driven current and the bootstrap current only small changes are seen in the central current profiles. The measured difference in the central current density for co- and counter-current drive is larger than the response expected from current diffusion calculations, but smaller than the driven currents, suggesting a faster current diffusion than that given by neo-classical resistivity. A large fraction of the power is absorbed by cyclotron damping on residual ³He ions while a significant fraction appears not to have been deposited in the plasma. The strong degradation of heating and current drive occurs simultaneously with strong increases in the Be II and C IV line intensities in the divertor. The degradation depends on the phasing of the antennas and increases with reduced single pass damping which is consistent with RF-power being lost by dissipation of rectified RF-sheath potentials at the antennas and walls. Asymmetries in direct electron heating, lost power and production of impurities, fast ions and gamma-rays are seen for co- and counter-current drive. These differences are consistent with the differences in the absorption on residual ³He ions owing to the RF-induced pinch. Effective direct electron heating, comparable to the indirect electron heating with H-minority heating, occurs for dipole phasing of the antennas without producing a significant fast ion pressure and with low impurity content in the divertor plasma.