Ray-tracing modelling of ICRH at arbitrary cyclotron harmonics in large hot plasmas

A ray-tracing model for studying ion cyclotron resonance heating at higher cyclotron harmonics in very hot large plasmas is presented. It includes the full hot dielectric tensor for bi-Maxwellian distribution functions with parallel drift retaining temperature effects to all orders and allows for non-Maxwellian distribution functions. The model only retaining first-order temperature corrections underestimates the electron damping on the Bernstein wave. Highly energetic tails efficiently absorb fast wave power at high cyclotron harmonics. Significant alpha -particle absorption is to be expected in D-heating D-T scenarios.