The development of RF heating of magnetically confined deuterium-tritium plasmas

The experimental and theoretical development of ion cyclotron radiofrequency heating (ICRF) in toroidal magnetically-confined plasmas recently culminated with the demonstration of ICRF heating of D-T plasmas, first in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) and then in the Joint European Torus (JET). Various heating schemes based on the cyclotron resonances between the plasma ions and the applied ICRF waves have been used, including second harmonic tritium, minority deuterium, minority helium-3, mode conversion at the D-T ion-ion hybrid layer,and and ion Bemstein wave heating. Second harmonic tritium heating was first shown to be effective in a reactor-grade plasma in TFTR. D-minority heating on JET has led to the achievement of Q = 0.22, the ratio of fusion power produced to RF power input, sustained over a few energy confinement times. In this paper, some of the key building blocks in the development of rf heating of plasmas are reviewed and prospects for the development of advanced methods of plasma control based on the application of rf waves are discussed.