Modelling of ECCD and ECRH in Toroidal Devices

The steady state operation of tokamak fusion devices relies upon the possibility of sustaining the plasma equilibrium and confining the plasma particles using auxiliary, non-inductive driven current. Due to its importance for fusion reactor development and operation, the demonstration of the feasibility of such a steady state operation has turned out to be an actual goal for different fusion machines such as Tore Supra (CEA Cadarache) or TCV (EPFL Lausanne). Among all the existing current drive methods, electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD) is the most suitable for driving the current in the centre of the plasma volume and for controlling this current. As it is known for cyclotron resonance wave-particle interaction which is responsible for energy coupling from the wave to the plasma, non-linear effects can be important for high power experiments.