Effect of nonlinear wave–particle interaction on electron-cyclotron absorption

We perform a self-consistent analysis of the nonlinear interaction of magnetized plasmas with electron-cyclotron (EC) waves. A closed set of equations is derived, which consists of the relativistic equations of motion under the wave field and the wave equation for the vector potential. The plasma is described in terms of ensembles of electrons which collectively determine the evolution of the wave amplitude and frequency through the current response. This description allows for effects of the electron motions on the efficiency of the wave absorption, for example, the asynchrony between the wave phase and the gyroperiod. As an application, we study the absorption of an EC wave beam in a simplified tokamak geometry, for plasma parameters relevant to current and future fusion experiments. We conclude that, within the limits of our model, there are cases where the linear theory for the absorption of EC waves, used widely in the current literature, may overestimate the energy deposition. In such cases, nonlinear effects are essential for the accurate estimation of the plasmawave coupling and their inclusion should be considered, especially when the wave power is dramatically increased as in the case of ITER.