DESTABILIZATION OF POLOIDAL PLASMA ROTATION DURING ELECTRON-CYCLOTRON-RESONANCE HEATING IN TOKAMAKS

The poloidal plasma rotation destabilized by electron cyclotron resona nce heating (ECRH) is proposed in both collision and banana regions of tokamak plasmas. The poloidal electric field, which results in poloid ally inhomogeneous ion accumulation, can be produced by ECRH due to ei ther the resonance localization or the asymmetric rf power deposition. When the ion accumulation rate overwhelms the damping rate of the ion -ion collision on the poloidal plasma rotation, the poloidal plasma ro tation will be destabilized. Based on the linearized drift kinetic equ ation and the fluid equations, including a model term of the density p erturbation driven by rf waves, the criterion of the destabilization o f the poloidal plasma rotation is analytically derived. It is shown ch at the poloidal plasma rotation in tokamaks can be generated by ECRH i n the practical rf power level by this manner. (C) 1998 American Insti tute of Physics. [S1070-664X(98)02307-6]