The onset of parametric decay of lower hybrid waves during lower hybrid current drive experiments on Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak

Abstract An ad hoc calculation is presented to interpret the growth of sideband waves during lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) experiments on Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). We adopt the solution of the non-linear dispersion relation for parametric instabilities to describe the growth rate of ion cyclotron quasi-modes (ICQMs) in the peripheral plasma, and use the WKB solution of the propagation of electrostatic waves in two dimensions to model the variation of the electric field in the scrape-off-layer (SOL). We then calculate the growth rates and amplification factors of the sideband waves associated with ICQM in the parallel and perpendicular coupling limits. The onset and substantial growth of the first down-shifted sideband of lower hybrid waves (LHWs) are associated with elevation of the plasma density in the outer SOL where the growth rate of ICQM in the parallel coupling limit increases sharply after the density is elevated. The peak frequencies associated with the first harmonic of ICQM obtained from calculating the amplification factors in the parallel coupling limit ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>A</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext>para</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ) agree very well with the observed frequencies of the first down-shifted sideband of 2.45 GHz LHWs in EAST pulse 43 772 and 86 521. The consistency between the calculation and the observation indicates that the sideband waves are associated with parametric decay instability of ICQM excited in the outer SOL through parallel coupling. The amplitude of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>A</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext>para</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> obtained from a single pass of LHWs through the SOL of EAST is, however, one order of magnitude smaller than unity, meaning that it remains elusive whether the substantial growth of sideband waves mainly occurs in front of the antenna or requires multiple passes of LHWs across the SOL region.