Simulation of ion cyclotron range of frequencies heating in the proton–boron plasma of the spherical tokamak

Abstract Ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) heating is crucial in magnetic confinement fusion devices that utilize proton–boron11 (p11B) as an advanced fuel, as it requires higher ion temperatures for their reactions. This work investigates the ICRF heating characteristics of hydrogen (H) ions at the second harmonic frequency and 11B ions at the fundamental frequency in a p11B plasma within a spherical tokamak. It is found that H ions second harmonic is better than 11B ions fundamental for ion power absorption. We simulate the ICRF heating effects of the 11B fraction in plasma and the wave vector parallel to the magnetic field ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>k</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo fence="false" stretchy="false">‖</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> ) of the antenna using full-wave codes and the kinetic dispersion relation solver. In second harmonic heating of H ions, the power deposition primarily occurs on the H ions themselves, and, the total power absorption will exceed 50%, up to 58%, when X[11B] &gt; 6%. Heating the electrons is easier in the fundamental frequency heating of 11B ions scenario.