An assessment of full-wave effects on Maxwellian lower-hybrid wave damping

Abstract

Abstract Lower-hybrid current drive (LHCD) actuators are important components of modern day fusion experiments as well as proposed fusion reactors. However, simulations of LHCD often differ substantially from experimental results, and from each other, especially in the inferred power deposition profile shape. Here we investigate some possible causes of this discrepancy; ‘full-wave’ effects such as interference and diffraction, which are omitted from standard raytracing simulations and the breakdown of the raytracing near reflections and caustics. We compare raytracing simulations to state-of-the-art full-wave simulations using matched hot-plasma dielectric tensors in realistic tokamak scenarios for the first time. We show that differences between full-wave simulations and raytracing in previous work were primarily due to numerical and physical inconsistencies in the simulations, and we demonstrate that quantitative agreement between raytracing and converged full-wave simulations can be obtained in reactor relevant-scenarios and qualitative agreement can be obtained in situations with weak damping.