Gyrotron: The most Suitable Millimeter-Wave Source for Heating of Plasma in Tokamak

Abstract

In this chapter, brief outline is presented about gyro-devices. Gyro-devices comprise of a family of microwave devices and gyrotron is one among those. Various gyro devices, namely, gyrotron, gyro-klystron and gyro traveling-wave tubes (gyro-TWT) are discussed. Gyrotron is the only microwave source which can generate megawatt range of power at millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter-wave frequency. Gyrotron is the most suitable millimeter wave source for the heating of plasma in the Tokamak for the controlled thermoneuclear fusion reactors. This device is used both for the electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) as well as for the electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD). In this chapter, the basic theory of gyrotron operation are presented with the explanation of various sub-systems of gyrotron. The applications of gyrotrons are also discussed. Also, the present state-of-the-art worldwide scenario of gyrotrons suitable for plasma heating applications are presented in details.