Cross-polarization scattering of diffracting electron-cyclotron beams in a turbulent plasma with the WKBeam code

In turbulent plasmas, density fluctuations are expected to scatter radiofrequency wave beams, causing a degradation of the beam quality and thus reducing their performance. The WKBeam code is a Monte-Carlo solver for the wave kinetic equation, which describes such an effect, so far limited to a single wave mode so that it cannot account for cross-polarization scattering. In this work a new feature of the WKBeam code is presented, which allows the analysis of cross-polarization scattering of electron-cyclotron (EC) wave beams in realistic tokamak scenarios. We prove the convergence of the numerical scheme and give a preliminary overview of such effects in ITER scenarios. (paper)