Measurements of ECH absorption on ATF using a polarization-controlled beam launcher

Electron cyclotron heating (ECH) is used on the Advanced Toroidal Facility (ATF) experiment at ORNL for plasma formation and heating. A 53.2 GHz gyrotron generates 200 kW cw which is transported to ATF in 6.35 cm evacuated waveguide. Power is launched into ATF using a recently completed polarization controlled beam launcher which can launch a linear polarized beam with a -20 dB diameter of 12 cm at the plasma center. The launcher consists of a Vlasov mode converting antenna, a Teflon-copper laminate polarization rotating grating, and a spherical focusing mirror. The plane of polarization can be remotely adjusted by rotating the grating with a motorized vacuum feedthrough. First pass plasma absorption is monitored in two planes of polarization using a dual-polarized detector looking through a dome shaped scattering cut-off screen. During plasma operation, the detected signals indicate that absorption under ideal conditions is nearly complete. With low density or a shifted resonance zone, absorption is small and there are cases where there is mode coupling to the perpendicular polarization. This is presumably due to shear in the ATF magnetic field. (author). 2 refs, 3 figs