Experimental study of the fast wave propagation in TFR

Several experiments (PLT, DIVA, ERASMUS, TFR) have shown that the heating mechanism of ICRF is dominated in Tokamaks by the presence of the ion-ion hybrid layer. The first experimental evidence of this effect came from propagation studies: a very strong damping was observed on magnetic probes since the hybrid layer was inside the plasma. Comparison with simple models which do not take into account boundary conditions have been undertaken. Recently a new theoretical model has been developped. Based on a plane, inhomogeneous, bounded plasma, it shows that the radial structure of the fast wave and hence the loading impedance of the launching coil depends on the position of the hybrid layer with respect to the plasma boundaries. This result is obtained by solving the wave equation, in the cold plasma approximation. We present here, a serie of experiments, performed in TFR. It confirms the validity of that model underlining thus the importance of radial eigenmodes, when the wave conversion layer is inside the plasma