Plasma heating by externally launched ion Bernstein waves

Externally launched ion Bernstein waves are shown to provide highly effective means for heating reactor plasmas. In a high density plasma (n0 greater than or equal to 1014cm-3), an ion Bernstein wave with a parallel index of refraction n/sub parallel/ = O (1) is mode-transformed into a high-density ion Bernstein wave with electron Landau damping several orders of magnitude smaller than that of the original ion Bernstein wave. Because of this reduced damping, an externally launched ion Bernstein wave with n/sub parallel/ less than or equal to 6 can penetrate to and deposit most of its wave power in the core of even a reactor-grade plasma