Ion heating at the cyclotron resonance in plasmas magnetically confined in a toroidal octupole field

Ion temperatures as high as 600 eV have been produced using rf wave heating at the ion cyclotron resonance frequency in a toroidal octupole magnetic field. Rf is coupled to the plasma with an externally driven ''fifth'' hoop which forms the inductive leg of an oscillator tank circuit. Power levels up to 1 MW at 1 to 3 MHz have been applied for periods up to 2 msec. Plasmas produced either by ECRH or by gun injection are simulated with a computer program in which known particle and energy production and loss mechanisms are used to predict the spatially averaged time behaviour of the plasma in the presence of the applied ion heating. The program can be used to calculate the consequences of the heating model in the presence of many cooling mechanisms which may each have a separate dependence on instantaneous plasma parameters. Experimental quantities compared to computer predictions include density, ion temperature, and loading of the hoop by the plasma, both resistive and reactive, and neutral reflux from the wall by electron and ion impact. Wave penetration to the resonance zone is good up to the highest densities available (6 x 1012 cm-3 by gun injection) in good agreement with theory. Neutral reflux from the walls and the large charge exchange cooling which results is the dominant loss mechanism at the higher hoop voltages