Heating and current drive regimes in the ion cyclotron range of frequency

The fast magnetosonic wave, launched in the ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) is one of the main heating schemes in tokamak plasmas. Great flexibility of the heating and current drive scenarios is possible, playing both on the various wave-particle interaction mechanisms and on the mode conversions that the fast wave can experience. When properly designed, an ICRF system can be employed for ion or electron heating and current drive, with the asset of localized deposition profiles. Almost all the existing tokamaks are now using ICRF heating and current drive, and an ICRF system is being studied for ITER. (author)