Relativistic Modifications to Electron Bernstein Waves

In the electron cyclotron range of frequencies (ECRF), electron Bernstein waves (EBW) offer an attractive means for driving plasma currents in spherical tori (ST) such as NSTX. Previously it has been shown that, for ECRF waves, relativistic effects significantly modify the propagation and damping of the extraordinary and ordinary modes. A fully relativistic dispersion code R2D2 has been developed for studying the relativistic characteristics of all ECRF waves. In this paper we report on initial results obtained from this code which illustrate the relativistic modifications to the propagation and damping of EBWs. We find that even at temperatures relevant to present spherical tori, the relativistic dispersion properties of EBWs are significantly different from their non-relativistic counterpart