On Novel Mechanism of a Pump Electromagnetic Wave Absolute Two-Plasmon Parametric Decay Instability Excitation in Tokamak ECRH Experiments

Abstract

Novel mechanism leading to excitation of absolute two plasmon parametric decay instability (TPDI) of a pump extraordinary (X) wave is discussed. It is shown that the upper hybrid (UH) plasmon can be 3D trapped in the presence of both a nonmonotonous density profile and a finite-size pump beam in a plane perpendicular to the plasma inhomogeneity direction. This leads to excitation of the absolute TPDI of the pump X wave, which manifests itself in temporal exponential growth of the trapped daughter UH wave amplitude and is perhaps the most dangerous instability for mm-waves, widely utilized nowadays in tokamak and stellarators for local plasma heating and current drive and being considered for application in ITER.