Scattering of diffracting beams of electron cyclotron waves by random density fluctuations in inhomogeneous plasmas

The physics and first results of the new WKBeam code for electron cyclotron beams in tokamak plasmas are presented. This code is developed on the basis of a kinetic radiative transfer model which is general enough to account for the effects of diffraction and density fluctuations on the beam. Our preliminary numerical results show a significant broadening of the power deposition profile in ITER due to scattering from random density fluctuations at the plasma edge, while such scattering effects are found to be negligible in medium-size tokamaks like ASDEX upgrade.

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