First Experimental Evidence of Helicon Current Drive
Abstract
Helicon current drive is an attractive solution for driving current to sustain steady state tokamak operation in reactor conditions. Dedicated DIII-D experiments have been conducted with a MW-level helicon system and successfully demonstrated core power deposition and current drive with helicon waves launched via a traveling wave antenna. The profile of the measured electron temperature response to helicon power injection is in good agreement with time-dependent integrated modeling that incorporates ray tracing and the effects of thermal transport simultaneously. When the helicon power is injected continuously to drive co-Ip current, the reconstructed safety factor profile flattens significantly faster and sawteeth are triggered earlier than in comparison shots where the helicon is replaced by a comparable amount of electron cyclotron heating. Calculation of the helicon-driven current profile yields a peaked profile in the core, consistent with the observed power deposition profile and in good agreement with ray tracing predictions. Taken together, these experimental results represent strong evidence for the first definitive observation of auxiliary current drive due to helicon waves on any device.
Versions
Related
- First experimental measurement of spin splitting and evidence for a second 0+ state in No152102254
- Options for heating, fueling, and current drive in MANTA, a high-field negative triangularity fusion pilot plant
- Helicon wave propagation, plasma generation and interaction with low-frequency waves in toroidal magnetic configurations
- Experimental realization of a dusty plasma rocking ratchet with current reversal
- Phonon-assisted shift-current from first-principles: application to AlN monolayer
BibTeX
@misc{lestz2026first,
title = {{First Experimental Evidence of Helicon Current Drive}},
author = {J. B. Lestz and R. I. Pinsker and B. Van Compernolle and S. X. Tang and A. Dupuy and A. M. Garofalo and L. McAllister and C. P. Moeller and C. C. Petty and M. Porkolab and M. P. Ross and G. Rutherford and A. Torrezan},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.12474},
eprint = {2609.12474},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.12474},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - First Experimental Evidence of Helicon Current Drive
AU - J. B. Lestz
AU - R. I. Pinsker
AU - B. Van Compernolle
AU - S. X. Tang
AU - A. Dupuy
AU - A. M. Garofalo
AU - L. McAllister
AU - C. P. Moeller
AU - C. C. Petty
AU - M. Porkolab
AU - M. P. Ross
AU - G. Rutherford
AU - A. Torrezan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/11
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.12474
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.12474
AB - Helicon current drive is an attractive solution for driving current to sustain steady state tokamak operation in reactor conditions. Dedicated DIII-D experiments have been conducted with a MW-level helicon system and successfully demonstrated core power deposition and current drive with helicon waves launched via a traveling wave antenna. The profile of the measured electron temperature response to helicon power injection is in good agreement with time-dependent integrated modeling that incorporates ray tracing and the effects of thermal transport simultaneously. When the helicon power is injected continuously to drive co-I_p current, the reconstructed safety factor profile flattens significantly faster and sawteeth are triggered earlier than in comparison shots where the helicon is replaced by a comparable amount of electron cyclotron heating. Calculation of the helicon-driven current profile yields a peaked profile in the core, consistent with the observed power deposition profile and in good agreement with ray tracing predictions. Taken together, these experimental results represent strong evidence for the first definitive observation of auxiliary current drive due to helicon waves on any device.
ER -