Comparison of measured electron density rise and calculated neutral beam particle deposition in the TFTR tokamak

The initial rate of rise of the central electron density during approximately 100 keV deuterium neutral beam injection is found to agree well with calculations of the beam deposition rate. The beam deposition calculations employ new tabulations of the atomic cross-sections and multi-step ionization (MSI) processes; the effects of using new tabulations and of including MSI processes appear to approximately cancel. The neutral beam deposition profile is a strong function of both the magnitude and the shape of the target plasma density. Peaked heating profiles can be achieved at high target densities only from peaked target density profiles