In the editorial of the September issue of this year it wasannounced that a number of special issues of Nuclear Fusion will be published which will address subjects for which the integration of physics and enabling technology is essential. This November issue is dedicated to Electron Cyclotron Wave (ECW) physics and technology.This issue is a compilation of 25 papers which form a snapshot of what is currently going on in the research area of ECW physics and technology for fusion devices. The collected articles are mostly derived from conference contributions (EC-12, SMP-2002, IAEA Lyon conference), rewritten and extended for the purpose of this special issue and submitted to our standard double-referee peer review. Several regular submissions, not related to conference contributions, are also included. This compilation is somewhat arbitrary as the editor is dependent on incoming submissions. It was decided not to delay publication of the specialized subject-relatedpapers by commissioning introductory review articles, which would be subject to longer lead-times. Also, a number of regular papers, whose subject would have fitted perfectly in this issue, were published earlier in the year (see below). The 25 articles are arranged in a sequence from theory, via experiments on heating and current-drive, electron heat-transport studies, application of ECW emission measurements, to ECW sources (gyrotrons), transmission-lines, microwave technology, with one article on an application outside fusion research. One article was submitted as a Letter (Cappa and Castejon) but it has been placed logically within the sequence. I hope that this special issue will give the interested reader a state-of-the-art picture of the field of ECW physics and technology in nuclear fusion research and be of help for specialists working in the field.The following articles, which are closely related to the subject of this special issue, were published in earlier issues this year:A. Manini, J.-M. Moret, F. Ryter and the ASDEX Upgrade Team 2003Signal processing techniques based on singular value decomposition applied to modulated ECH experiments Nucl. Fusion43 490--511C. Angioni, T.P. Goodman, M.A. Henderson and O. Sauter 2003Effects of localized electron heating and current drive on the sawtooth period Nucl. Fusion43 455--468V. Pericoli Ridolfini et al 2003Progress towards internal transport barriers at high plasma density sustained by pure electron heating and current drive in the FTU tokamak Nucl. Fusion43 469--478K. Sakamoto et al 2003Development of 170 and 110 GHz gyrotrons for fusion devices Nucl. Fusion43 729--737C.C. Petty et al 2003Effects of electron trapping and transport on electron cyclotron current drive on DIII--D Nucl. Fusion43 700--707F. Leuterer, K. Kirov, G. Pereverzev, F. Ryter and D. Wagner 2003Modulated ECRH power deposition in ASDEX Upgrade Nucl. Fusion43 744--748R. Prater et al 2003Discharge improvement through control of neoclassical tearing modes by localized ECCD in DIII-D Nucl. Fusion43 1128--1134K. Nagasaki, A. Isayama, S. Ide and JT-60 team 2003Stabilization effect of early ECCD on a neoclassical tearing mode in the JT-60U tokamak Nucl. Fusion43 L7--L10
本年度9月号社论中宣布，《核聚变》将出版若干特刊，涉及那些需要物理与工程技术创新融合的课题。本期11月号特刊专注于电子回旋波（ECW）物理与技术。本特刊汇集了25篇论文，反映了当前ECW物理及聚变装置技术研究领域的现状。所收录的文章大多源自会议投稿（EC-12、SMP-2002、IAEA里昂会议），并针对本特刊进行了改写和扩充，且通过了本刊标准的双审稿人同行评审。此外，也收录了若干与会议无关的常规投稿。本汇编具有一定选择性，因为编辑依赖于收到的投稿。我们决定不因约请撰写导论性综述文章而推迟本特刊的出版，因为此类综述可能需要更长的审稿周期。同时，部分主题与本特刊高度契合的常规投稿已于今年早些时候发表（见下文）。25篇论文按逻辑顺序排列，从理论出发，经由加热与电流驱动的实验、电子热输运研究、ECW发射测量的应用，直至ECW源（回旋管）、传输线和微波技术，其中还包括一篇关于聚变研究之外应用的论文。另有一篇以快报形式投稿的文章（Cappa和Castejo）也被纳入本特刊，并按其逻辑主题位置排列。我希望本特刊能为感兴趣的读者提供ECW物理与技术领域研究现状的全景式概览，并对该领域的专家有所助益。以下与本期特刊主题密切相关的论文已于今年早些时候发表：A. Manini, J.-M. Moret, F. Ryter 以及 ASDEX Upgrade 团队，2003年，《基于奇异值分解的信号处理技术应用于调制ECH实验》，《核聚变》43，490–511；C. Angioni, T.P. Goodman, M.A. Henderson 和 O. Sauter，2003年，《局域电子加热与电流驱动对锯齿周期的影响》，《核聚变》43，455–468；V. Pericoli Ridolfini 等人，2003年，《FTU托卡马克中纯电子加热与电流驱动维持高密度内部输运垒的进展》，《核聚变》43，469–478；K. Sakamoto 等人，2003年，《用于聚变装置的170 GHz和110 GHz回旋管研发》，《核聚变》43，729–737；C.C. Petty 等人，2003年，《电子俘获与输运对DIII-D电子回旋电流驱动的影响》，《核聚变》43，700–707；F. Leuterer, K. Kirov, G. Pereverzev, F. Ryter 和 D. Wagner，2003年，《ASDEX Upgrade中调制ECRH功率沉积》，《核聚变》43，744–748；R. Prater 等人，2003年，《通过DIII-D局域ECCD控制新经典撕裂模改善放电》，《核聚变》43，1128–1134；K. Nagasaki, A. Isayama, S. Ide 和 JT-60团队，2003年，《JT-60U托卡马克中早期ECCD对新经典撕裂模的稳定化效应》，《核聚变》43，L7–L10。