Ion heating up to 1 MeV range with higher harmonic ICRF wave on JT-60U

The properties of protons under acceleration by an ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) waves with the second to fourth hydrogen harmonics have been investigated in the JT-60U tokamak at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI). Protons have been accelerated up to 1 MeV in the presence of an ICRF wave of fixed frequency, neutral beams (NB), and a fixed toroidal magnetic field which is scanned through several plasma discharges. The tail temperature of the protons, which is evaluated in the range 0.32 - 0.86 MeV, has been observed to increase in the second to third harmonics, however increase of the tail temperature in the third to fourth harmonics has not been observed clearly. Furthermore, the dependence of tail temperature on the harmonic number has been found to be in qualitative agreement with results from a simulation code analysis based upon the one-dimensional Fokker - Planck equation coupled with the kinetic wave equation. Experimental values for the stored energy of the accelerated ions have shown, however, that the response of stored energy to changes in absorbed ICRF power is much stronger than the response to changes in harmonic number. Also, the incremental energy confinement times for heating discharges matching the third and fourth harmonics ( and ) of hydrogen have been observed to be less than half that for those matching the second harmonic. It has been found that suppression of the absorbed ICRF power accompanied with the occurrence of cavity resonance in the and heating discharges reduces the stored energy of the accelerated ions and the incremental energy confinement time.