Using the Stix finite element RF code to investigate operation optimization of the ICRF antenna on Alcator C-Mod

As the Ion Cyclotron Radio Frequency range (ICRF) heating becomes more favorable in fusion devices, the urgency of predicting and mitigating impurity generation that arises from it becomes more pressing. In the ICRF regime, rectified Radio Frequency (RF) sheaths are known to form at antenna and material edges that influence negative effects like sputtering and a decrease in heating efficiency. Methods to mitigate the formation of these RF sheaths through RF image currents cancellation have been experimentally studied. A power-phasing scan done on Alcator C-Mod in which the amount of power on the two inner straps (Pin) versus the total 4 straps (Ptot) was varied showed a minimization of enhanced potentials between Pin/Ptot ∼ 0.7–0.9 while impurities were minimized for Pin/Ptot ∼ 0.5–0.8. New capabilities in the realm of representing the RF sheath numerically now allow for these experiments to be simulated. Given the size of the sheath relative to the scale of the device, it can be approximated as a Boundary Condition (BC). A new parallelized cold-plasma wave equation solver called Stix implements a non-linear sheath impedance model BC formulated by Myra et al (2015 Phys. Plasmas 22 062507) through the method of finite elements using the MFEM library [http://mfem.org]. It is seen that Stix shows qualitative agreement with the measured C-Mod enhanced potentials.