Radio-Frequency Hands-on for Nuclear Fusion Master Students

Julien Hillairet (1) , Joëlle Achard (1) , Riccardo Ragona (2, 3)

1 IRFM - Institut de Recherche sur la Fusion par confinement Magnétique
2 ERM KMS - Ecole Royale Militaire / Koninklijke Militaire School
3 LPP ERM KMS - Laboratoire de physique des plasmas de l'ERM, Laboratorium voor plasmafysica van de KMS

High-power Continuous Wave Radio-Frequency (RF) systems in the megawatt range of power are commonly used in nuclear fusion experiments. Such kinds of RF systems being rather rare, master students do not know how these systems are done in practice, even students engaged in nuclear fusion courses. This is the reason why, as part of the French and European masters in fusion physics and technologies, dedicated practical work on topics related to plasma RF heating are proposed to students. During few days, these students discover how to perform RF measurements and succeed in characterizing real-scale components used in plasma RF heating experiments. This paper details four hands-on which have been conducted for eight years with few tens of students having no prior knowledge in RF engineering.

Keywords: Radio-Frequency; Plasma Heating; High Power; Nuclear Fusion; hands-on

Domains: Plasmas; Electromagnetism; Plasma Physics [physics.plasm-ph]

Julien Hillairet, Joëlle Achard, Riccardo Ragona. Radio-Frequency Hands-on for Nuclear Fusion Master Students. European Journal of Physics, 2019, ⟨10.1088/1361-6404/ab56df⟩. ⟨cea-02332306⟩