Experimental studies of fast wave propagation in DIII-D

Fast Alfven waves radiated from the phased array antenna in the DIII-D tokamak and used for heating and current drive are studied by employing a B-loop array mounted on the vacuum vessel wall. The wave propagation direction controlled by the antenna phasing is clearly observed. A small divergence of the rays arising from the anisotropic nature of the fast wave is found. Comparison with a ray tracing code confirms that the ray position calculated by the code is accurate up to at least one toroidal turn of the rays. Conservation of Rk{sub t} which is a basic assumption in computer codes is tested. Although the upshift of toroidal wavenumber k{sub t} at small major radius R is confirmed, Rk{sub t} is not well conserved. A mass density interferometer is demonstrated by employing the extraordinary fast wave