Destabilization of poloidal plasma rotation during electron cyclotron resonance heating in tokamaks

The poloidal plasma rotation destabilized by electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) is proposed in both collision and banana regions of tokamak plasmas. The poloidal electric field, which results in poloidally inhomogeneous ion accumulation, can be produced by ECRH due to either the resonance localization or the asymmetric rf power deposition. When the ion accumulation rate overwhelms the damping rate of the ion–ion collision on the poloidal plasma rotation, the poloidal plasma rotation will be destabilized. Based on the linearized drift kinetic equation and the fluid equations, including a model term of the density perturbation driven by rf waves, the criterion of the destabilization of the poloidal plasma rotation is analytically derived. It is shown that the poloidal plasma rotation in tokamaks can be generated by ECRH in the practical rf power level by this manner.