ALOHA: an Advanced LOwer Hybrid Antenna coupling code

The Advanced LOwer Hybrid Antenna (ALOHA) code, has been developed to improve the modelling of the coupling of lower hybrid (LH) waves from the antenna to a cold inhomogeneous plasma while keeping a fast tool. In contrast to the previous code Slow Wave ANtenna (SWAN) (that only described the interaction of the slow wave between the waveguides and the plasma in a 1D model), the equations are now solved in 2D including the contribution of both the slow and fast waves, with a low computational cost. This approach is completed either by a full-wave computation of the antenna that takes into account its detailed geometry or by a mode-matching code dedicated to multijunctions modelling, which is convenient in preliminary design phases. Moreover, ALOHA can treat more realistic scrape-off layers in front of the antenna, by using a two-layer electron density profile. The ALOHA code has been compared with experimental results from Tore Supra LH antennas of different geometries, as well as benchmarked against other LH coupling codes, with very good results. Once validated, ALOHA has been used as a support for the design of COMPASS and ITER LH antennas and has shown to be a fast and reliable tool for LH antenna design.