ECRH for W7-X: Transmission Losses of High-Power 140-GHz Wave Beams

Electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) is the main heating system for W7-X. A 10-MW ECRH plant with continuous wave (cw) capability is under construction to support the W7-X operation, which aims at demonstrating the steady-state capability of stellarators at reactor-relevant plasma parameters. The ECRH system consists of ten radio-frequency (rf) modules with 1 MW power each at 140 GHz. The rf beams of the individual gyrotrons are transmitted in common to the W7-X torus via open multibeam mirror lines. The losses of individual components of the transmission system were measured with both low- and high-power methods. Integrated full-power, cw measurements of the long-distance transmission losses are reported and compared to theoretical design estimates.