Experimental Investigation of the Shielding of the Heating Field by the Electrostatic Shield of a Stripline ICRF Antenna

Measurements of the partial shielding of the current-generated heating field of an electrostatically shielded stripline antenna have been performed. An understanding of this adverse shielding is relevant to optimizing the heating of tokamaks in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies. These measurements verify the predictions of an earlier theoretical study.