History of Microwaves

Microwaves were first generated in the 1890s in some of the earliest radio experiments by
physicists who thought of them as a form of "invisible light".[26] James Clerk Maxwell in his 1873
theory of electromagnetism, now called Maxwell's equations, had predicted the existence of
electromagnetic waves and proposed that light was composed of these waves. In 1888, German
physicist Heinrich Hertz was the first to demonstrate the existence of radio waves using a
primitive spark gap radio transmitter.[27] Hertz and the other early radio researchers were
interested in exploring the similarities between radio waves and light waves, to test Maxwell's
theory. They concentrated on producing short wavelength radio waves in the UHF and
microwave ranges, with which they could duplicate classic optics experiments, using quasioptical
components such as prisms and lenses made of paraffin, sulfur and pitch and wire diffraction
gratings, to refract and diffract radio waves like light rays.[28] Hertz produced waves up to
450 MHz; his directional 450 MHz transmitter consisted of a 26 cm brass rod dipole antenna
with a spark gap between the ends suspended at the focal line of a parabolic antenna made of a
curved zinc sheet, powered by high voltage pulses from an induction coil.[27] His historic
experiments demonstrated that radio waves like light exhibited refraction, diffraction,
polarization, interference and standing waves,[28] proving that radio waves and light waves were
both forms of Maxwell's electromagnetic waves.

Scenario of Microwaves
The Stellarator of Costa Rica 1 (SCR-1) has been operational since June 2016. This small-size
modular Stellarator functions with an aluminum torus shaped vacuum vessel 10 mm thick
where R = 0.247 m, = 0.040 m and R/a = 6.2, and containing a plasma volume of approximately
0.0078 m 3. Twelve copper modular coils with 4.6 kA per turn produce a magnetic field strength
at the toroidal vertical axis of approximately 43.8 mT. This field is EC resonant at R with 2.45
GHz in the second harmonic (Maximum power 5 kW) [1]. Currently, one objective in SCR-1 is to
improve the ECR heating efficiency and to analyze the feasibility of incorporating electron
Bernstein waves heating. Relatedly, this contribution analyzes microwave heating scenarios
using the full wave code IPF-FDMC [2], which takes as input parameters the experimental
electron density and temperature profile [3][4]. This complete analysis takes into account the
geometry of the vacuum vessel, the absorption and reflection in the walls, and considers
different poloidal and toroidal scenarios. We present the electric field variations of the
electromagnetic waves to find the optimum incident angle that is relevant for the conversion to
electron Bernstein waves in OX -B mode. Finally, we propose some strategic places in this
Stellarator where an antenna could be located. For the future, it is planned to obtain a
deposition profile of the microwave power to indicate the exact position of the UHR region,
where the OX -B mode takes place.