Generalized theory of annularly bounded helicon waves

Journal Article · Thu Mar 15 04:00:00 EDT 2007 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2716663· OSTI ID:20974902

Yano, Masayuki; Walker, Mitchell L. R. ^[1]

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1. Department of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332 (United States)

The generalized dispersion relationship for annularly bounded helicon plasma is derived. The theory considers the effect of finite electron mass, which results in the plasma field described by superposition of classical helicon solution and the Trivelpiece-Gould (TG) wave. The solution is obtained for an insulating boundary. The solution shows that the wave structure is heavily affected by the presence of the TG wave, even when a strong axial magnetic field is applied. However, the electric field profile shows that a pair of external rf antennas can still be coupled to the strong radial electric field in the plasma to excite the wave. Moreover, the general solution permits an almost continuous spectrum of parallel wave numbers. The study of k-f and n{sub 0}-B{sub 0} diagrams shows that the linear relation obtained using classical theory holds everywhere except at low applied magnetic field strength.

• OSTI ID: 20974902
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 14; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ANTENNAS
BOUNDARY LAYERS
DIAGRAMS
DISPERSION RELATIONS
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRONS
HELICON WAVES
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PLASMA