Analytic wave solution with helicon and Trivelpiece-Gould modes in an annular plasma

Journal Article · Thu Nov 26 04:00:00 EST 2009 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3273836· OSTI ID:21335812

Carlsson, Johan ^[1]; Pavarin, Daniele ^[2]; Walker, Mitchell ^[3]

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1. Tech-X Corporation, Boulder, Colorado (United States)
2. University of Padua, Padova (Italy)
3. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia (United States)

Helicon sources in an annular configuration have applications for plasma thrusters. The theory of Klozenberg et al.[J. P. Klozenberg B. McNamara and P. C. Thonemann, J. Fluid Mech. 21(1965) 545-563] for the propagation and absorption of helicon and Trivelpiece-Gould modes in a cylindrical plasma has been generalized for annular plasmas. Analytic solutions are found also in the annular case, but in the presence of both helicon and Trivelpiece-Gould modes, a heterogeneous linear system of equations must be solved to match the plasma and inner and outer vacuum solutions. The linear system can be ill-conditioned or even exactly singular, leading to a dispersion relation with a discrete set of discontinuities. The coefficients for the analytic solution are calculated by solving the linear system with singular-value decomposition.

• OSTI ID: 21335812
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 1187; ISSN APCPCS; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ABSORPTION
ANALYTICAL SOLUTION
BESSEL FUNCTIONS
CYLINDRICAL CONFIGURATION
DISPERSION RELATIONS
PLASMA
PLASMA WAVES
THRUSTERS
WAVE PROPAGATION