Theory of second harmonic ion cyclotron radio-frequency wave coupling and heating in inhomogeneous plasmas

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5316902

Shokair, I R

The theory of ion cyclotron wave coupling and absorption is developed for bounded inhomogeneous plasmas in slab geometry. The plasma is described by the Vlasov equation. The equilibrium density and magnetic field profiles are derived self consistently from the equilibrium Vlasov and Maxwell's equations. A general form of the wave equation for the electric field, valid to arbitrary order in Larmor radius, is derived from the solution of the linearized Vlasov equation. By correctly including magnetic field gradients in the wave equation, it seems that a damping and growth mechanism exists that damps waves propagating up the field gradient and amplifies those propagating down the gradient. This effect is substantiated by a single particle treatment and numerical solutions to the wave equation. It is shown that the transmission coefficient of fast waves incident from the high field side can exceed unity, hence verifying the amplification mechanism. The wave equation is solved numerically for a plasma bounded by two perfectly conducting walls, for INTOR and Doublet-III parameters. For the numerical solution, only up to second order terms in Larmor radius are kept. Uniform convergence of the numerical method was proved and tested for the Airy and Legendre equation.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Los Angeles (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5316902
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700101 -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Confinement
Heating
& Production
700108* -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Wave Phenomena
BOLTZMANN-VLASOV EQUATION
COUPLING
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
EQUATIONS
HEATING
HIGH-FREQUENCY HEATING
ICR HEATING
INHOMOGENEOUS PLASMA
MAXWELL EQUATIONS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
PLASMA
PLASMA HEATING
PLASMA WAVES