Ion-cyclotron-resonance heating in the Wisconsin Levitated Octupole

Technical Report · Wed Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1983

OSTI ID:6243554

Fortgang, C M; Sprott, J C; Strait, E J

Ion-cyclotron-resonance heating has been investigated, both experimentally and theoretically, on the Wisconsin Levitated Octupole. Heating of both ions and electrons has been observed. Typically, a two-component ion energy distribution is produced (300 eV and 50 eV) with 500 kW of rf power coupled into a 5 x 10/sup 12/ cm/sup -3/ plasma. Power is coupled to the plasma with an antenna that also serves as the inductor of an oscillator tank circuit. The oscillator is tunable from 1 to 3 MHz and can be applied for periods up to 10 msec. The experiments were performed with hydrogen, gun-injected plasmas. Most of the theortical work presented deals with a calculation that predicts the plasma loading. A slab model is used, and the questions of accessibility, polarization, and damping of the radio-frequency electromagnetic fields are addressed. It is found that cold-plasma theory cannot account for the heating and, therefore, hot-plasma theory is invoked to explain the results. The loading measurements and theoretical predictions are found to be in reasonable agreement.

• Research Organization: Wisconsin Univ., Madison (USA). Dept. of Physics
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76ET53051
• OSTI ID: 6243554
• Report Number(s): DOE/ET/53051-55; ON: DE83013532
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
700101* -- Fusion Energy-- Plasma Research-- Confinement
Heating
& Production
ANTENNAS
CLOSED CONFIGURATIONS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
HEATING
HIGH-FREQUENCY HEATING
ICR HEATING
ION TEMPERATURE
LEVITATION
MAGNETIC FIELD CONFIGURATIONS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MULTIPOLAR CONFIGURATIONS
OCTUPOLAR CONFIGURATIONS
PLASMA HEATING