Cyclotron harmonic lines in the thermal magnetic fluctuation spectrum of spiraling electrons in plasmas

Abstract

Radio frequency (rf) magnetic fluctuations B̃ have been measured with loop antennas in a large pulsed discharge plasma column (ne≲1012 cm−3, kTe≲3 eV, B0≂20 G, Ar, 2×10−4 Torr, 1 m diam×2.5 m length). A 1/f-like noise spectrum is observed in the whistler wave regime (ωce1/2ωci1/2<ω<ωce) both in the Maxwellian afterglow plasma and in the active discharge which contains energetic (45 eV) electrons. Discrete emission lines at the electron cyclotron frequency and its harmonics are found only in the presence of spiraling energetic electrons. These are naturally present in the active discharge but have also been injected as a controlled oblique electron beam into the Maxwellian afterglow plasma. In the latter case up to 15 cyclotron harmonic lines with weak amplitude decay B̃z(ω) are generated in the beam flux tube. From two-point correlation measurements it is shown that the line spectrum is due to ballistic beam modes rather than plasma eigenmodes driven unstable by the beam. The lines evolve from broadband thermal current fluctuations of the beam through a filtering effect. Those fluctuations which rotate synchronously with the ordered cyclotron motion (ω=nωc) constructively interfere (k∥=0) and produce coherent solenoidal rf fields, while others interfere destructively. Axial and azimuthal phase velocity measurements for rf-modulated beams clearly demonstrate the filtering effect. In the present parameter regime (ωp≫ωc) the fluctuations are evanescent and localized near the electron flux tube (rc≳c/ωp). In low density plasmas the fluctuations may couple to propagating electromagnetic waves and be observable externally as in earlier observations by Landauer or Ikegami.