Excitation of lower hybrid waves by a gyrating ion beam in a negative ion plasma

Abstract

A gyrating ion beam propagating through a magnetized plasma cylinder containing K+ positive ions, electrons, and SF6− negative ions drives electrostatic lower hybrid waves to instability via Cyclotron interaction. Numerical calculations of the unstable mode frequencies and growth rates of both the unstable positive ion and negative ion modes have been carried out for the existing negative ion plasma parameters. It is found that the unstable mode frequencies of both the modes increase, with the relative density of negative ions. In addition, the growth rates of both the unstable modes also increases with relative density of negative ions. Moreover, the growth rates of both the unstable modes scale as the one-third power of the beam density. The frequencies of both the unstable modes also increase with the magnetic fields. The real part of the unstable wave frequency increases as almost the square root of the beam energy.