Landau resonant heating using standing waves excited by a distributed circuit for electron velocity distribution control

Abstract

The use of waves applied by a periodic electrode to controllably modify the particle velocity distribution in a plasma is explored. The applied waves induce a strong wave–particle interaction analogous to Landau damping. However, as the waves are powered by an external circuit, the interaction continues until a new plasma equilibrium is established. At saturation, the velocity distribution is enhanced above the phase velocity of the applied wave and suppressed below. The use of this technique to selectively heat the electron high-energy tail and to enhance the electron-impact ionization rate is demonstrated using particle-in-cell simulation.