Lower-hybrid-resonance heating of a plasma in a parallel-plate waveguide

Abstract

Wave propagation in a parallel-plate metallic waveguide partially filled with an inhomogeneous, anisotropic plasma column is studied as an eigenvalue problem using the complete cold-plasma dielectric tensor. Although the accessibility condition may not be met, the collisional energy absorption at the lower-hybrid resonance greatly exceeds the resistive loss at the waveguide walls resulting in a very high plasma heating efficiency. The heating continues to be effective even for very low collision frequencies encountered in thermonuclear plasmas. Detailed numerical results for the heating efficiency, energy flux into the plasma, energy density and dissipation density in the plasma column as well as group velocity are presented. Also the effects of density profile, collision frequency, and waveguide eigenmodes are discussed.