Heating of gadolinium plasma ions by the ion cyclotron resonance method

Resonance rf heating of gadolinium plasma ions is calculated in the configuration when an electric field travels along a permanent magnetic field and simultaneously rotates in the direction normal to the latter. Two model functions are taken as initial ion distribution functions over longitudinal velocities: one is a linear function of the velocity in the low velocity range and the other is a shifted semi-Maxwellian function. The ion transverse velocity distribution function is calculated under the assumption that the initial “transverse” distribution function is Maxwellian with a temperature of 5 eV. Ion fluxes toward collector plates are calculated by integrating the total distribution function over the allowed ranges of longitudinal and transverse velocities and transverse coordinates of the guiding center of the ions before the collector. The calculation is performed as applied to the ¹⁵⁷Gd target isotope and its two nearest neighbors. The effect of the longitudinal temperature on the width of the heating efficiency resonance line and of the longitudinal magnetic field on the ion heating selectivity is studied. Also, the influence of the longitudinal wavenumber of the warming traveling electric field on the selectivity of an ion cyclotron resonance reactor is investigated. The heating efficiency is estimated from the frequency dependence of the fraction of ions heated to an energy above a given value.