Finite Temperature and Wall Effects on the Absorption of Electron Cyclotron Waves in an EBT Plasma

The absorption of electron cyclotron waves propagating along an externally applied magnetic field in a uniform plasma surrounded by a cylindrical metallic cavity wall is studied. In the model, the cavity wall, the vacuum-plasma interface, and the effects of finite electron temperature are considered, and the dispersion relation for the wave propagation is derived. The results are then applied to the ELMO Bumpy Torus (EBT-I) plasma, and the propagation characteristics are computed. The wave absorption in the ordinary mode is found to be a result of the wall effects, which cannot be predicted with the infinite plasma theory. The loaded quality factor QL is also estimated from the model to be about 14, which is in good agreement with the experimentally observed value.     

On the low-threshold parametric mechanism of the anomalous power absorption in electron cyclotron resonance heating experiments in toroidal devices

The experimental conditions that facilitate the excitation of parametric decay instabilities upon the electron cyclotron resonance heating of a plasma at the second harmonic extraordinary wave in tokamaks and stellarators and, as a result, make anomalous absorption of microwave power possible have been analyzed. It has been shown that, in the case of a nonmonotonic radial profile of the plasma density, when the beam of electron cyclotron waves passes near the equatorial plane of a toroidal device, the parametric excitation of electron Bernstein waves, as well as the generation of ion Bernstein waves propagating from the parametric decay region to the nearest ion cyclotron harmonic, where they efficiently interact with ions, is possible. The proposed theoretical model can explain the anomalous generation of accelerated ions observed upon electron cyclotron heating in small and moderate toroidal facilities.     

Complex ray tracing study of electron cyclotron resonance heating

In the up-to-date ray tracing study of electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) of fusion plasmas, energy absorption effect has never been considered into the wave trajectory computation. Thus all the work has been done in real space so far. In this paper we consider coupling of energy absorption to wave trajectory for the first time, and numerically solve the formal complex Hamilton equations in complex space, then take the real-space-projected wave trajectories and group velocities to be the corresponding concrete ones. It is shown that both ordinary wave and extraordinary wave injected from the inner side of the tokamak plasmas approach the electron cyclotron resonance surface step by step and their group velocities become exceedingly small as they move toward this surface. Those clearly show that the resonance between the electron cyclotron waves and the fusion plasmas takes place in the electron cyclotron resonance region, which is just the case the ECRH experimental results and the plasma kinetic theory of waves demonstrate.     

Microwave backscatter from mesoscale breaking waves on the sea surface

Radar backscatter from mesoscale breaking waves on the sea surface is considered. Breaking waves are shown to be responsible for sea spikes and high Doppler shift with horizontal polarization observed at low grazing angles. The backscatter cross sections for scattering from a single breaking wave are computed for both orthogonal polarizations. An estimate is obtained of the backscatter cross section averaged over the sea surface. It is shown that the main scattering mechanisms are specular backscatter from the steep front of the breaking wave, and backscatter enhancement due to double-bounce scattering from the wave itself and from the foot of the breaking wave. Horizontally polarized backscatter is shown to be considerably higher than vertically polarized backscatter when the angle of incidence is close to the Brewster angle.     

Scattering of light waves by electron electrostatic waves in laser produced plasmas

The propagation of light waves in an underdense plasma is studied using one-dimensional Vlasov-Maxwell numerical simulation.It is found that the light waves can be scattered by electron plasma waves as well as other heavily and weakly damping electron wave modes,corresponding to stimulated Raman and Brilluoin-like scatterings.The stimulated electron acoustic wave scattering is also observed as a high scattering level.High frequency plasma wave scattering is also observed.These electron electrostatic wave modes are due to a non-thermal electron distribution produced by the wave-particle interactions.The collision effects on stimulated electron acoustic wave and the laser intensity effects on the scattering spectra are also investigated.     

Interaction of terahertz waves propagation in a homogeneous,magnetized, and collisional plasma slab

ABSTRACT

The properties of terahertz waves propagation in a homogeneous, magnetized, and collisional plasma are studied in this paper. We first theoretically calculate the reflectance and absorbance coefficients for terahertz waves passing through this region. Then, numerous simulations are conducted to investigate the influence of the plasma on the terahertz waves propagation. According to the results, the plasma density, collision frequency, and magnetic field play important roles in dielectric spectra, and then result in large impacts on the propagation with the variation of the plasma thickness, incident angle, and the gas pressure. The absorbance increases with the increase of plasma density, and the collision frequency. With respect to the collisional absorption and electron cyclotron resonance, the absorbance first increases to its maximum peak and then decreases as the wave frequency increases. When the plasma density increases, the peak value shifts to a higher frequency. Meanwhile, the plasma slab acts as the absorber or reflector with the variation of the gas pressure and the plasma thickness. These results provide supplementary information on the terahertz waves propagation in plasma and can serve as a theoretical basis for its application.     

Propagation of terahertz waves in nonuniform plasma slab under "electromagnetic window"

The application of magnetic fields, electric fields, and the increase of the electromagnetic wave frequency are up-and-coming solutions for the blackout problem. Therefore, this study considers the influence of the external magnetic field on the electron flow and the effect of the external electric field on the electron density distribution, and uses the scattering matrix method (SMM) to perform theoretical calculations and analyze the transmission behavior of terahertz waves under different electron densities, magnetic field distributions, and collision frequencies. The results show that the external magnetic field can improve the transmission of terahertz waves at the low-frequency end. Magnetizing the plasma from the direction perpendicular to the incident path can optimize the right-hand polarized wave transmission. The external electric field can increase the transmittance to some extent, and the increase of the collision frequency can suppress the right-hand polarized wave cyclotron resonance caused by the external magnetic field. By adjusting these parameters, it is expected to alleviate the blackout phenomenon to a certain extent.     

Resonant Joule phenomena in a magnetoplasma

The present state of research of resonant Joule interactions of collisional plasmas with electromagnetic waves, including both the problems of plasma heating and wave dynamics, is reviewed. The controlled development of non-linear wave processes in gaseous and solid-body plasmas in radiowave and microwave ranges via resonant heating is discussed. The series of thermal bistability effects, produced by electron-temperature hysteresis near Langmuir and cyclotron resonances, is considered. The geometrical resonances of absorption in layered structures and bounded volumes are illustrated. Localization of dissipation phenomena near resonant regions in heterogeneous and anisotropic magnetoplasmas is analyzed. Relativistic and quantum effects in resonant collisional attenuation of waves in a plasma are shown. Some analogous tendencies in Joule wave phenomena are marked in plasmas characterized by very different physical conditions-from laboratory devices up to cosmic objects.     

等离子体中相对论性电子回旋波色散关系

推导了一般条件下的相对论性电子回旋波色散关系。其中采用了相对论性修正的分布函数。对奇点作了较好的处理。所得到的公式可直接用于计算一般条件下的相对论性电子回旋波的传播和吸收问题。为高温等离子体波的研究提供了一个很方便的理论公式。 关键词：     

THz电磁波在时变非磁化等离子体中的传播特性研究

本文建立了时变非磁化等离子体平板的一维模型,并采用时域有限差分(FDTD)方法对太赫兹(THz)电磁波在时变等离子体中传播时的反射、透射系数及吸收率进行了计算.然后根据计算结果分析了时变等离子体的上升时间、电子密度、温度以及等离子体平板厚度等参数对不同频段THz波在等离子体中传播特性的影响.分析结果表明:THz波在时变等离子体中传播时,其反射系数受等离子体电子密度和上升时间的影响较大;而吸收率则随着上升时间的减小、电子密度及平板厚度的增加而增大;此外,THz电磁波能够穿透量级为1020m-3的高密度等离子体层,可以作为再入段飞行器通信以及高密度等离子体诊断的理想工具.     

Doppler-shifted cyclotron absorption of electron Bernstein waves via N( parallel)-upshift in a Tokamak plasma

Extraordinary (X) waves are perpendicularly injected for electron Bernstein (B) wave heating into an Ohmically heated plasma from the inboard side in the WT-3 tokamak. Measurements show that absorption does not take place at the electron cyclotron resonance layer nor the upper hybrid resonance layer, but does happen midway between them. This is consistent with the ray tracing prediction, i.e., the poloidal field and poloidal inhomogeneity of toroidal field lead the B waves to have a large parallel refractive index N( parallel) (>1), and the B waves are damped away via the Doppler-shifted cyclotron resonance.     

Attenuation properties of EM wave by magnetized nonuniform plasma slab coated on perfect conductor plane

The total amplitude reflection coefficient of EM wave in a nonuniform plasma slab coated on perfect conductor plane is newly derived by using the scattering matrix method (SMM), and the attenuation is calculated. Three types of plasma electron density profile, that is the hyperbolic, sinusoidal, and linear profiles, are used. The external magnetic field and plasma parameters such as the maximum electron density and collision frequencies are discussed to calculate the attenuation of EM wave. The calculation results show that the plasma electron density profile and maximum electron density exert a large effect to the attenuation of EM wave and the attenuation under the uniform external magnetic field is taken place by the electron cyclotron resonance absorption, the up hybrid resonance absorption and geometric resonances absorption.     

Novel Applications of Millimeter and Submillimeter Wave Gyro-Devices

The possible applications of high-power millimeter (mm) and submillimeter waves from gyro-devices span a wide range of technologies. The plasma physics community has already taken advantage of recent advances in applying high-power micro- and mm-waves generated by gyrotron oscillators in the areas of RF-plasma production, heating, noninductive current drive, plasma stabilization and active plasma diagnostics for magnetic confinement thermonuclear fusion research, such as lower hybrid current drive (8 GHz), electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) (28–170 GHz), electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD), collective Thomson scattering and heat-wave propagation experiments. Other important applications of gyrotrons are electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) discharges for generation of multi-charged ions and soft X-rays, as well as industrial materials processing and plasma chemistry. Submillimeter wave gyrotrons are employed in high-frequency broadband electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. Future applications which await the development of novel high-power gyro-amplifiers include high resolution radar ranging and imaging in atmospheric and planetary science as well as deep-space and specialized satellite communications and RF drivers for next-generation high-gradient linear accelerators (supercolliders). The present paper reviews the state-of-the-art and future prospects of these recent applications of gyro-devices.     

Parametric Mechanism of Anomalous Microwave Power Absorption in Experiments on Electron Cyclotron Heating in Toroidal Magnetic Traps

The nonlinear stage of the parametric decay instability of an extraordinary wave is analyzed in the presence of a nonmonotonic density profile. The decay excites an electron Bernstein wave, which is localized in the vicinity of a local density maximum, and an ion Bernstein wave, which leaves a nonlinear interaction region and is absorbed by ions in the vicinity of the harmonics of the ion cyclotron frequency. The main mechanism of instability saturation is considered to be a cascade of decays of a primary daughter electron Bernstein wave, which leads to the excitation of localized secondary electron Bernstein waves and ion cyclotron (Bernstein) waves. The localization of electron Bernstein waves causes a significant decrease in the secondary- decay excitation threshold, which is thought to provide saturation of the primary instability at the lowest level. The saturation of the primary parametric decay instability of a pump wave and the anomalous absorption of the pump power are analytically estimated. A numerical simulation is performed using the parameters that are typical of the experiments on the electron cyclotron resonance heating of plasma at the second resonance harmonic in TCV tokamak.     

Electromagnetically induced transparency in high-temperature magnetoactive plasma

We investigate a classical analog of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) currently popular in quantum electronics. We consider EIT for electron cyclotron waves in finite-temperature plasma. We derive an expression for the effective refractive index of an electromagnetic wave and study the dispersion and absorption of this wave under EIT conditions. Allowance for thermal motion is shown to radically change the behavior of the dispersion curves for the signal wave in the EIT region compared to the case of cold plasma.     

Design of the Upgraded TJ-II Quasi-optical Transmission Line

TJ-II plasma start-up and heating are made by electron cyclotron resonance waves at the second harmonic of the electron cyclotron frequency. Two quasi-optical transmission lines transmit the microwave power of the gyrotrons to the vacuum vessel. The first line launches the microwave power under fixed injection geometry, i.e. there is no possibility to change the launching angle and the wave polarization. The second line has a moveable mirror installed inside the TJ-II vessel. To get high absorption efficiency and a narrow energy deposition profile the internal mirror focuses the wave beam at plasma center.To get more flexibility in the experiments on heating and current drive the first transmission line needs to be upgraded. The design is presented in this paper. The new launching antenna includes an internal mirror to focus the beam and to change the injection angle. Both launchers are then symmetrical. A polarizer consisting of two corrugated mirrors is used to get any wave polarization. Two mirrors with an array of coupling holes and calorimetric measurements of the energy absorbed in the barrier window allow the estimation of the microwave power launched into the TJ-II.     

Electron-electron interaction effects in bismuth

Measurements of the far infrared magneto-optical transmission spectra of bismuth at 311 and 337 μ and in fields up to 100 kG at 4°K are described. The sensitivity of the spectra of transmitted magneto plasma waves to the electron scattering in bismuth is discussed. Particular attention is drawn to excitonic effects associated with weakly allowed hole cyclotron resonance absorption lines observed in the spectra. A simple Cooper pair like argument is given to illustrate the nature of these inter subband excitons. The features entering into a more complete theory of the excitons are also briefly discussed.     

Dispersion equations for ion plasma with allowance for electron spin

Wave propagation in ionic magnetoactive plasma along an external magnetic field with allowance for electron spin is considered. It is shown that considering particle spin reveals the emergence of a new plasma mode in a band of frequencies close to the cyclotron frequency. A dispersion equation for wave propagation in a boundless plasma medium is obtained and special cases are considered.     

电子回旋波与快波协同效应的数值研究

在考虑了电子的反弹平均效应及高能电子的相对论效应下,通过数值求解电子的Fokker-Planck方程,研究了托卡马克等离子体中快波与电子回旋波电流驱动问题。采用九点差分法对方程进行离散,应用近似LU因子分解法对方程进行了数值求解。计算结果表明快波与电子回旋波联合电流驱动具有很强的协同效应,在两波联合电流驱动下,驱动电流大于单波电流驱动之和。     

Propagation of electron cyclotron waves in the presence of anisotropic electron distributions

The effects of the anisotropy of the electron distribution on the propagation and the absorption of electron cyclotron waves propagating perpendicularly to the external magnetic field, are analyzed. Considerable variations of the absorption with the anisotropy are found for the ordinary mode at the fundamental cyclotron frequency and the extraordinary mode at the second harmonic.