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Modelling of a plasma column sustained by a travelling circularly polarized electromagnetic wave (m = 1 mode) in the presence of a constant axial magnetic field

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2009

E. Benova ,
P. Staikov  and
I. Zhelyazkov
E. Benova
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Institute for Foreign Students, BG-1111 Sofia, Bulgaria
P. Staikov
Affiliation:
Faculty of Physics, Sofia University, BG-1126 Sofia, Bulgaria
I. Zhelyazkov
Affiliation:
Faculty of Physics, Sofia University, BG-1126 Sofia, Bulgaria
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Abstract

We present a set of equations modelling a low-pressure plasma column sustained by a travelling electromagnetic wave in the dipolar mode in the presence of a constant external magnetic field. It is shown that, from a practical point of view, only the m = 1 mode (the right-hand-polarized wave) can sustain plasma columns in a wide region of gas-discharge conditions: plasma radius R, wave frequency ωo, magnetic field Bo and low pressures, irrespective of the nature of the gas. We have examined two gas-discharge regimes: freefall/diffusion and recombination respectively. For a given gas-discharge regime the axial column structure and wave-field characteristics are specified by two numerical parameters: σ = ωR/c and ω = ωc/ω, where c is the speed of light and ωc the electron-cyclotron frequency. The main result of our study is that the magnetic field-makes it possible to sustain a plasma column for values of σ smaller than σcr = 0.3726, below which, in the absence of a magnetic field, the dipolar wave cannot produce a plasma. Moreover, at a fixed wave power, the magnetic field – in contrast with the case of plasma columns sustained by azimuthally symmetric waves – increases the plasma density and its axial gradient. The limit of an infinite external magnetic field (Ω → ∞) is also considered. A three-dimensional wave structure is obtained, and it indicates that the wave can be a generalized surface mode, a pure surface or a pseudosurface one.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , August 1992 , pp. 37 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

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