The Effects Of Finite Electron Temperature And Diffraction On Lowere Hybrid Wave Propagation
Authors: J.C. Wright and N.Bertelli
Abstract:
In this paper we show that the commonly used cold plasma dispersion relation for plasma
waves in the lower hybrid range of frequencies (LHRF) produces a wave trajectory that is
notably different than when thermal corrections to the Hermitian part of the dielectric tensor
are retained. This is in contrast to the common implementation in LH simulation codes in
which thermal effects are retained only for the anti-Hermitian part of the dielectric tensor used
for damping calculations. We show which term is the critical one to retain in the dielectric
tensor and discuss implications for modeling of LHRF waves in present day and future
devices. We conclude with some observations on the effects of diffraction that may be isolated
once thermal effects are retained in both ray tracing and full-wave approaches.
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Submitted to: Plasma Physics Controlled Fusion (February 2014)
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Download PPPL-4989 (pdf 266 KB pp)
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