The effect of ponderomotive force on the density in the interaction of two superposing fundamental modes with plasma in an elliptical waveguide

Abstract

The interaction of high power microwaves and plasma is studied through the propagation of two fundamental TE11 modes in a plasma-filled elliptical waveguide, when their fields have a phase difference and they superpose at a small angle. Here we derive two nonlinear differential equations for the amplitude of the electric field in a plasma-filled elliptical waveguide. These equations are solved numerically using the fourth order Runge–Kutta method for the field amplitude of the microwave in the waveguide considering the waveguide to be made up of a perfect conductor and to be filled by plasma with a homogeneous initial density distribution. The effects of electron temperature, the microwave field and its frequency are studied on the perturbed density in relation to the ponderomotive force exerted by the resultant mode. It is shown that the field of the microwave is altered and that the density profile can be controlled by the angle of superposition, the phase difference between the fields of the two modes, the microwave frequency and the microwave field amplitude.