Modification of density profile at interaction of three superposing fundamental modes with plasma in a cylindrical waveguide

Abstract

The interaction of high-power microwave and plasma is studied through the propagation of three fundamental TE11 modes in a plasma-filled cylindrical waveguide, when their fields have a phase difference and they superpose at a small angle. Furthermore, a modification of the electron density distribution of the plasma by the ponderomotive force of the microwave propagating into the configuration is studied. Here, we derive two coupled equations obtained using the wave and Maxwell’s equations for the resultant mode along with the contribution of plasma cylindrical waveguide. These equations are solved numerically using 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 filled by plasma with homogeneous initial density distribution. It is graphically shown that the field of the microwave gets altered and also the density profile can be controlled by the angle of superposition, phase difference between the fields of the three modes, microwave frequency, electron temperature and microwave field amplitude.