Wave and particle measurements near the lower-hybrid frequency

Abstract

Experimental results are presented on lower-hybrid waves excited in a plasma column by an electrostatic coupler. It is found that the observed wave patterns which clearly show resonance cones, are as predicted by a theory based on the superposition of bounded-plasma eigenmodes for a source with a wide kz spectrum and are also consistent with the WKB resonance-cone formulation. Results on electron heating and plasma loss produced by lower-hybrid waves are also presented.