Excitation of plasma fluctuations near ion girofrequencies during RF plasma heating in Uragan-3M torsatron

Abstract

Curentless plasma in Uragan-3M (U-3M) is produced and heated by absorption of RF power in the region of Alfven waves (AW) [1]. The process of plasma heating was explained in [2] as a result of Cherenkov absorption of energy of the fast (EM) and slow (kinetic Alfven) waves by electrons and turbulent ion heating due to excitation of short wave ion Bernstein waves (IBW). In this report we present results of studies of plasma density fluctuations showing existence of a narrow bands near the frequencies of ω ≈ nωci (n = 1, 2, 3).