WAVE PROPAGATION IN A NON-MAXWELLIAN, MAGNETOACTIVE, NONLINEAR PLASMA.
Abstract
Expressions for the components of a nonlinear ac conductivity tensor have been derived - corresponding to a temperate, weakly ionized, lossy magnetoplsma. The electrical conductivity tensor is nonlinear because its components are functions of the isotropic part of the electron velocity distribution function f, where f depends upon the amplitude and polarization of the local rf field By diagonalizing the conductivity tensor and referring Maxwell's field equations to the principal co-ordinate directions, it is shown that an elliptically polarized em wave normally incident upon an inhomogeneous magnetoplasma slab will launch only a right-hand and left-hand wave into the plasma if both the dc magnetic field and the electron density gradients are perpendicular to the interfaces. The net reflection transmission coefficients for left-hand and right-hand modes are computed using a Runge-Kutta numerical integration procedure. For low power levels, the right-hand and left-hand waves propagate independently of one another. For high field intensities, the propagation of the right-hand mode depends upon the amplitude of the left-hand mode, and vice versa. Reflection and transmission coefficients are presented as a function of normalized plasma parameters. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1966
- Accession Number
- AD0636096
Entities
People
- Richard E. Haskell
- Robert J. Papa
Organizations
- Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories