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A 100 KW Class Applied-field Magnetoplasmadynamic Thruster
Published on: December 22, 2018
Wakefield generation in magnetized plasmas
Amol Holkundkar1, Gert Brodin, Mattias Marklund
1Department of Physics, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden. amol.holkundkar@physics.umu.se
Abstract:
We consider wakefield generation in plasmas by electromagnetic pulses propagating perpendicular to a strong magnetic field, in the regime where the electron cyclotron frequency is equal to or larger than the plasma frequency. Particle-in-cell simulations reveal that for moderate magnetic field strengths previous results are reproduced, and the wakefield wave number spectrum has a clear peak at the inverse skin depth. However, when the cyclotron frequency is significantly larger than the plasma frequency, the wakefield spectrum becomes broadband, and simultaneously the loss rate of the driving pulse is much enhanced. A set of equations for the scalar and vector potentials reproducing these results are derived, using only the assumption of a weakly nonlinear interaction.
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