Observation of nonlinear frequency-sweeping suppression with rf diffusion.
Nonlinear frequency sweeping of unstable waves in a laboratory plasma is suppressed upon application of rf fields. Frequency sweeping is driven by a population of energetic electrons trapped in a magnetic dipole field that excite drift-resonant potential fluctuations and create coherent structures in phase space. Self-consistent numerical simulation reproduces the suppression and suggests an explanation due to rf scattering of energetic electrons that destroys the phase-space structures.
Maslovsky
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Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA. dm341@columbia.edu
Levitt
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Mauel
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ME