The bump-on-tail instability excited by energetic electrons in helicon plasma

TL;DR

This study investigates the bump-on-tail instability driven by energetic electrons in helicon plasma using the Berk-Breizman model, revealing how parameters like collisionality and power influence instability behavior and plasma stability.

Contribution

First application of the Berk-Breizman model to analyze bump-on-tail instability in helicon plasma, including parameter effects and stability conditions under experimental scenarios.

Findings

Disturbed distribution oscillates explosively initially without frequency shift.

Higher Krook operator increases electric field saturation and instability.

BOT instability significantly affects plasma density and flux, especially in rotating plasma.

Abstract

This work explores for the first time bump-on-tail (BOT) instability excited by energetic electrons in helicon plasma. The Berk-Breizman model that developed for the wave-particle interaction and resulted instability in magnetic fusion is used. Details of the BOT instability are computed referring to typical helicon discharge conditions. Parameter studies are also conducted to reveal the effects of collisionality and energetic drive, to account for high-pressure and high-power senarios respectively. It is found that under the HXHM (high magnetic field helicon experiment) experimental parameters, the disturbed distribution function oscillates explosively at the initial stage of BOT instability excitation, and the wave frequency shift does not appear, i.e., the steady-state solution always exists under this mode. In the process of restoring stability, the exchange of energetic particles and wave energy is concurrent with the change of wave amplitude. As the Krook operator increases (i.e., from 0.1 to 1), the saturation level of the electric field and the instability enhance. Additionally, there have a bigger disturbance for the initial EEDF (electron energy distribution function) in high-power helicon devices, so that the energy exchange between waves and energetic particles is stronger as well. Moreover, BOT instability effects the density and flux of bulk plasma, and the flux increases with the Krook operator. The effect of BOT instability is one order of magnitude larger on rotating plasma than that on stationary plasma.These findings present a full picture of BOT instability in helicon plasma and are valuable to controlling it for efficient and safe applications, e.g., high-power space plasma propulsion and plasma material interactions using helicon source.