Ion Waves on Bounded Plasmas

Abstract

Ion acoustic waves propagating along a cylindrical plasma column are studied theoretically. By neglecting the ion temperature, it has turned out possible to derive a simple boundary condition at the plasma surface. In addition to the infinite number of ion wave modes which degenerate into purely longitudinal waves in an infinite plasma, it is found that there exists a surface mode which is the ion equivalent of the electron surface mode of Gould and Trivelpiece. It is also shown that due to interaction between the ion modes and the Gould and Trivelpiece mode the dispersion curves of the ion waves are strongly modified.