Cyclotron Radiation from a Hot Plasma

Abstract

The angular dependence of the absorption coefficient of cyclotron radiation is obtained from the Vlasov equation and evaluated numerically, and the total radiation from both slab and cylindrical plasmas is calculated. The critical harmonic m* (below which the radiation is effectively contained) is presented graphically as a function of T_e, and the combination β_eBL/(1−R). The results for the total radiation are in agreement with the earlier results of Trubnikov and Kudryavtsev. The energy production in a thermonuclear reactor is computed for several different models and compared with the cyclotron radiation loss to find the critical size. The critical size depends on (1/β_e)³ and for β = β_e + β_i = 0.40, the critical size is moderate (less than a meter) for all but the most unfavorable assumptions. For smaller β reflectors must be used to obtain reasonable critical sizes.