Finite Temperature and Wall Effects on the Absorption of Electron Cyclotron Waves in an EBT Plasma

The absorption of electron cyclotron waves propagating along an externally applied magnetic field in a uniform plasma surrounded by a cylindrical metallic cavity wall is studied. In the model, the cavity wall, the vacuum-plasma interface, and the effects of finite electron temperature are considered, and the dispersion relation for the wave propagation is derived. The results are then applied to the ELMO Bumpy Torus (EBT-I) plasma, and the propagation characteristics are computed. The wave absorption in the ordinary mode is found to be a result of the wall effects, which cannot be predicted with the infinite plasma theory. The loaded quality factor QL is also estimated from the model to be about 14, which is in good agreement with the experimentally observed value.