EXCITATION OF AZIMUTHAL SURFACE WAVES IN TOROIDAL WAVEGUIDE BY ROTATING ELECTRON BEAM AT THE RANGE OF ELECTRON CYCLOTRON RESONANCE

Azimuthal Surface Waves (ASWs) are electromagnetic waves of the surface type, which propagate across an external steady magnetic field in plasma filled metal waveguides. The interaction between extraordinary ASWs and an electron beam that rotates along Larmor orbits in the gap between the plasma column and the metal wall is studied here. The initial stage of the ASW excitation is studied analytically and numerically. Growth rates of the ASW beam instability are analyzed as functions of the parameters of the plasma filled waveguide immersed in a steady magnetic field with toroidal nonuniformity. This nonuniformity leads also to the appearance of corrections to the ASW eigen frequencies. It is shown that the beam-wave interaction in a toroidally nonuniform steady magnetic field is not weaker than in the case of a uniform magnetic field. However, in the studied case, the efficiency of the power transfer from the beam into the excited waves becomes restricted due to the electron drift in the nonuniform magnetic field.