Ion Heating in Field-Reversed Configuration by Radio-Frequency Waves

A simple modeling of the recent experiment on plasma heating by radio-frequency (rf) waves in the field-reversed configuration (FRC) is made. In the FRC Injection Experiment device [1] the ion heating by rf pulse was observed. Present analysis indicates that the heating can be explained by the Doppler broadening of the ion cyclotron resonance in the low magnetic field device. These results support the suggestion that the direct heating of the ion majority near the fundamental ion cyclotron frequency should be efficient in low field configurations.