ELECTRON ACCELERATION THROUGH THE EH01 WAVE MODE IN A MAGNETO COLLISIONAL PLASMA-FILLED CYLINDRICAL WAVEGUIDE

Abstract

A model is developed to study the effect of the electron collision frequency with background ions on EH01-mode field components, the dispersion characteristics, the trajectory and finally the electron energy gain. The hybrid EH01 mode propagating through a plasma-filled waveguide strongly influences the acceleration of electrons in the presence of an external static magnetic field. It can enhance the electron-energy gain by sustaining the electron in the accelerating phase of the EH01 mode wave. The dispersion equation is derived for the EH01 mode with the finite magnetic field, in particular, the electron- neutral collisions, taken into account. We show that due to electron collisions with the ions of the background plasma, proper choices of the parameter are essential for good operation in this region. The numerical results illustrate that the presence of the electron collision term in the dielectric tensor can reduce the electron's energy gain from 7.5 MeV to 4 MeV (in 2.5 cm along the waveguide length) in a magnetized plasma-filled waveguide.