Consequences of ponderomotive effects at the plasma periphery on the electrical behaviour of a multijunction grill lower hybrid launcher

A radiofrequency power-plasma coupling code which takes into account ponderomotive effects at the plasma periphery is developed for a multijunction grill. At a frequency of 4.6 GHz, if the RF power density increases, the power reflection coefficient remains fairly low, while the distribution of power among subsidiary waveguides deteriorates. At lower frequencies, the danger of overloading individual waveguides is expected to be still greater.