Landau damping of electrons with bouncing motion in a radio-frequency plasma*

Abstract

One-dimensional particle simulations have been conducted to study the interaction between a radio-frequency electrostatic wave and electrons with bouncing motion. It is shown that bounce resonance heating can occur at the first few harmonics of the bounce frequency (nω b,n = 1,2,3,…). In the parameter regimes in which bounce resonance overlaps with Landau resonance, the higher harmonic bounce resonance may accelerate electrons at the velocity much lower than the wave phase velocity to Landau resonance region, enhancing Landau damping of the wave. Meanwhile, Landau resonance can increase the number of electrons in the lower harmonic bounce resonance region. Thus electrons can be efficiently heated. The result might be applicable for collisionless electron heating in low-temperature plasma discharges.