Accessibillity of Electron Bernstein Modes in Over-Dense Plasma

Mode-conversion between the ordinary, extraordinary and electron Bernstein modes near the plasma edge may allow signals generated by electrons in an over-dense plasma to be detected. Alternatively, high frequency power may gain accessibility to the core plasma through this mode conversion process. Many of the tools used for ion cyclotron antenna de-sign can also be applied near the electron cyclotron frequency. In this paper, we investigate the possibilities for an antenna that may couple to electron Bernstein modes inside an over-dense plasma. The optimum values for wavelengths that undergo mode-conversion are found by scanning the poloidal and toroidal response of the plasma using a warm plasma slab approximation with a sheared magnetic field. Only a very narrow region of the edge can be examined in this manner; however, ray tracing may be used to follow the mode converted power in a more general geometry. It is eventually hoped that the methods can be extended to a hot plasma representation. Using antenna design codes, some basic antenna shapes will be considered to see what types of antennas might be used to detect or launch modes that penetrate the cutoff layer in the edge plasma.