Minority-ion distribution function of a plasma under fundamental and second-harmonic ion-cyclotron heating

The distribution function of the minority ions during ion-cyclotron heating is calculated from a kinetic equation composed of a Landau collision term and a surface-averaged quasi-linear heating term. The kinetic equation is solved by a moment method in which the minority-ion distribution function is expanded in irreducible tensorial Hermite polynomials. The coefficients of the expansion are shown to be solutions of a system of coupled algebraic equations, and the effective minority-ion temperature is deduced from a compatibility constraint. The latter equation is in general too complicated to be solved analytically. The distribution function obtained here is therefore a semi-analytical result.