Simulation study of the harmonic structure of lower hybrid waves driven by energetic ions.

By means of one-dimensional, electromagnetic, particle-in-cell simulations considering the effects of energetic-ion injection, we study the harmonic structure of lower hybrid waves (LHWs) driven by energetic ions under the condition where the electron plasma frequency (ω_{pe}) is smaller than the electron cyclotron frequency (Ω_{e}). It is found that after the LHWs are excited with the wave number and frequency of (k_{1},ω_{1}), many harmonic LHWs are generated at (mk_{1},nω_{1}) where m and n are integers, up to far beyond the lower hybrid resonance frequency, m and n∼10. We show that the harmonic LHWs are generated by nonlinear wave-wave coupling between the LHWs directly excited by the energetic ions and the energetic-ion cyclotron waves above the lower hybrid resonance frequency.