Second-order radio frequency kinetic theory revisited: Resolving inconsistency with conventional fluid theory

The second-order velocity distribution function was calculated from the second-order rf kinetic theory [Jaeger et al., Phys. Plasmas 7, 641 (2000)]. However, the nonresonant ponderomotive force in the radial direction derived from the theory is inconsistent with that from the fluid theory. The inconsistency arises from that the multiple-timescale-separation assumption fails when the second-order Vlasov equation is directly integrated along unperturbed particle orbits. A slowly ramped wave field including an adiabatic turn-on process is applied in the modified kinetic theory in this paper. Since this modification leads only to additional reactive/nonresonant response relevant with the secular resonant response from the previous kinetic theory, the correct nonresonant ponderomotive force can be obtained while all the resonant moments remain unchanged. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.