Emission of ion and electron cyclotron harmonic radiation from mode conversion layers

The asymmetry of cyclotron radiation from a mode conversion layer is presented for harmonics of the ion cyclotron frequency and the second harmonic of the electron cyclotron frequency for weakly relativistic electrons. The same form of Kirchhoff’s law is found for all cases, relating the emission along each branch to the absorption of an incident wave along the corresponding branch. Results show that the fast wave radiation is more strongly asymmetric at the third harmonic than at the second harmonic of the ion cyclotron frequency, while the slow wave radiation ratio is about same. At the second cyclotron harmonic of weakly relativistic electrons, the asymmetry of radiation is found to be small at high temperature. The effect of equilibrium Bernstein wave radiation is also discussed.