Dispersion characteristics and field structure of surface waves in a warm inhomogeneous plasma column

The electron temperature and the radial inhomogeneity of the plasma density are considered in studying the characteristics of the surface electromagnetic wave in a plasma column. The Maxwell equations are combined with the fluid momentum equation to obtain the governing wave equations. For a uniform plasma the wave equations are analytically solved yielding the dispersion relation in a closed form and they are solved by the finite difference method after being converted to an operator eigenvalue equation for a nonuniform plasma. It is shown that the influence of the thermal electron motion is closely related to the density profile and the plasma column radius in addition to the electron temperature and collision frequency. Finally, the electric field structure is found to be quite different from the one obtained from the cold plasma theory.