Collisionless Plasma Heating at the Ion Cyclotron Resonance

A variant of the method proposed by Stix for heating a plasma at the ion cyclotron resonance is presented. It is efficient for a wide range of densities and suitable for small aspect-ratio ($\frac{r}{R}$) toroidal configurations. An estimate of the resistive plasma loading is given and compared with the inductive reactance or, alternatively, with the Ohmic losses of the coil.