Observation of the ionization waves in a plasma produced by radio frequency in a magnetic mirror

Abstract

A system of Multiple Mirror and a radio frequency generator of 600 W were designed and constructed to study characteristics of plasma produced and heated by radio frequency waves.In this work, by using Langmuir probes, we have detected large spatial variations of density and temperature along the axis of symmetry of the system. These spatial variations have characteristics similar to those Striations waves found in glow discharges, in the presence of an electric current.

Pattern Formation in Low-Pressure Radio-Frequency Plasmas due to a Transport Instability

“…Introduction.-Pattern formation is a ubiquitous phenomenon in plasmas, arising from interaction with boundaries [1], volumetric processes, or spatiotemporal complexity [2]. Striations are a particular form of self-organization observed in various conditions: dc discharges [3], magnetic mirrors [4], laser generated plasmas [5], and ionospheric plasmas [6,7]. In dc nonequilibrium gas discharge plasmas driven at intermediate neutral pressures (10-1500 Pa), striations are usually interpreted as an ionization instability.…”

Start of experiments in the design configuration of the GOL-NB multiple-mirror trap

“…The direct comparison of the plasma flow in a multiple-mirror system with that in a solenoidal field was done in the Shchegol experiments with 0.2 eV rare cesium plasma [8]. Several other known multiple-mirror experiments either had no technical capability to do the direct comparison, worked on problems not related to the confinement improvement, or had not provided such data; the following references are for sample papers from the mentioned teams [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. The GOL-NB experiment [18,19] was suggested to fill this knowledge gap.…”