Proper Ties of a Laboratory Plasma Prepared with Combined Transverse and Longitudinal Currents

Abstract

For some laboratory plasma physics experiments it is necessary to have a plasma of high fractional ionization that is confined in a relatively low magnetic field and for which the charged particle densities and kinetic temperatures do not change too rapidly in space or time. It has been found that a plasma prepared by a "hybrid" method with ionizing currents, both transverse and parallel to the steady magnetic field, has distinct advantages for such experiments.