Experimental Observation of a Periodically Oscillating Plasma Sphere in a Gridded Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Device

Journal Article · Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2005 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.015003· OSTI ID:20696429

Park, J; Nebel, R A; Stange, S; Murali, S Krupakar ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87544 (United States)

The periodically oscillating plasma sphere (POPS) [D. C. Barnes and R. A. Nebel, Phys. Plasmas 5, 2498 (1998).] oscillation has been observed in a gridded inertial electrostatic confinement device. In these experiments, ions in the virtual cathode exhibit resonant behavior when driven at the POPS frequency. Excellent agreement between the observed POPS resonance frequency and theoretical predictions has been observed for a wide range of potential well depths and for three different ion species. The results provide the first experimental validation of the POPS concept proposed by Barnes and Nebel [R. A. Nebel and D. C. Barnes, Fusion Technol. 34, 28 (1998).].

• OSTI ID: 20696429
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 95, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.015003; (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
CATHODES
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT
IONS
OSCILLATIONS
PERIODICITY
PLASMA
PLASMA WAVES
RESONANCE
SPHERES
VALIDATION