Finding the radial parallel temperature profile in a non-neutral plasma using equilibrium calculations on experimental data
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602 (United States)
In 1992, Eggleston et al. [D. L. Eggleston et al., Phys. Fluids B 4, 3432 (1992)] reported on a technique for measuring the radial temperature profile in a pure-electron plasma confined in a Malmberg-Penning trap by partially dumping the plasma onto a charge collector at the end of the trap. For short plasmas and short confining rings, the assumptions in their paper are violated and a more general calculation is needed. This paper presents a variation of the standard equilibrium calculation to find the temperature profile of a pure-electron plasma. Eggleston's shortcut 'evaporation' temperature method is found to require a correction factor that can be calculated using methods described in this paper. For typical conditions, the evaporation method overstates the actual temperature by a factor ranging from 1.1 to 1.5 or more, depending on the plasma's total charge and temperature and the geometry of the trap.
- OSTI ID:
- 20782483
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 13, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2167586; (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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