Title
Inhomogeneity scale lengths in a magnetized, low-temperature, collisionless, Q-machine plasma column containing perpendicular-velocity shear
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2006
Department/School
Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Radial inhomogeneity scale lengths for radial electric field, ion density, and magnetic-field-aligned (parallel) electron-drift velocity have been measured and interpreted in magnetized, low-temperature, collisionless plasma. The effect of a narrow layer of inhomogeneity in these parameters on the excitation of electrostatic ion-cyclotron waves is investigated. When the ion Larmor radius rho(i) is on the order of, or larger than, the half-width at half-maximum sigma(r){E-r} of the Gaussian-like, radially localized, radial electric-field profile E-r(r), the radial profile of the azimuthal ion rotation velocity, measured using laser-induced fluorescence (LIF), has a peak that, because of finite-Larmor-radius effects, is significantly lower than the peak of the combined radial profile of the ExB and diamagnetic drift velocities. Results of an experimentally validated test-particle simulation are presented and applied using experimentally relevant electric-field profiles. Two experimental configurations are explored for which the ions enter into the electric field at different rates. In one configuration, the ions experience an effectively adiabatic increase in electric-field strength. In the other configuration, the increase in electric-field strength is effectively instantaneous. The simulation reproduces both the main features of the radial profile of LIF-measured ion flow and the observed density depletion in regions of relatively high plasma potential for experimental conditions in which no waves were observed. The density depletion is interpreted as resulting from the finite-Larmor-radius ion orbits in the presence of an inhomogeneous electric field with radial scale length sigma(r){E-r}approximate to rho(i). (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.
Link to Published Version
Recommended Citation
Reynolds, E. W., Koepke, M. E., Carroll, J. J., & Shinohara, S. (2006). Inhomogeneity scale lengths in a magnetized, low-temperature, collisionless, Q-machine plasma column containing perpendicular-velocity shear. Physics of Plasmas, 13(9), 92106. doi:10.1063/1.2338293