Characteristics of two types of beam plasma discharge in a laboratory experiment

R. W. Boswell, Paul J. Kellogg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

Experiments on the Beam Plasma Discharge (BPD) using an electron beam traveling along a magnetic field have been carried out in a large volume laboratory vacuum chamber. Two different types of BPD have been observed, and scaling laws for varying neutral gas pressure, axial magnetic field, interaction length and electron flux, deduced. The second type of BPD occurs when the beam current is increased well above the threshold for the first type. The transition from the first type to the second, like the ignition of the first, is distinguished by abrupt changes of luminosity, discharge diameter, and wave emission signature.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)565-568
Number of pages4
JournalGeophysical Research Letters
Volume10
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1983

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