Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-1993

Journal Title

Physics of Fluids B: Plasma Physics

Volume Number

5

Issue Number

5

First Page

1523

Last Page

1528

DOI

10.1063/1.860892

Version

Publisher PDF: the final published version of the article, with professional formatting and typesetting

Disciplines

Physics

Abstract

Positive/negative ion plasmas, composed of Ba+, SF6−, and residual electrons, were observed to display characteristics of strong turbulence.Experiments on the UCI Q machine linked the presence of negative ions (and the depletion of electrons) with large density fluctuations (δn/n≂1), large‐amplitude, low‐frequency electrostatic noise (f≤20 kHz), and rapid transport of ions across magnetic field lines (D⊥≂104 cm2/sec). Ion velocity distributions were heated parallel to and cooled perpendicular to the confining magnetic field. The partial pressure of gaseous SF6 was shown to serve as a regulator of plasma turbulence. Turbulence levels could be smoothly varied from quiescent states (δn/n≂0.01) to strongly turbulent states (δn/n≂1).

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