Potential well formation in electrostatic confinement devices. Technical progress report

A large (2' diameter) spherical electrostatic confinement device has been constructed to test the feasibility of using inertial electrostatic forces to confine energetic plasmas capable of sustaining fusion reactions. Electron injection under high vacuum has produced negative wells that completely depress the potential in the center and approach the classical Langmuir virtual cathode. Electron injection into low pressure deuterium reproduces our previous results of an ion rich region within the negative well. Additional theoretical studies incorporating electrons with very narrow angular momentum (corresponding to trapped electrons in the center) has shown that an additional electron rich region (or ion rich if the polarities are reversed) can be produced within the ion rich region for presumably realistic ranges of parameters