Plasma Physics Department annual report, 1990

The main fields in which researches have been carried out during 1990 at the Wills Plasma Physics Department are briefly discussed. These include investigations of shear Alfven waves at frequencies above the ion cyclotron frequency; the use of submillimetre lasers to detect by far forward scattering density fluctuation associated with waves in Tortus during Alfven wave heating experiments; basic physics of laser induced fluorescence in plasma and in particular the process which determine the population of excited states, as well as magnetron discharge studies and application of the vacuum arc as ion sources for accelerators and as sputtering device for producing thin film coating. A list of publications and papers presented at various conferences by the members of the Department is given in the Appendix