Ion heating on high-current electron beam interaction with a plasma and capture of a part of the beam into a mirror magnetic trap

Experimental study is given on ion heating during electron high-current beam interaction with a plasma and trapping of some part by a mirror-type magnetic trap. As the beam passes through plasma, powerful high-frequency oscillations excited in the latter and also a wide spectrum of low-frequency oscillations in the region of a lower hybrid resonance-ion plasma frequency, result in plasma ion heating. Part of the beam particles is trapped thus leading to the appearance of a space charge. Upon completion of beam injection into the trap the presence of the space charge in the plasma causes further heating of the ions and their confinement in the mirrortype magnetic trap. An electron beam was used at 100-150 keV and 7-12 kA with the pulse duration between 0.7 and 1.0 μs, formed by a plasma linear betatron. The plasma ion temperature up to 500 eV at a density of 5x1012 cm-3 was obtained