Dispersion and spectral characteristics of crossfield instability in collisional magnetoplasma

Results on dispersion and spectral characteristics of crossfield instability in a collisional magnetoplasma are presented for different values of externally applied radial electric field. The dispersion relation obtained experimentally differs significantly from predictions of linear theory for strong electric fields. K-spectra for density and potential fluctuations follow power law with indices (-3.7 +- 0.5) and (-5.6 +- 0.6) respectively. At large values of applied electric fields, the main crossfield modes appear to give rise to a number of other modes possibly through non-linear wave-wave interactions. Large amplitude m = 2 mode displays strong sidebands indicating particle trapping by the non-linear waves. Non-linear wave-wave and wave particle interactions, thus, appear to play an important role in the saturation of the cross field instability. (author)