Plasma and Ion Beam Injection into an FRC

Experiments on the transverse injection of intense (5-20 A/cm2), wide cross-section (10-cm), neutralized, ∼100-eV H+ plasma and 100-keV H+ ion beams into a preformed B-field reversed configuration (FRC) are described. The FRC background plasma temperature was ∼5 eV with densities of ∼1013 cm-3. In contrast to earlier experiments, the background plasma was generated by separate plasma gun arrays. For the startup of the FRC, a betatron-type 'slow' coaxial source was used. Injection of the plasma beam into the preformed FRC resulted in a 30-40% increase of the FRC lifetime and the amplitude of the reversed magnetic field. As for the ion beam injection experiment into the preformed FRC, there was evidence of beam capture within the configuration