Observations of a field-aligned ion/ion-beam instability in a magnetized laboratory plasma
Abstract
Collisionless coupling between super Alfvénic ions and an ambient plasma parallel to a background magnetic field is mediated by a set of electromagnetic ion/ion-beam instabilities including the resonant right hand instability (RHI). To study this coupling and its role in parallel shock formation, a new experimental configuration at the University of California, Los Angeles utilizes high-energy and high-repetition-rate lasers to create a super-Alfvénic field-aligned debris plasma within an ambient plasma in the Large Plasma Device. We used a time-resolved fluorescence monochromator and an array of Langmuir probes to characterize the laser plasma velocity distribution and density. The debris ions were observed to be sufficiently super-Alfvénic and dense to excite the RHI. Measurements with magnetic flux probes exhibited a right-hand circularly polarized frequency chirp consistent with the excitation of the RHI near the laser target. We compared measurements to 2D hybrid simulations of the experiment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.5017637
Entities
People
- A. S. Bondarenko
- B. Van Compernolle
- C. G. Constantin
- Christoph Niemann
- D. Winske
- Derek Schaeffer
- Martin S Weidl
- P V Heuer
- R S Dorst
- Shreekrishna Tripathi
- Stephen Vincena
Organizations
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- National Science Foundation
- United States Department of Energy
- University of California, Los Angeles