Classical Collisional Diffusion in the Annular Penning Trap

Abstract

Transport of particles and energy by cross-field diffusion has been studied in the annular Penning trap in which a nonneutral plasma of electrons is contained between concentric cylinders. At densities sufficiently low (<10(exp 5)/cu cm) to suppress mobility transport arising from the space charge electric field, the dominant source of transport is diffusion from collisions of electrons with added helium gas. The particle diffusivity, when corrected for asymmetry transport, is observed to scale linearly with collision frequency and inversely with the square of the axial magnetic field. Measurements of the electron energy distribution as a function of time show an initial mean energy of 0.3 eV which decreases with time as a result of diffusion cooling.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 24, 2002
Accession Number
ADP012538

Entities

People

  • Bob Walch
  • Qudsia Quraishi
  • Scott Robertson

Organizations

  • University of Colorado Boulder

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Diffusion
  • Diffusivity
  • Distribution Functions
  • Electric Fields
  • Electron Density
  • Electron Energy
  • Electrons
  • Energy
  • Equations
  • Ion Traps
  • Kinetic Energy
  • Low Density
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Measurement
  • Particle Flux
  • Particles
  • Space Charge

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster