Abstract
We apply “rotating wall” electric fields to spin up a non-neutral plasma in a Penning-Malmberg trap, resulting in steady-state confinement (weeks) of up to ions. The resulting ion columns can be near global thermal equilibrium, with near-uniform temperature and rotation frequency. The equilibrated plasma rotation rate is observed to be somewhat less than the drive frequency , with slip depending on temperature as for . Dynamic measurements of applied torque versus slip frequency show plasma spin up and compression for and plasma slowing and expansion for . By gradually increasing , density compression up to 20% of the Brillouin density limit has been achieved. Heating resonances and hysteresis in plasma parameters are also observed.
- Received 25 October 1996
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.78.875
©1997 American Physical Society