Experimental and Theoretical Studies on Filling a Stel a Rator with Laser-Produced Plasma

Experiments have been performed on filling a stellarator with a noncurrent-carrying laser-produced plasma. Simultaneous plasma production by means of pulsed laser beams at four separate positions on the toroidal magnetic axis has been found to drastically enhance the trapping efficiency of produced plasma by stellarator field, to as high as 50 percent in contrast with about 10 percent in the case of plasma production at one position. This figure of 50 percent could be further improved to nearly 75 percent by spatially isotropic plasma productions which could not be realized in the present experiments owing to technical restrictions on the stellarator employed. The enhancement of trapping efficiency may be attributed to the reduction of toroidal plasma drift due to rotational transform coming into effect earlier in the multiposition production case. Some approximate theoretical analyses and considerations on toroidal drift motion of laser-produced plasma stream within stellarator field have also been presented, and the theoretical prediction on these analyses appears to be consistent with experimental results obtained.