Development of A ExB Magnetized Plasma Device

A plasma chamber device has been developed to provide an ExB drifting plasma. The ExB Magnetized Plasma Device, EMPD, is a 1m diameter x 2 m long cylindrical chamber with a modified Helmholtz axial magnetic field and up to 330G central field. An independently powered set of pinch coils can provide up to 500G at the ends enabling high mirror ratios at lower central field. The plasma is generated from a hollow cathode emitter forming a central virtual cathode light saber , and a newly designed hollow cathode based ion source. Biasing the two sources creates a spinning plasma about the central axis. A non-rotating interaction can also be formed by injecting plasma from a side-mounted tube. This device has been previously reported, but more recently upgraded with increased magnetic field, and improved pumping, plasma sources, and diagnostics. One of the goals for EMPD is to study momentum coupling in plasma, which is a mechanism that is central to a wide range of interesting and important phenomena; magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling, solar eruptions, the interaction of an electro-dynamic tether system in the Earth’s ionosphere, and the Critical Ionization Velocity (CIV) mechanism are a few examples, with CIV being an easy and persistently observed interaction in EMPD.