Local Optical Emissivity in a Steady State Plasma Confined by a Dipole Magnet

A microwave (2.45 GHz) generated compact dipole plasma is produced by electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) heating. The dipole field is generated via a single water-cooled permanent magnet (NdFeB)
¹
. Visual observations indicate alternate bright and less bright regions analogous to the Van Allen radiation belts in the Earth's magnetosphere. Preliminary investigations reveal that the experimentally observed bright zones of energetically trapped particles in the plasma correspond to regions of excitation by ECR frequency and its harmonics.