Abstract
THE power required to heat a plasma to thermonuclear temperature may be greatly reduced if one can apply the ion relaxation principle suggested by Schlüter1 and also (in a different form) by Motz (unpublished work). In the Schlüter scheme, an oscillation in a magnetic field-strength at a frequency much lower than the frequency of electron collision heats the ions quickly, without appreciably heating the electrons. Since, in a plasma at equilibrium, the electrons are responsible for nearly all the loss of heat, this is a great advantage. In this communication it is shown that, under the influence of an axial unidirectional electric field (as in Zeta and Sceptre), the orbits of electrons in a plasma are distorted in such a way that they feed power to travelling compression waves in the plasma. It is conceivable that, by this means, and with a suitable choice of parameters, a substantial fraction of the total power available to a ring discharge might be converted to ion energy.
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References
Schlüter, A., Terzo Congresso Internazionale sui Fenomeni d'Ionizzazione nei Gas, 924 (Societa Italiana di Fisica, Milan, 1957).
See, for example, Spitzer, L., “Physics of Fully Ionized Gases”, 8 (Intersci. Pub., Inc., New York, 1956).
See the group of papers beginning at p. 217, Nature, 181 (1958).
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REAGAN, D. A Non-Thermal Direct-Current Plasma-heating Mechanism. Nature 183, 102 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/183102a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/183102a0
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