Discharge characteristics and dynamics of a magnetized current-carrying line-tied plasma

Discharge characteristics and dynamic behaviors of a current-carrying line-tied (screw pinch) plasma have been experimentally studied. Besides its compactness, the novelty of this design is to utilize a single plasma source for both arc discharge and beam extraction, providing a plasma current of up to 2 kA with an injection voltage of 1.2 kV. The electron density and temperature of the screw pinch plasma were measured to be similar to 10(20) m(-3) and similar to 6 eV, respectively, depending on the operating parameters and magnetic field topology. The estimated Kruskal-Shafranov instability current limit of 1.58 kA was confirmed by high-speed camera measurement. The initial experimental results showed that the strength and topology of the magnetic field played a crucial role in the discharge characteristics and dynamic behaviors of the current-carrying line-tied plasma. (c) 2022 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).