Anomalous conductivity and electron heating in a plasma unstable to the two-stream instability

Abstract

An experiment to excite the electron-ion two-stream instability in a cylindrical Q-machine plasma column is described. The mechanism for establishing a large pulsed electron drift velocity in the plasma by applying a potential difference between the end electrodes is discussed. The pulsed current-voltage characteristic of the plasma column and the temporal evolution of the electron density, drift velocity and thermal velocity are measured. In contrast with the behaviour of some computer simulations of the two-stream instability, the plasma exhibits a constant conductivity and the electron thermal velocity increases to values far in excess of the drift velocity. The electrical dissipation is consistent with the increase of the electron thermal energy, both indicating an anomalous conductivity of the same order as an empirical scaling found in earlier experiments on a toroidal discharge.