Abstract
A novel magnetic mirror concept with field-reversed configurations (FRCs) formed via rotating magnetic fields (RMFs) serving as end plugs is proposed to improve the mirror's axial confinement. Single-particle orbit calculations suggest that the FRCs in the end plugs can reflect ions back into the central cell if their parallel speeds are not so fast that they can overcome the magnetic field gradient force from the X-point of the FRC to the midplane outside of the FRC. However, this effect is limited and is no different from that of adding a weak mirror cell to the central cell. When the inward Hall electric field generated by the RMFs is considered, an additional Lorentz force emerges that pushes the incoming ions back to the central mirror, thereby dramatically improving the confinement. The Lorentz force is related to the azimuthal drift speed times the radial component of the magnetic field. By surveying the particle phase space of the speeds, we find that this Lorentz force can reflect back or trap >90% of ions escaping from the central mirror given a sufficient Hall electric field in the RMF region. Finally, preliminary experimental results from the Keda Mirror with AXisymmetricity RMF/FRC are reported and show that with the RMFs on, the axial mirror confinement can increase by a factor of ∼1.4 on average.
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