Overview of plasma wave studies using the Basic Plasma Science Facility1

Abstract

The Basic Plasma Science Facility (BaPSF) at UCLA is a US national user facility for studies of fundamental processes in magnetized plasmas. The centerpiece of the facility is the Large Plasma Device (LAPD), a 20m long, magnetized linear plasma device 1 . LAPD has been utilized to study a number of fundamental processes, including: collisionless shocks 2 , dispersion and damping of kinetic and inertial Alfvén waves 3 , compressional Alfvén waves for ion-cyclotron range of frequencies heating 4 , flux ropes and magnetic reconnection 5 , three- wave interactions and parametric instabilities of Alfvén waves 6 , 7 , turbulence and transport 8 and interactions of energetic ions and electrons with plasma waves 9 . An overview of research using the facility will be given, followed by a more detailed discussion of recent studies of ion-cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) wave excitation. This work is part of an RF Campaign on LAPD, focusing on a number of fundamental issues related to ICRF wave excitation for heating and current drive in laboratory plasmas, in particular for fusion energy research, but with connections to processes in space plasmas. A high-power (~150 kW) RF system and singlestrap antenna have been developed for LAPD, enabling the generation of large amplitude compressional Alfven (or fast) waves.