Experimental studies of the confinement of electron plasma in a multi-ring trap

Abstract

Confinement of pure electron plasma has been studied in an electromagnetic multi-ring trap. The trap was housed inside a bore tube and surrounded by a superconducting solenoid. A magnetic field of 5 T was used to ensure radial confinement of electron plasma, while an electrostatic harmonic potential well was used for its axial confinement. The lifetime of the electron plasma was found to be strongly dependent on the temperature of the bore tube. In the case of electron plasma of 7×10⁹ electrons and when the temperature of the bore tube changed from room temperature to 40 K, the lifetime also changed from 40 to 3700 s. A significant improvement in the electron plasma lifetime was observed when a rotating electric field with optimum parameters was applied. When the bore tube was operated at room temperature with the rotating electric field, the electron plasma lifetime increased up to 2200 s.

Keywords:

• multi-ring trap
• electron plasma
• non-neutral plasmas
• antihydrogen