Ion Trapping in the Virtual Cathode of the Penning Fusion eXperiment-Ions

摘要

The goal of the Penning Fusion eXperiment-Ions (PFX-I) is the production of thermonuclear conditions in a Penning trap by means of spatial and/or temporal compression of a high temperature plasma. The present approach involves the confinement of positive ions in a virtual cathode produced by a nonlhermal electron plasma held within a modified Penning trap. We report here on the first evidence of ions trapped in three dimensions in this manner. Experimental evidence of the maintenance of the non-Maxwellian electron energy distribution needed to produce the virtual cathode is presented.