A small region of a magnetically confined fully-Ionized arc plasma of density 2 x 1016 cm-3 and electron temperature of 1.3 to 1.7 eV is heated by 0.7 eV with pulsed CO^-laser energy. The measured thermal decay is accounted for by classical collisional diffusion along the magnetic field.nFor certain basic studies of laser heating of plasmas, it appears that the dense electric arc has several advantages over the breakdown and e-pinch plasmas:The steady-state arc operation allows the large repetition rate available with pulsed CO? lasers to be fully utilized, at densities almost as large as those available in pinches. The arc plasma is stationary and Maxwellian, so that energy absorption in a confined ambient plasma can be studied.
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