Spatial mode structures of electrostatic drift waves in a collisional cylindrical helicon plasma

In a cylindrical helicon plasma, mode structures of coherent drift waves are studied in the poloidal plane, the plane perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field. The mode structures rotate with a constant angular velocity in the direction of the electron diamagnetic drift and show significant radial bending. The experimental observations are compared with numerical solutions of a linear nonlocal cylindrical model for drift waves [Ellis et al., Plasma Phys. 22, 113 (1980)]. In the numerical model, a transition to bended mode structures is found if the plasma collisionality is increased. This finding proves that the experimentally observed bended mode structures are the result of high electron collisionality.