Potential well structure in an inertial electrostatic plasma confinement device

Electron beam probing has been used to infer the behavior of potential wells formed by electron injection in a spherical inertial electrostatic plasma containment device. At very low pressures, the electron injection clearly results in the production of a steady state deep negative potential well. When deuterium gas at pressures of up to 10−5 Torr was admitted, the pronounced focusing of the probing electron beam strongly indicated that a steady state positive potential well, due to background ionization, was formed within the negative potential well.