Feedback-controlled steady-state plasma

A current-free magnetized plasma with independently variable density and electron temperature has been produced and studied. The plasma, which may be either steady state or pulsed, is generated at one end of a 1.5-m-long vacuum system by a 10 GHz microwave discharge at electron gyroresonance in a d.c. magnetic field. In the main body of the plasma the magnetic field can be varied from 1 to 10 kG and plasma densities 5*10 8 <or approximately=n e <or approximately=5*10 11 cm -3 and temperatures 2<or approximately=T i