Free-Streaming Plasma Experiments

Experiments are described with plasma pulses free-streaming from a source plate into a vacuum along a magnetic field. An analytic solution is derived for the pulse shape as a function of position and time in terms of the initial pulse shape at the launching plate. The experimental results agree extremely well with this free-flow theory, in which the initial pulse is assumed to have a Maxwellian velocity distribution. These experiments allow quantitative observations of free-flow phenomena under carefully controlled laboratory conditions.