This paper presents experimental results from the SMOLA device, constructed at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, to verify the concept of helical mirror confinement. The experiments discussed focus on collision regimes and plasma rotation in the transport section, controlled primarily by the axisymmetric plasma gun. The plasma gun of the SMOLA comprises a lanthanum hexaboride cathode, a hollow copper anode and magnetic coils, forming a magnetron discharge with a high degree of ionisation and a radial electric field for ${\textbf{E}} \boldsymbol{\times} {\textbf{B}}$ drift. Ion collisionality is adjustable from collisional to collisionless via magnetic configuration and gas feed of the plasma gun. The main processes in collisions are the ion–ion binary collisions. Electric potential radial distribution, governed by discharge voltage, the anode geometry and its potential, enables ${\textbf{E}} \boldsymbol{\times} {\textbf{B}}$ plasma rotation such that the axial magnetic mirrors velocity in the rotating plasma reference frame can be comparable to the ion thermal velocity ($V_Z \geqslant V_{T_i}$), which realises conditions for effective plasma confinement.

The kinetic stability of collisionless, sloshing beam-ion ($45^\circ$ pitch angle) plasma is studied in a three-dimensional (3-D) simple magnetic mirror, mimicking the Wisconsin high-temperature superconductor axisymmetric mirror experiment. The collisional Fokker–Planck code CQL3D-m provides a slowing-down beam-ion distribution to initialize the kinetic-ion/fluid-electron code Hybrid-VPIC, which then simulates free plasma decay without external heating or fuelling. Over $1$–$10\;\mathrm{\unicode{x03BC} s}$, drift-cyclotron loss-cone (DCLC) modes grow and saturate in amplitude. The DCLC scatters ions to a marginally stable distribution with gas-dynamic rather than classical-mirror confinement. Sloshing ions can trap cool (low-energy) ions in an electrostatic potential well to stabilize DCLC, but DCLC itself does not scatter sloshing beam-ions into the said well. Instead, cool ions must come from external sources such as charge-exchange collisions with a low-density neutral population. Manually adding cool $\mathord {\sim } 1\;\mathrm{keV}$ ions improves beam-ion confinement several-fold in Hybrid-VPIC simulations, which qualitatively corroborates prior measurements from real mirror devices with sloshing ions.

Stability of the ‘rigid’ ($m = 1$) ballooning mode in a mirror axisymmetric trap is studied for the case of oblique neutral beam injection (NBI), which creates an anisotropic population of fast sloshing ions. Since small-scale modes with azimuthal numbers $m>1$ in long thin (paraxial) mirror traps are easily stabilized by finite-Larmor-radius (FLR) effects, suppression of the rigid ballooning and flute modes would mean stabilization of all magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) modes, with the exception of the mirror and firehose disturbances, which are intensively studied in geophysics, but have not yet been identified in mirror traps. Large-scale ballooning mode can, in principle, be suppressed either by the lateral perfectly conducting wall, or by the end MHD anchors such as the cusp, by biased limiters or by a combination of these two methods. The effects of the wall shape, vacuum gap width between the plasma column and the lateral wall, angle of oblique NBI, radial profile of the plasma pressure and axial profile of the vacuum magnetic field are studied. It is confirmed that the lateral conducting wall still creates the upper stability zone, where the ratio $\beta$ of the plasma pressure to the pressure of vacuum magnetic field exceeds the second critical value $\beta_{\text{cr2}}$, $\beta >\beta _{\text {cr2}}$. However, in many cases the upper zone is clamped from above by mirror instability. When the lateral wall is combined with end MHD anchors, a lower stability zone $\beta <\beta _{\text {cr}1}$ appears, where $\beta$ is below the first critical value $\beta_{\text{cr1}}$. These two zones can overlap in the case of a sufficiently smooth radial pressure profile, and/or a sufficiently low mirror ratio and/or a sufficiently narrow vacuum gap between the plasma column and the lateral wall. However, even in this case, the range of permissible values of beta is limited from above by the threshold of mirror instability $\beta_{\text{mm}}$, so that $\beta <\beta _{\text {mm}}<1$, in contrast to the case of transversal NBI, when neutral beams are injected perpendicularly to the magnetic field.

Electron cyclotron resonance ion thrusters (ECRITs) have the potential to be used for space gravitational wave detection due to their wide thrust range. However, an unclear understanding of dynamic processes of ECRITs with strongly coupled multi-operating parameters limits further improvements on thrust noise and response velocity by feedback control systems. An integrative mathematical model considering the non-Maxwell electron energy distribution function for ECRITs is validated by experiments and used to study the influence of operating parameters on the dynamic processes of thrusters, which provides a new simplified grid model. Simulation results show the response processes with microwave (MW) power can be divided into two stages. The characteristic times of the first and second stages are respectively several microseconds and 10 ms, which are respectively dominated by plasma motion and the volume effect. The overshoot of screen grid (SG) current decreases, while its response time remains unchanged when the response time of MW power is prolonged. The response time of SG current with a step increase of flow rate is approximately 10 ms, consistent with the volume effect. The SG current decreases with rise of flow rate for high flow rate operations due to the small increment of ion density limited by low electron temperature, the decrease of ion Bohm velocity and reduction of sheath extraction area. The influence of grid voltage on the dynamic process of the SG current depends on variation ranges of extraction capabilities. When variations of sheath extraction area are limited, the response time is 5 μs, consistent with plasma response time. It is prolonged to 0.5 ms if sheath extraction area variations are large because they cause obvious variations of plasma parameters in the discharge chamber. These dynamic results can not only facilitate designing feedback controllers of micro-propulsion systems for high-precision space missions, but also provide guidance for ion sources to generate highly stable or rapid-response ion beam.

This paper presents a theoretical model of plasma equilibrium in the diamagnetic confinement mode in an axisymmetric mirror device with neutral beam injection. The hot ionic component is described within the framework of the kinetic theory, since the Larmor radius of the injected ions appears to be comparable to or even larger than the characteristic scale of the magnetic field inhomogeneity. The electron drag of the hot ions is taken into account, while the angular scattering of the hot ions due to Coulomb collisions is neglected. The background warm plasma, on the contrary, is considered to be in local thermal equilibrium, i.e. has a Maxwellian distribution function and is described in terms of magnetohydrodynamics. The density of the hot ions is assumed to be negligible compared with that of the warm plasma. Both the conventional gas-dynamic loss and the non-adiabatic loss specific to the diamagnetic confinement mode are taken into account. In this work, we do not consider the effects of the warm plasma rotation as well as the inhomogeneity of the electrostatic potential. A self-consistent theoretical model of the plasma equilibrium is constructed. In the case of the cylindrical bubble, this model is reduced to a simpler one. The numerical solutions in the limit of a thin transition layer of the diamagnetic bubble are found. Examples of the equilibria corresponding to the gas-dynamic multiple-mirror trap device are considered.

Physics of the plasma rotation driven by biasing in linear traps is analysed for two limiting cases. The first, relevant for traps with low effective viscosity, considers the line-tying effects to be responsible for the drive as well as for the dissipation of the angular momentum. Meanwhile, in long and thin traps with collisional plasma or developed turbulence, the radial transport of the angular momentum becomes its primary loss channel. The momentum flux goes into the scrape-off layer, which makes conditions there partially responsible for the achievable rotation limits.

The formation and evolution of unconfined counter-helicity spheromaks merging have been experimentally investigated by using a magnetized coaxial plasma gun. By comparing the time-dependent photodiode signals and plasma radiation images of counter-helicity spheromaks merging and plasma jets merging, it is found that the field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasma formed by counter-helicity spheromaks merging has a distinct contour and a long maintenance time. For plasma jets merging, the resulting plasma has no discernible contours and a shorter lifetime. In addition, it is inferred from these data that stagnation heating and magnetic reconnection events occur during the counter-helicity spheromaks merging, causing a rapid rise in plasma pressure at the merging midplane and sharp kinks in the field lines near the merger region. By changing different operating parameters and observing the impact on the merger characteristics, it is suggested that the qualitative dynamics of the FRC plasma depends on the balance between the plasma pressure and the magnetic pressure. The high discharge voltage breaks the equilibrium in the merged body, while the large gas-puffed mass just weakens the compression effect of the merged body. These results give us an intuitive understanding of the counter-helicity spheromak merger process and its dependence on discharge parameters, and also provide a distinct perspective for the optimal design of FRC.

New plasma applications in advanced fields, such as fundamental nuclear fusion research, require high-density, large-diameter plasma with a strong and non-uniform magnetic field. A helicon plasma (HP) source using a flat-type antenna is expected to be one of the promising methods for such applications. In this study, we developed an HP source with a two-turn flat-loop antenna connected to a 30 kW radio frequency power supply in the Compact Test Plasma device. In the argon plasma generation experiment with various magnetic fields, HP generation was observed for the first time in this device. The electron density was calculated from the dispersion relation with the magnetic field strength at 45 cm from the antenna surface, assuming a fundamental radial mode and an azimuthal mode of $m=0$. The electron density expected from the experimental result was approximately in the same range as the calculation result by a factor of 2.3 to 3.5. In addition, the magnetic field strength and shape around the antenna are important factors in the plasma properties. This plasma source has been installed in the pilot GAMMA PDX-SC, which is under development for nuclear plasma research, and it contributes to the study of the HP generation process.

A unique field-reversed configuration (FRC) experiment is presently being assembled at the Plasma Technology Research Institute, KFE. It is a compact small-scale FRC device, which uses a set of radio frequency (RF) antennas to produce an internal E × B that drives the electrons for current-drive, in which E is the electric field and B is the magnetic field. This is very similar to the rotating magnetic field (RMF) current-drive, where the horizontal and vertical antennas are driven 90° out of phase. For this device, the RF antennas are arranged differently than the RMF. The RF antennas, being two separate sets, are positioned inside the vacuum chamber. Each set consists of 8 coils, for a total of 16 coils, where 80~100 kHz sine and cosine waveform currents are applied. One set of coils generates a radial B-field, while the other set provides an E-field in the z-direction. As the phase changes, the E and B fields are switched by these two sets. Nevertheless, E × B propagates in the same θ-direction so that this allows the electrons to rotate around the circumference of the device. The FRC device will test wave heating by launching 2.45 GHz microwaves. Also, passive stabilizers are positioned at each end to provide extra stability while preventing tilt instability. The experiment is expected to produce its first plasma in 2025.

An overview of the neutral beam injectors developed at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk during the last 10 years is presented. These neutral injectors are used for plasma diagnostics, heating and current drive in modern fusion devices with magnetic confinement. An arc or a radio-frequency (RF) discharge generates a plasma in the ion sources of the injectors, and a positive hydrogen or deuterium ion beam is extracted and accelerated by a multiaperture ion-optical system (IOS). The accelerated ion beam is converted into a neutral one in a gas target. The precision multiaperture IOS with spherically concave electrodes provides ballistic focusing of the neutral beam. The high-energy, high-power beam injector based on negative ions, which is currently under development, is described as well. It comprises a RF negative ion source and a wide-aperture electrostatic accelerator separated from the source by a low-energy beam transport line, thereby improving the injector reliability.

This paper is devoted to experimental studies of plasma confinement with high relative pressure ($\beta$) in the Gas Dynamic Trap (BINP, Novosibirsk). In previous high-$\beta$ confinement studies a maximum local $\beta = 0.6$ was achieved in the fast-ion turning point, contributed to by a beam-driven population of fast ions with an anisotropic distribution function. In this study the axial magnetic field profile was modified to bring the turning points closer to one another, which effectively increased the energy density of plasma and pushed the $\beta$ value higher. Experiments were performed for two non-standard magnetic configurations, where the axial fast-ion confinement region length was reduced by 1.5 and 2 times compared with the standard configuration. The average values of $\langle \beta _{\perp } \rangle$ over the plasma central cross-section were found to be 0.1 and 0.18, respectively, for the two configurations, with the latter value significantly exceeding the $\langle \beta _{\perp } \rangle =0.08$ of the standard configuration, in which the previous record was set. Moreover, halving the fast ion confinement region almost doubled the D–D fusion proton flux from the trap centre compared with the standard configuration. The electron temperature in both new magnetic configurations was only slightly smaller than in the standard configuration. In addition, an effect of Alfvén ion–cyclotron instability (AICI) development on the pressure in the turning points is discussed. Presumably, with some decrease in magnetic field an evolving AICI does not result in considerable pressure axial redistribution, so the pressure maximum is in the turning points’ vicinity despite the instability.

A high-speed solenoid-type pulsed valve is applied to a water-fuelled magnetron sputtering thruster, which can lead a compact and neutralizer-free electric propulsion device by generating a thrust due to the ejection of the sputtered target material, in order to minimize the size of the gas feeding system. The pulsed valve is opened for approximately 5 msec and the gaseous water is introduced into the source via a gas line connected to the source. A dc high voltage is firstly applied between the cathode and the anode; then the discharge is sustained for the period in which a gas pressure enough for the discharge is maintained and a change in the discharge mode is observed during the discharge pulse. To investigate the impact of the mode change on the thrust generation, a temporally resolved measurement of the force is equivalently performed by installing a pulsed voltage power supply and by changing the pulse width of the discharge voltage. The results show the temporal reduction of the thrust-to-power ratio during a pulsed discharge due to the nonlinear correlation between ion energy and sputtering yield. It is suggested that the use of a pulsed valve would be useful for downsizing of the electric propulsion system, while an optimization to properly control the gas flow rate is needed for further development.

The centrifugal mirror confinement scheme incorporates supersonic rotation of a plasma into a magnetic mirror device. This concept has been shown experimentally to drastically decrease parallel losses and increase plasma stability as compared with prior axisymmetric mirrors. MCTrans++ is a dimensionless (0-D) scoping tool which rapidly models experimental operating points in the Centrifugal Mirror Fusion Experiment (CMFX) at the University of Maryland. In the low-collisionality regime, parallel losses can be modelled analytically. A confining potential is set up that is partially ambipolar and partially centrifugal. Due to the stabilizing effects of flow shear, the perpendicular losses can be modelled as classical. Radiation losses such as bremsstrahlung and cyclotron emission are taken into account. A neutrals model is included, and, in some circumstances, charge-exchange losses are found to exceed all other loss mechanisms. We use the SUNDIALS ARKODE library to solve the underlying equations of this model; the resulting software is suitable for scanning large parameter spaces, and can also be used to model time-dependent phenomena such as a capacitive discharge. MCTrans++ has been used to verify results from prior centrifugal mirrors, create an experimental plan for CMFX and find configurations for future reactor-scale fusion devices.

Collisionless charged particle motion and its transport in the two-wire model (TWM) with no axial magnetic fields is investigated numerically. The TWM configuration contains a magnetic X-point, and single particle motions in such a field have two conserved quantities: the total kinetic energy and the base field line value which is a quantity derived from the axial canonical momentum. As gyrating particles travel along the field lines, they may reach near the X-point region where the magnetic moment, the first adiabatic invariant, can be occasionally shifted due to a large gradient of the field. When the magnetic moment becomes large, resulting in a large Larmor radius, particles probabilistically cross the X-point to migrate to the opposite side of the TWM configuration. These phenomena are investigated with single particle simulations. We find that the statistical behaviour of the seemingly chaotic magnetic moment shifts are completely determined by the two aforementioned conserved quantities, and also that there exists a threshold energy, determined by the base field line value, allowing only particles with a higher energy to cross the separatrix and migrate. It is found that the crossing time is distributed exponentially, and that the migration confinement time, which is the average crossing time, is shorter for particles with a base field line closer to the separatrix and a higher energy. We provide an empirical expression, derived with the simulations, for estimating the collisionless migration confinement time.

The paper presents an overview of experimental results of an investigation of different energy loss channels in the gas dynamic trap (GDT), which is a magnetic mirror plasma confinement device in the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics. Energy losses along magnetic field lines are considered as well as losses onto radial limiters, which restrict the plasma column radius and provide its magnetohydrodynamic stability via the ‘vortex confinement’ mechanism. The losses along the field lines were measured using a set of pyroelectric bolometers on the plasma absorber and the losses onto the limiters were determined with thermistors from their temperature rise. Additionally, the losses due to charge exchange of fast plasma ions on the residual neutral gas in the GDT were measured using a longitudinal array of pyroelectric bolometers mounted on the wall of the central cell. An attempt was made to draw up the energy balance in the GDT in order to identify the predominant loss channels and reduce those losses in the future.

A new magnetic mirror machine named KAIMIR (KAIST mirror) has been designed and constructed at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to study mirror plasma physics and simulate the boundary regions of magnetic fusion plasmas such as in a tokamak. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the characteristics and initial experimental results of KAIMIR. The cylindrical vacuum chamber has a length of 2.48 m and a diameter of 0.5 m and consists of three sub-chambers, namely the source, centre and expander chambers. A magnetic mirror configuration is achieved by electromagnetic coils with a maximum magnetic field strength of 0.4 T at the mirror nozzles and 0.1 T at the centre. The source plasma is generated by a plasma washer gun installed in the source chamber with a pulse forming network system. The typical discharge time is ~12 ms with a ~6 ms (1–7 ms) steady period. Initial results show that the on-axis electron density at the centre is 1019–20 m−3 and the electron temperature is 4–7 eV. Two parameters were varied in this initial phase, the source power and the mirror ratio, which is the ratio of highest to lowest magnetic field strength in the mirror-confined region. We observed that the increase of the electron density was mitigated for a source power above 0.2 MW. It was also found that the electron density increases almost linearly with the mirror ratio. Accordingly, the stored electron energy was also linearly proportional to the mirror ratio, similar to the scaling of the gas dynamic trap.

Influence of the local-ionization-induced neutral depletion on the thrust imparted by the magnetic nozzle plasma thruster is discussed by simply considering reduction of the neutral density due to the ionization in the thruster model combining the global source model and the one-dimensional magnetic nozzle model. When increasing the rf power, it is shown that the increase rate of the plasma density is reduced, while the electron temperature continues to increase due to a decrease in the neutral density. Since the major components of the thrust are originated from the electron pressures in the source and in the magnetic nozzle, the increase in the electron temperature contributes to the increase in the thrust in addition to the gradual density increase by the rf power. The model qualitatively predicts the reduction of the thruster efficiency by the neutral depletion for the high-power condition, compared with the constant neutral density model.

The paper presents an investigation of the plasma fluctuation in the SMOLA helical mirror, which is suspected to be responsible for anomalous scattering. The helical mirror confinement is effective when the ion mean free path is equal to the helix pitch length. This condition can be satisfied in hot collisionless plasma only by anomalous scattering. The wave, which scatters the passing ions, is considered to receive energy from the trapped ions. The oscillations of the electric field in the helically symmetric plasma were observed in experiment. The oscillations have both regular highly correlated and chaotic components. The dependency of the regular component frequency on the Alfvén velocity is linear for $V_{\rm A} < 2.8 \times 10^6\ \text {m}\ \text {s}^{-1}$ and constant for higher values. It is shown experimentally that the condition for the wave to be in phase resonance with the trapped ions is satisfied in a specific region of the plasma column for the highly correlated component. The amplitude of the chaotic component (up to $3\ \text {V}\ \text {cm}^{-1}$) is higher than the estimated electric field required for the ion scattering.

This paper explores the feasibility of a break-even-class mirror referred to as BEAM (break-even axisymmetric mirror): a neutral-beam-heated simple mirror capable of thermonuclear-grade parameters and $Q\sim 1$ conditions. Compared with earlier mirror experiments in the 1980s, BEAM would have: higher-energy neutral beams, a larger and denser plasma at higher magnetic field, both an edge and a core and capabilities to address both magnetohydrodynamic and kinetic stability of the simple mirror in higher-temperature plasmas. Axisymmetry and high-field magnets make this possible at a modest scale enabling a short development time and lower capital cost. Such a $Q\sim 1$ configuration will be useful as a fusion technology development platform, in which tritium handling, materials and blankets can be tested in a real fusion environment, and as a base for development of higher-$Q$ mirrors.

The Wisconsin high-temperature superconductor axisymmetric mirror experiment (WHAM) will be a high-field platform for prototyping technologies, validating interchange stabilization techniques and benchmarking numerical code performance, enabling the next step up to reactor parameters. A detailed overview of the experimental apparatus and its various subsystems is presented. WHAM will use electron cyclotron heating to ionize and build a dense target plasma for neutral beam injection of fast ions, stabilized by edge-biased sheared flow. At 25 keV injection energies, charge exchange dominates over impact ionization and limits the effectiveness of neutral beam injection fuelling. This paper outlines an iterative technique for self-consistently predicting the neutral beam driven anisotropic ion distribution and its role in the finite beta equilibrium. Beginning with recent work by Egedal et al. (Nucl. Fusion, vol. 62, no. 12, 2022, p. 126053) on the WHAM geometry, we detail how the FIDASIM code is used to model the charge exchange sources and sinks in the distribution function, and both are combined with an anisotropic magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium solver method to self-consistently reach an equilibrium. We compare this with recent results using the CQL3D code adapted for the mirror geometry, which includes the high-harmonic fast wave heating of fast ions.