Plasma heating by a relativistic electron beam

Abstract

We report measurements on the heating of a hydrogen plasma by means of a relativistic electron beam — The beam parameters are: Vb =600 kV, Ib = 5 kA, τmax = 400 ns. The plasma density was varied between 1 × 10¹⁹ m⁻³ and 3 × 10²⁰ m⁻³. We observed maximum heating at ne =8 × 10¹⁹ m⁻³. The corresponding electron temperature is 200 eV.