NONLINEAR DYNAMICS AND CHAOS IN GAS-DISCHARGE SYSTEMS

This paper summarizes recent experimental work on nonlinear dynamical phenomena in gas discharge plasmas. As a relatively simple example, ch aotic oscillations in low-pressure thermionic discharges are discussed in detail. Period doubling bifurcations and intermittency are clearly identified as standard routes to chaotic behaviour. Most of its dynam ical features are well described by simple nonlinear oscillator models . In contrast, plasma waves are spatiotemporal phenomena and thus show a much richer dynamical behaviour. This is demonstrated for current-d riven drift waves in a linear magnetized plasma. Probe arrays provide the required information about the time evolution of the azimuthal wav e structure.