STEADY-STATE BEHAVIOR OF A MULTIPOLAR PLASMA-DEVICE

A low pressure discharge plasma, with magnetic multipolar confinement, is produced in a cylindrical ultrahigh vacuum device. The device has been specially designed to allow both moving Langmuir probe measuremen ts and laser induced fluorescence diagnostic for the plasma ions. It i s well suited to explore the sheaths region in a bounded plasma and to study wave and turbulence in a laboratory plasma. The main characteri stics of the experimental setup and of the produced plasma are describ ed. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.