INSTABILITY INDUCED BY ELECTRON-TRANSPORT IN A WEAKLY IONIZED PLASMA IN EXH FIELDS

The influence of a transverse magnetic field on the weakly ionized pla sma instability caused by competition between the diffusion and thermo diffusion processes is investigated. A criterion of this so-called the rmocurrent instability for the plasma carrying a current in electric a nd magnetic fields is derived. It is shown that the transverse magneti c field is favourable to instability growth. This is associated with t he disturbances propagating at an angle to the electric field and with a change in the electron transport parameters. From a calculation of the electron transport coefficients, boundaries of the instability reg ion are obtained in He, N-2 and CO2.