COLLECTIVE-INTERACTION OF INTENSE PULSED ELECTRON-BEAMS WITH PLASMA -FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF BEAM-PLASMA-DISCHARGE .1.

Experimental results on intense pulsed electron-beam (oscillator beam) interaction with plasma are presented. The conditions of beam-plasma discharge formation and development, when the electron Langmuir (omega (pe)) and Larmor (omega(He)) frequencies are equal to each other (omeg a(pe) approximate to omega(He)), are studied. Intense oscillations (up to 40 kW pulsed power) at the frequency of about omega(He), are shown to develop under these conditions. The oscillation amplitude increase d with the transverse electron-beam energy W-perpendicular to 0 growth . The total and transverse energy of the beam, the half-width of the e xcited oscillation frequency spectrum, the oscillations' growth rates, and the growth rate of the electron plasma density are measured. The electron cyclotron oscillations are found to be heavily damped in the case of omega(pe) approximate to omega(He); the oscillation decay rate is measured. Both the electron and ion plasma temperatures, as well a s the strength of the stochastic microwave electric fields excited in the beam-plasma discharge, are measured by spectroscope techniques. Th e comparison of the obtained experimental and theoretically predicted results shows a fairly good agreement.