EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY OF THE PONDEROMOTIVE EFFECTS OF A LARGE-AMPLITUDE MICROWAVE FIELD ON A MAGNETIZED ELECTRON-BEAM

Charged particles propagating in an inhomogeneous large amplitude micr owave field experience a nonlinear force called the ponderomotive forc e. This effect can be theoretically evaluated either from the single p article or the fluid theories. For magnetized particles, these two des criptions predict quite different behaviors. A previous experiment [J. Vaclavik et al., Phys. fluids 29, 2034 (1986)] has shown results in a greement with the fluid theory. Here, an experiment with a magnetized electron beam is described, which brings out a ponderomotive deflectio n in agreement with the single particle theory. (C) 1995 American Inst itute of Physics.