STABILIZATION OF THE DRIFT-CONE INSTABILITY BY A FLOW SHEAR

An experimental result indicating suppression of plasma turbulence by a flow shear at the ''elementary level,'' i.e., with respect to separa tely existing, weakly developed turbulence, is presented. The object i s the drift-cone mode on impurities which develops in a long mirror tr ap. End electrodes were used to introduce a controllable E X B shear i nto the plasma. It was determined that a sufficiently strong shear com pletely quenches the instability. The threshold value of the shear agr ees with an estimate based on simple considerations. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.