Flux generation and sustainment of a field reversed configuration with rotating magnetic field current drive

Abstract

A new experimental device has been constructed to study the flux build-up and sustainment of a field reversed configuration (FRC) with a rotating magnetic field (RMF). Even though complete penetration was expected from RMF theory, the RMF field was observed to penetrate only a few centimeters inside the FRC separatrix. Despite the limited penetration, significantly larger toroidal currents (40 kA) were driven than in previous experiments (∼2 kA) with the same RMF field. The high currents and lack of deep penetration allowed the axial field to be the dominant field throughout the FRC. The radially inward pondermotive force arising from axial screening currents at the FRC edge had a significant influence on energy and particle confinement, reducing convective losses to the limit of observability. With only ohmic heating, the measured low ion temperatures (2 eV) left the ions unmagnetized while the electrons (∼40 eV) were well magnetized. No destructive instability was observed for the RMF driven FRC despite the lack of a strong kinetic ion component.