Wave Phenomena in a Double Plasma Experiment

Experiment No. 88 - Wave Phenomena in a Double Plasma Experiment
Fortgeschrittenenpraktikum der Technischen Universität München am Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik

Location: IPP Garching, Building I1, Room 2111

A double plasma device consists of two plasma volumes, electrically separated by a conducting grid and biased to different plasma potentials. By manipulating the potential difference, a controlled plasma flow from one volume into the other can be generated. With the help of a harmonically modulated potential difference, plasma waves can be excited. Using different modulation frequencies allows measuring the wave's dispersion relation and by increasing the amplitude a continuous transition from a linear wave to a non-linear behavior can be studied including wave steepening and solitons.

The experiment gives the student an excellent insight in some characteristic plasma properties and experimental techniques. The study carried out on the plasma wave is exemplary for wave physics in general and for non-linear effects in wave propagation.