Trapped Plasmas with a Single Sign of Charge

FEB 01, 1999

Plasma crystal is not a fanciful oxymoron, but something you can actually make with an easy‐to‐confine, long‐lived nonneutral plasma.

DOI: 10.1063/1.882521

Thomas M. O’Neil

Despite their reputation, not all plasmas are difficult to confine. In fact, one kind of plasma can be kept for long times in a simple apparatus by means of static electric and magnetic fields. It is the kind of plasma that consists exclusively of particles with a single sign of charge. Examples include pure electron plasmas, positive ion plasmas of one or more species, positron plasmas and even electron‐antiproton plasmas—all of which have been realized in recent experiments.

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More about the Authors

Thomas M. O’Neil. University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, California.