Formation of multi-charged ions and plasma stability at quasigasdynamic plasma confinement in a mirror magnetic trap

It is known that an increase in plasma density in sources of multicharged ions leads to a substantial increase of ion current and slightly improves the ion distribution over charge states. The validity of this statement was verified in experiments with plasma densities not exceeding several units of 10 12 cm −3 . In the present work it is demonstrated experimentally that, for the electron densities exceeding 10 13 cm −3 , the regime of plasma confinement in a trap changes significantly and the quasigasdynamic regime of plasma confinement is realized. Comparison of numerical simulations and experimental data showed the essential influence of the anisotropy of electron velocity distribution in a plasma on the ion charge state distribution. This allows looking for the optimal conditions for the creation of highly charged ions in plasma. In this article we also address problems of plasma stability in an axisymmetric mirror trap under powerful microwave pumping. First experiments on ion extraction from a dense plasma pumped by millimeter wave radiation are described.