Drift of a θ Pinch in a Ioffe Multipole Field

A compressed deuterium plasma in a THETA pinch with a long single-turn coil was observed to strike the wall in about 10 mu sec after the start of the discharge. The drift toward the slot that feeds the current was caused by a magnetic field gradient. In order to reverse the gradients due to the slot, an Ioffe hexapole magnetic field was generated. Finally, the effect of this field on the drift was investigated, and it is shown that the location of the equilibrium position of the plasma can be estimated as a function of the magnetic field.