Measuring drift velocity and electric field in mirror machine by fast photography

The flute instability in mirror machines is driven by spatial charge accumulation and the resulting E × B plasma drift. On the other hand, E × B drift due to external electrodes or coils can be used as a stabilizing feedback mechanism. Fast photography is used to visualize Hydrogen plasma in a small mirror machine and infer the plasma drift and the internal electric field distribution. Using incompressible flow and monotonic decay assumptions we obtain components of the velocity field from the temporal evolution of the plasma cross section. The electric field perpendicular to the density gradient is then deduced from E=-V × B. With this technique we analyzed the electric field of flute perturbations and the field induced by electrodes immersed in the plasma.