MEASUREMENTS OF ELECTRON DENSITY IN PLASMA DISTURBED BY STRONG TRANSVERSE MAGNETIC FIELD

We present results of studies of the behavior of a laser-produced plasma in a strong external transverse magnetic field of above 10 T in induction generated from a flat teflon target at the laser power densities of about 1014 W/cm2. In the measurements of plasma parameters, a two-channel automated interferometric system (Pisarczyk et al. 1994) was applied. The interferometric measurements have shown that the transverse magnetic field induces an asymmetry of the plasma distinctly apparent in the interferograms registered in two mutually perpendicular directions. Due to the lack of axial symmetry of the plasma, the Abel's transformation could not be applied in quantitative processing of the interferograms. To reconstruct a spatial distribution of electron density in a plasma stream of disturbed axial symmetry, a methodology prepared for this experiment was used. Analyzing the spatial and temporal distributions of electron concentration obtained in the transverse magnetic field, it has been proved that the factor responsible for the disturbance of the axial symmetry of the plasma is the Rayleigh–Taylor (R–T) instability corresponding to the ion unmagnetization state.