Spectroscopic studies of the decay of hydrogen plasmas in aT-tube

Abstract

This paper reports on spectroscopic studies of the decay of hydrogen plasmas generated in a relatively low energyT-tube of conventional design equipped with a reflector. These measurements indicate that the plasma behind the reflected front is not quiescent, but suffers a severe expansion with flow velocities ∼10⁵ cm s⁻¹ (velocities of the incident and the reflected front are 7×10⁶ and 3.4×10⁶ cm s⁻¹). The net energy loss during the first two microseconds of the decay is almost entirely due to radiative losses (principally Ly-α radiation) and no significant radial temperature gradients are observed.