Comparison of the hot-electron plasmas produced using two different plasma sources in a magnetic mirror compression experiment

The hot‐electron plasma produced in a single‐stage magnetic mirror compression experiment using a deuterated titanium washer stack source is compared with the nonneutral hot‐electron plasma produced using a thermionic electron gun source. Both plasmas contain approximately 5 × 10¹¹ electrons with 0.3‐MeV mean energy and 0.3‐MeV temperature at the peak magnetic field of 18.5 kG, and both remain trapped for more than 20 msec. These plasmas are similar because deuterated titanium washer stack sources are electron sources during the first few $\mu \sec$ of operation and because the electron dynamics during compression is not strongly affected by the ion dynamics. The effect of the plasma self fields upon synchrotron radiation is investigated. The properties of these plasmas are compared with three other pulse compression hot electron plasmas obtained using a washer stack source.