Ion heating caused by ion acoustic waves in an ion-streaming plasma

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Abstract
It is experimentally shown that ion acoustic waves are driven by streaming electrons and damped by streaming ions in an ion-streaming plasma, which results in ion heating because of some non-linearities. The drift of electrons is controlled by changing the bias applied to a meshed grid immersed in the plasma. The results of this work indicate that, when the drift velocity of electrons is settled at a proper value, standing ion acoustic waves can be observed as well as the increase of ion-temperature, and that there is a good correlation between the increase of ion-temperature and the amplitudes of the ion-waves. Explanation of the mechanism of ion heating is also described.