Deceleration of magnetized laser-produced plasmas by shorting of polarization charge layers

Abstract
The flow of low-beta laser-produced plasmas across a magnetic field was studied. When a metallic plate was placed adjacent to the plasma stream, low atomic mass plasmas were confined to a region 17 cm from the target. High mass plasmas were not affected within the limits of the vacuum chamber. These observations confirm E×B drift as the mechanism of cross-field flow.