Suppression of drift waves in a linear magnetized plasma column
In magnetically confined fusion plasmas, drift wave driven turbulence can lead to enhanced particle transport from the plasma. Because of this, a significant research emphasis has been placed on the suppression of drift waves in the plasma edge. However, the combination of the toroidal geometry and short plasma lifetimes can make it difficult to fully characterize the properties of these instabilities. Because linear magnetized plasma devices offer a combination of simpler geometry and steady state plasma generation, it is possible to perform detailed studies of many types of plasma instabilities-including drift waves. This paper reports on a recent experiment in which low frequency instabilities ({omega} {<=} {omega}{sub ci}) in the Auburn Linear EXperiment for Instability Studies plasma device were characterized as drift waves and through changes in the parallel current, it is shown that it is possible to suppress these instabilities.