Axial heating and temperature of RF-excited non-neutral plasmas in Penning-Malmberg traps

Electro-magnetostatic traps have been used for decades to provide long-term storage of charged particle samples or non-neutral plasmas. The dynamics and equilibrium states of these ideally simple systems can be strongly diverted from the usual working conditions (i.e. single-species, quiescent samples) in the presence of oppositely charged particles or external electric field perturbations. Both these conditions occur when the plasma is generated by means of a radiofrequency (RF) excitation continuously applied on a trap electrode. The application of RF drives of some volts over periods larger than typical collisional time scales leads to residual-gas ionization and to the accumulation of an electron plasma, a process that has previously been exploited as an alternative to thermionic or photoemission electron sources. The analysis of the axial energy distribution shows a deviation of the continuously excited final state from maxwellianity dependent on the radial position and the subsequent relaxation to equilibrium after the interruption of the drive. Systematic measurements also indicate the high sensitivity to the residual gas pressure of both the total confined charge and of the attainable densities and plasma profiles. The results are compared to the information obtained from a very simple one-dimensional electron heating model and show the validity of its most basic features together with its shortcomings.