Production of high transient heat and particle fluxes in a linear plasma device

We report on the generation of high transient heat and particle fluxes in a linear plasma device by pulsed operation of the plasma source. A capacitor bank is discharged into the source to transiently increase the discharge current up to 1.7 kA, allowing peak densities and temperature of 70x10(20) m(-3) and 6 eV corresponding to a surface power density of about 400 MW m(-2). (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3484961]