Observation of turbulence energy transfer in a cylindrical laboratory plasma device

Abstract

We report the experimental results on the turbulence energy transfer in a cylindrical laboratory plasma based on the data obtained by a set of quadruple Langmuir probe on Zheda plasma experiment device. The turbulence energy transfer is directly embodied in the alternating change in the fluctuation amplitudes between the low frequency turbulence at ∼0.1–0.2 kHz and the drift wave (DW) turbulence at ∼1–2 kHz. The estimation of the radial electric field and the bispectral analysis of the experiments suggest that the DW turbulence gains the energy from the low frequency turbulence with the magnetic field increase. The energy transport due to the interaction between the low frequency turbulence and the DW turbulence is a possible reason to drive the turbulence energy transfer associated with the magnetic field increase in the laboratory plasma.