This paper summarizes experimental results on the injection and
transport of intense, wide cross-section H+ plasma (PB), and
ion beams (IB), in vacuum and ambient H+ plasma across an
applied B-field. The injection of plasma and ion beams into magnetic
confinement devices have the potential to heat and support current in
these systems (e.g., field-reversed configurations). The translational
energies of the PB and IB ranged between Epb = 60 to
120 eV and EIB = 60 to 120 keV, with temperatures and
densities in the range of Tb ∼ 2 to 10 eV,
nb ∼ 1012 to 1013
cm−3, and Tb ∼ 200 eV,
nb 1010 to 1011
cm−3, respectively. Compared to earlier studies (Peter et al., 1979; Wessel et al.,
1988, 1990), this
research extends the experimental parameter space to higher beam current
densities (up to 30 A/cm2) and higher B-field strengths up
to 1.6 kG. The PB and IB were both about 10 cm in diameter at the
injection port, and the ratio of beam specific energy to ambient B-field
specific energy, β, was in the range of 0.1 to 10. Ratios of beam
Larmor radius to beam size, ρ, ranged from 10−1 to 1
and 1 to 10 for the PB and IB, respectively. Cross B-field propagation of
the PB in vacuum was undeflected as a whole with a sharp increase (one
order or more) in the current density of the central beam core at B-field
levels > 1 kG accompanied by a significant loss of beam peripheral
layers, beam “braking” and preferential beam expansion along
the B-field lines. Cross B-field propagation of the PB in ambient plasma
did not differ substantially from the case without B-field, that is, no
deflection of the PB as a whole, which could be due to an insufficient
neutralization of the induced E-field inside the PB. Cross B-field
propagation of the IB in ambient plasma followed a single particle
trajectory deflection with a simultaneous significant loss of IB intensity
without any detectable bunching, indicating an adequate shorting of the
polarization E-field inside the IB.