Optical diagnostics of a low frequency instability rotating around a magnetized plasma column

An argon magnetized plasma column is created with primary energetic electrons in the Mistral device. Low frequency instabilities regularly rotating around this column are observed with an ultra-fast camera and a spectroscopic device. Experimental results coupled to a coronal code show the presence of a few percents of fast (hot) electrons inside the ejected plasma. It also shows that ultra-fast camera analysis of the ejected plasma can only give information on the primary electron population. Finally, these results suggest that the radial decrease of the light emitted by the ejected plasma is essentially due to the radial decrease of the mean energy of the hot electrons.