Anomalous Electric Fields Inside a Dense Plasma of a Current Sheet

For the first time there have been analyzed profiles of electric-field-sensitive n_a spectral lines of the Li-like impurity ions CIV, NV, OVI emitted by a hot dense plasma of a plane current sheet. Theoretical profiles of these lines have been calculated with an allowance for Anomalous Electric Fields (AEF). By comparing the experimental and theoretical profiles of the lines it has been established for the first time that in the plane current sheet there were developed AEF of rms strengths F₀ ≈ (100–120) kV/cm in the time interval from τ = ?0.2 μs to τ = 0 (the time τ was counted from the instant of the maximum intensity of the spectral line OVI 5291 Å). These results have been backed up by a similar analysis of the experimental profiles of the spectral line HeII 4686 Å of the primary gas of the discharge. The AEF reached these strengths at the same instant of time, τ = ?0.2 μs, when electron and ion temperatures reached their maxima: T_e ? 100 eV, T_i ≈ 300 eV. The instant τ = ?0.2 μs corresponds to a transition from the metastable stage to the explosive phase of the current sheet evolution. At this time the ratio of the AEF energy density to the thermal energy density of the plasma was § ≡ F²₀/8π/N_eT_e + N_iT_i)] ≈ 10^?3, which exceeded a similar ratio for the thermal wave field by three orders of magnitude.