Drift-wave instability excited by field-aligned ion flow velocity shear in the absence of electron current

The drift wave is observed to be destabilized by a magnetic-field-aligned ion flow velocity shear in the absence of field-aligned electron drift flow in laboratory experiments using a concentrically three-segmented plasma source. The fluctuation amplitude increases with increasing a shear strength, but the instability is found to be gradually stabilized when the shear strength exceeds a critical value. The destabilizing and stabilizing mechanisms are well explained by a plasma kinetic theory including the effect of radial density gradient.