Plasma window, plasma gun, plasma stripper - three applications of discharges

High current, high voltage discharges provide the opportunity to produce a variety of plasmas. We are using e.g. discharges powered from a capacitor bank for our plasma gun to initiate a plasma in a coaxial electrode system near the Paschen-minimum of a gas. By the jxB-forces of this discharge a He-plasma can be accelerated to velocities up to 70 km/s. By directing these accelerated plasma clouds into a glass cone a compression from initial electron densities of 10^15 cm-3 to about 10^18 cm-3 is achieved. A coil discharge is used to initiate a hydrogen plasma in a glass vessel. The discharge is caused by the inductive coupling of the coil to the gas in the vessel. At these conditions hydrogen may be fully ionized, which is favorable for beam-plasma interaction experiments, because at full ionization the recombination of electrons into projectile particles is reduces and a high beam charge state may be produced. Theoretical and experimental results for these interaction experiments are presented. The possible application of this discharge as a plasma stripper is discussed. A plasma window is an arc discharge inside a small electrode system. This discharge plasma is used to enhance the pressure difference between the cathode and the anode of the discharge. First results demonstrate the expected pressure difference caused by the discharge. Together with a moderate pumping a pressure reduction of about a factor 100 could be demonstrated yet.