Enhanced confinement and stability of a field-reversed configuration with rotating magnetic field current drive

A new experiment has been constructed to study the sustainment of a field-reversed configuration (FRC) with a rotating magnetic field (RMF). FRCs were formed with cold, unmagnetized ions and thus without a kinetic ion component that was believed to provide stability to internal tilt modes. No destructive instabilities were observed for the RMF FRC. Only peripheral radial penetration of the RMF was observed. The radially inward flow arising from axial screening currents at the FRC edge reduced convective and conductive losses to the measurement limit of the diagnostics.