Experiments on beam plasma interactions and EM waves in magnetized plasmas

An energetic electron beam can exhibit several types of interesting behaviour when interacting with plasmas and/or magnetic fields. The focus in the present work is on electron cyclotron maser interactions. The instabilities that occur are also often observed in space as well as in the laboratory. Some of the high power sources of electromagnetic radiation, such as gyrodevices, make use of similar instability mechanisms. Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations have led to both a better understanding of natural phenomena and the development of high power electromagnetic radiation sources for several applications in fusion plasma physics. The gyrotron is one such device that is being used to provide auxiliary heating for large tokamaks via electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH). It is planned to use a number of gyrotrons supplied by several nations in the ITER experiment. In the ITER experiment these gyrotrons will not only be used for auxiliary heating but also for advanced tailoring of the tokamak plasma properties