Measuring the Ion Temperature of a Plasma Jet Colliding with a Gas Cloud Using a Two-Dimensional Optical Fiber Array to Study the Possibility of Pre-heating During Plasma Compression*

Outlined are our arrangement and preliminary findings of measuring the ion temperature of a plasma jet colliding with a gas cloud via Doppler-broadening spectroscopy to investigate the possibility of pre-heating plasma during plasma compression. The jet, formed by puffing a controlled amount of Nitrogen gas into Embry-Riddle's cylindrical vacuum chamber and then ionizing it via high-voltage electronically switched capacitor banks, is regulated to undergo magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) current-driven instabilities and magnetic reconnection, and is ultimately terminally collided with an Argon gas cloud. Ion temperature measurement of plasma is inferred by spectroscopic analysis. To improve the fidelity of our spectroscopy, the presented method implements a unique assemblage of 54 optical fiber cables into a systematic two-dimensional array, broadening the area of observation. With this, we aim to develop our analysis of instability-induced ion heating and its contribution to collisional plasma heating, thus shedding light on the possibility of pre-heating the plasma during plasma compression.