Mackenzie's Demon with instabilities

MacKenzie's Maxwell Demon, consisting of positively biased thin wires, heats plasma electrons without significantly affecting the plasma potential. Experiments were performed on the Maxwell Demon in a multi-dipole confined filament discharge. It is shown that given adequate bias, the Demon reduces a bi-Maxwellian electron distribution function to a single Maxwellian electron distribution function. It is shown that a small planar electrode can perform identical heating as the Demon, provided that the electrode has the area of approximately three times the Demon's conductive surface area. The instability that limits the Demon's operation is investigated. Time-resolved measurements of changes in global electron temperature, plasma density and plasma potential within a cycle of the instability are considered. It is found that the Demon's instability is a repeating pulsed anode spot. Density measurements indicate that the frequency of the instability is dependent on plasma production and loss rates. The neutral pressure dependence of the anode spot instability is measured and modeled for the first time.