Direct excitation of high-amplitude chirped bucket-bgk modes

For the first time, high amplitude ([Formula presented]), high [Formula presented] (up to 100000) Bernstein, Greene, and Kruskal modes have been controllably excited in a plasma. The modes are created by sweeping an excitation voltage downwards in frequency, thereby dragging a phase space “bucket” of low density into the bulk of the plasma velocity distribution. The modes have no linear limit and differ markedly from plasma waves and Trivelpiece-Gould modes.