Confinement of a Currentless Plasma in the Heliotron-E

Confinement of a plasma initiated and heated by electron cyclotron-resonance--frequency waves has been studied in the Heliotron-E. The observed plasma parameters were T/sub e/ = 500--100 eV, T/sub i/approx. =100 eV, n-bar/sub e/ = 4 x 10/sup 12/ cm/sup -3/ at B = 10 kG. The electron energy decay time was 40 +- 8 msec and the particle confinement time was estimated to be more than 70 msec. These results offer a considerable improvement in energy confinement over Ohmically heated plasmas.