Influence of the intrinsic magnetic field of the plasma current on the energy and current-voltage characteristics of a nonself-sustained discharge in high-power gas lasers

A numerical investigation was made of the influence of the magnetic field of the plasma current on the distribution of the specific power deposited in a gas discharge excited by an electron beam. Both steady-state and time-dependent solutions were obtained. It was found that at high values of the beam current density the current-voltage characteristics tended to saturate. This effect was caused by compression of the fast electron beam by the magnetic field and by enhancement of quadratic volume recombination.