Experiment to demonstrate the auroral kilometric radiation cyclotron maser instability

Summary form only given. In this work we discuss a laboratory experiment for the demonstration and analysis of the horseshoe driven electron-cyclotron maser instability. An electron beam moving into a region of increasing axial magnetic field (as in the auroral zone) can develop such a distribution, with conservation of the first adiabatic invariant leading to an increase in electron pitch angle. The result is a broad region in velocity space over which a positive gradient exists in the perpendicular component of the electron beam distribution function leading to unstable growth in the R-X mode. The particle-in-cell code KARAT/sup /spl reg// has been used to model the instability under an experimentally consistent interaction scenario, with results presented that highlight the properties of emission and document the efficiency and bandwidth with respect to various interaction parameters. Preliminary experimental results are also presented and discussed.