Target plasma for neutral beam injection into a compact mirror cell

This paper describes the generation of a target plasma and first experiments on neutral beam injection into the Compact Axisymmetric Toroid (CAT) device. The target plasma produced by a washer-stack gun captures 20 % of a 1.7 MW hydrogen beam injected into a main fast-ion confinement region. The work provides a foundation for future experiments with higher injection power and additional diagnostics to investigate the accumulation of large-orbit fast ions, high plasma beta effects and possible magnetic field reversal.