Electron impact ionization of nitric oxide was studied as a function of electron energy up to 180 eV. A double focusing mass spectrometer in combination with an improved electron impact ion source (Stephan et al.) was used, alleviating the problems of ion extraction from the source and the transmission of the extracted ions through the mass spectrometer system. Relative partial ionization cross section functions were measured for the processes NO+e→NO++2e and NO+e→NO2++3e. An accurate determination of the cross section ratio q(NO2+/NO)/q(NO+/NO) was made. In addition, absolute partial ionization cross sections for the production of NO+ and NO2+ were determined by normalizing the relative cross sections with two different methods. Using nth root extrapolation an appearance potential of NO2+(X 2Σ+) was determined. The result is compared with previous measurements and theoretical calculations.

Low-frequency collisionless drift waves grow intensively when electron currents parallel to a magnetic field are drawn in a single-ended Q machine. For a smaller electron drift velocity, the measured dispersion relations of the wave are consistent with the linear theory of the current-driven collisionless drift instability. The temperature of the ions is observed to increase anisotropically concomitant with the growth of the drift wave. The heating rate is found to be proportional to the wave energy estimated from the saturated frequency spectrum and its dependence on the electron drift is measured to be of the form (u/ve)4. A further increase in the electron drift results in the excitation of an ion acoustic wave and a flute-like instability.

Electron impact ionization of nitrous oxide was studied as a function of electron energy up to 180 eV. A double focusing mass spectrometer in combination with an improved electron impact ion source (Stephan et al.) was used, alleviating the problems of ion extraction from the source and the transmission of the extracted ions through the mass spectrometer system. Relative partial ionization cross sections were measured for the process N2O+e→N2O++2e. These cross sections were calibrated absolutely by normalizing the relative cross sections with two different methods. A difference obtained in the absolute cross section values is explained by the delayed unimolecular dissociation process N2O+ to NO++N. Both metastable and collision induced dissociation of N2O+ were studied quantitatively using the well established technique of decoupling the acceleration and deflection electric fields.

Growth rates of the ion cyclotron instability in the magnetosphere are calculated, including the corrections coming from finite proton and electron temperatures. The effect of (artificial) injection of cold plasma with different ion masses is discussed in detail.