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A plasma confined by an externally applied curved magnetic field will show an accelerated motion ('drift') to the region of weaker field. This motion is analysed in three different ways, In the first description the magnetohydrodynamic equation of motion is used, with the only assumption that no appreciable transverse accelerations are present. Secondly, the well-known microscopic picture (charge separation leading to E/B drift) is analysed for a ,!3 < 1 plasma with the guiding centre approximation. In the third model the change in the total energy of the system caused by a small outward displacement is considered. I n all models the outward acceleration is found to be uR = 2k(T, + ZT,)/Rml where R is the radius of curvature of the field. The energy for the outward motion is partly supplied by the primary circuit and partly by an expansion of the plasma.

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Dynamics of switching waves in optically bistable all-epitaxial GaAs/GaA1As Fabry-Perot interferometers is studied experimentally. Realization of planar optical shift register based on propagation of switching waves between neighbor pixels in the plane ofbistable layer is proposed.

The transformation kinetics is studied experimentally of wide light beam profiles at optical switching of the states of bistable thin-film interferometers with nonlinearity of their thermal nature. The evolution of switch-wave type autowave processes and inhomogeneous stationary structures at the stages of their stable existence and decay are traced. The possibility is shown of optical control of the direction and speed of switch wave front motion.