Coherent drift modes and drift wave turbulence are studied in a collisionality dominated high-density helicon plasma. The drift wave instability is identified by comparison of the drift mode density fluctuation characteristics with a linear dispersion relation, which reproduces the experimentally observed bent eigenmode structures due to the radial gradients of the collisionality profile. Attention is especially paid to the parallel currents associated with the drift mode density fluctuations, which are in agreement with the basic drift wave instability mechanism. A coupling of the drift mode to the externally excited Alfvén waves is found, which results in the frequency changes of the drift mode. The parallel currents associated with radially propagating density fluctuation structures in drift wave turbulence are similar to the drift mode case, which strongly suggests that polarization of the structures is a result of the parallel electron dynamics.
Resistivity gradient driven versus drift wave turbulence