........................................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgments........................................................................................................................ iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... x List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. xix Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1: Sheared plasma flows ...................................................................................................... 1 1.2: Experiment motivation .................................................................................................... 6 1.3: Dissertation outline ........................................................................................................ 14 Chapter 2: Theory ....................................................................................................................... 16 2.1: Lower hybrid instabilities .............................................................................................. 16 2.2: Electron-ion hybrid instability ....................................................................................... 20 2.2.1: Perturbed ion density ............................................................................................ 24 2.2.2: Perturbed electron density .................................................................................... 28 2.2.3: Dispersion relation ................................................................................................ 30 2.2.4: Shooting code ....................................................................................................... 34 2.3: Whistler wave ................................................................................................................ 39 2.4: Summary ........................................................................................................................ 40 Chapter 3: Experimental Design and Hardware ......................................................................... 42 3.1: Vacuum vessel ............................................................................................................... 42