Model A

Model A was the world's first stellarator. It was a table-top device with a figure-8 shape made at the Project Matterhorn facilities (now known as Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory or PPPL) at Princeton University. The vacuum chamber was made of 5 cm diameter circular cross section Pyrex glass tubes. The plasma was produced with inductively coupled radio frequency electric fields and confinement coils were energized by a DC generator.

Model A's main goal was to demonstrate that the magnetic confinement idea works. Once this was achieved, Model A went out of operation and research continued with the construction of Model B.