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At least 577 records · Page 32
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2016

Heating and Acceleration of Solar Wind Ions by Turbulent Wave Spectrum in Inhomogeneous Expanding Plasma

Near the Sun (< 10Rs) the acceleration, heating, and propagation of the solar wind are likely affected by the background inhomogeneities of the magnetized plasma. The heating and the acceleration of the solar wind ions by turbulent wave spectrum in inhomogeneous plasma is studied using a 2.5D hybrid model. The hybrid model describes the kinetics of the ions, while the electrons are modeled as massless neutralizing fluid in an expanding box approach. Turbulent magnetic fluctuations dominated by power-law frequency spectra, which are evident from in-situ as well as remote sensing measurements, are used in our models. The effects of background density inhomogeneity across the magnetic field on the resonant ion heating are studied. The effect of super- Alfvenic ion drift on the ion heating is investigated. It is found that the turbulent wave spectrum of initially parallel propagating waves cascades to oblique modes, and leads to enhanced resonant ion heating due to the inhomogeneity. The acceleration of the solar wind ions is achieved by the parametric instability of large amplitude waves in the spectrum, and is also affected by the inhomogeneity. The results of the study provide the ion temperature anisotropy and drift velocity temporal evolution due to relaxation of the instability. The non-Maxwellian velocity distribution functions (VDFs) of the ions are modeled in the inhomogeneous solar wind plasma in the acceleration region close to the Sun.

Ofman, Leon↗
NASA NTRS1994

Transverse particle acceleration and diffusion in a planetary magnetic field

A general model of particle acceleration by plasma waves coupled with adiabatic radial diffusion in a planetary magnetic field is developed. The model assumes that a spectrum of lower hybird waves is present to resonantly accelerate ions transverse to the magnetic field. The steady state Green's function for the combined radial diffusion and wave acceleration equation is found in terms of a series expansion. The results provide a rigorous demonstration of how a quasi-Maxwellian distribution function is formed in the absence of particle collisons and elucidate the nature of turbulent heating of magnetospheric plasmas. The solution is applied to the magnetosphere of Neptune for which a number of examples are given illustrating how the spectrum of pickup N(+) ions from Triton evolves.

Barbosa, D. D.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Force Balance and Substorm Effects in the Magnetotail

A model of the quiet time middle magnetotail is developed using a consistent orbit tracing technique. The momentum equation is used to calculate geocentric solar magnetospheric components of the particle and electromagnetic forces throughout the current sheet. Ions generate the dominant x and z force components. Electron and ion forces almost cancel in the y direction because the two species drift earthward at comparable speeds. The force viewpoint is applied to a study of some substorm processes. Generation of the rapid flows seen during substorm injection and bursty bulk flow events implies substantial force imbalances. The formation of a substorm diversion loop is one cause of changes in the magnetic field and therefore in the electromagnetic force. It is found that larger forces are produced when the cross-tail current is diverted to the ionosphere than would be produced if the entire tail current system simply decreased. Plasma is accelerated while the forces are unbalanced resulting in field lines within a diversion loop becoming more dipolar. Field lines become more stretched and the plasma sheet becomes thinner outside a diversion loop. Mechanisms that require thin current sheets to produce current disruption then can create additional diversion loops in the newly thinned regions. This process may be important during multiple expansion substorms and in differentiating pseudoexpansions from full substorms. It is found that the tail field model used here can be generated by a variety of particle distribution functions. However, for a given energy distribution the mixture of particle mirror or reflection points is constrained by the consistency requirement. The study of uniqueness also leads to the development of a technique to select guiding center electrons that will produce charge neutrality all along a flux tube containing nonguiding center ions without the imposition of a parallel electric field.

Kaufmann, Richard L.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Parametric study of high-energy ring-shaped electron beams from a laser wakefield accelerator

Abstract Laser wakefield accelerators commonly produce on-axis, low-divergence, high-energy electron beams. However, a high charge, annular shaped beam can be trapped outside the bubble and accelerated to high energies. Here we present a parametric study on the production of low-energy-spread, ultra-relativistic electron ring beams in a two-stage gas cell. Ring-shaped beams with energies higher than 750 MeV are observed simultaneously with on axis, continuously injected electrons. Often multiple ring shaped beams with different energies are produced and parametric studies to control the generation and properties of these structures were conducted. Particle tracking and particle-in-cell simulations are used to determine properties of these beams and investigate how they are formed and trapped outside the bubble by the wake produced by on-axis injected electrons. These unusual femtosecond duration, high-charge, high-energy, ring electron beams may find use in beam driven plasma wakefield accelerators and radiation sources.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Simulation of the dynamics of gas mixtures during plasma processing in the C75 Cavity

Plasma processing using a mixture of noble gas and oxygen is a technique that is currently being used to reduce field emission and multipacting in accelerating cavities. Plasma is created inside the cavity when the gas mixture is exposed to an electromagnetic field that is generated by applying RF power through the fundamental power or higher-order mode couplers. Oxygen ions and atomic oxygen are created in the plasma which breaks down the hydrocarbons on the surface of the cavity and the residuals from this process are removed as part of the process gas flow. Removal of hydrocarbons from the surface increases the work function and reduces the secondary emission coefficient. This work describes the initial results of plasma simulation, which provides insight into the ignition process, distribution of different species, and interactions of free oxygen and oxygen ions with the cavity surfaces. The simulations have been done with an Ar/?2 plasma using COMSOL® multiphysics. These simulations help in understanding the dynamics and control of plasma inside the cavity and the exploration of different gas mixtures.

Dhakal, Pashupati↗
DOE OSTI2023

Ion Channel Laser Based on Direct Laser Acceleration of a Shaped Beam Driver (Final Technical Report)

The main focus of our research was to understand the synergies between an electron bunch and a laser pulse when the two co-propagate through the plasma. We have clearly demonstrated using theoretical and computational modeling that the propagation distance of both the bunch and the laser pulse could be extended. The ability of the combined bunch/pulse system to extend the propagation distance and the size of the plasma bubble enables highly-efficient sources of relativistic electrons. As pointed out by the Plasma Decadal Study, such electron sources can be used for generating extremely bright x-rays for a variety of applications can serve as probes and diagnostics for other plasma experiments: high energy density (HED) sciences, inertial confinement fusion (ICF), and potentially Fusion Materials and Technology (FM&T). Development of advanced diagnostics of plasma-based accelerators is yet another key area identified by recent reports. Even broader security and medical applications of compact accelerator-based radiation sources, such as very high energy electron (VHEE) sources for FLASH radiobiology, have been identified by a recent multi-agency panel. A number of key technical issues were considered and successfully resolved during the course of the grant. Those include: beam loading effect of both the driver and witness bunches on the wake, laser channeling by the bunch, and the direct laser acceleration (DLA) of the driver bunch by the laser pulse. To demonstrate clear synergy, we were able to ascertain that the total energy gain of a witness bunch in the wake of the combined bunch/laser complex is large than the sum of the energy gains in the wake of the laser pulse alone, and the driver bunch alone. We have also demonstrated that not only the energy gain is improved, but the energy spread is not sacrificed. To carry out these simulations, we have to develop a range of in-house computational tools, including a fully-3D code WAND-PIC.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Online multi-objective particle accelerator optimization of the AWAKE electron beam line for simultaneous emittance and orbit control

Multi-objective optimization is important for particle accelerators where various competing objectives must be satisfied routinely such as, for example, transverse emittance vs bunch length. We develop and demonstrate an online multi-time scale multi-objective optimization algorithm that performs real time feedback on particle accelerators. We demonstrate the ability to simultaneously minimize the emittance and maintain a reference trajectory of a beam in the electron beamline in CERN’s Advanced Proton Driven Plasma Wakefield Acceleration Experiment.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
NASA NTRS1985

A ground-based experimental test program to duplicate and study the spacecraft glow phenomenon

The use of a plasma device, the Advanced Concepts Torus-I, for producing atoms and molecules to study spacecraft glow mechanisms is discussed. A biased metal plate, located in the plasma edge, is used to accelerate and neutralize plasma ions, thus generating a neutral beam with a flux approx. 5 x 10 to the 14th power/sq cm/sec at the end of a drift tube. Our initial experiments are to produce a 10 eV molecular and atomic nitrogen beam directed onto material targets. Photon emission in the spectral range 2000 to 9000 A from excited species formed on the target surface will be investigated.

Langer, W. D.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Heating and acceleration of the solar wind

The dynamics of the expanding corona are discussed emphasizing the physical processes which accelerate the plasma as it flows away from the Sun. The solar wind plays a dominant role in the energy balance of the part of the corona in which it originates. The wind acceleration processes, in large part, with the mechanisms that transport energy to the corona in the first place.

Kopp, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS2014

A Vortical Dawn Flank Boundary Layer for Near-Radial IMF: Wind Observations on 24 October 2001

We present an example of a boundary layer tailward of the dawn terminator which is entirely populated by rolled-up flow vortices. Observations were made by Wind on 24 October 2001 as the spacecraft moved across the region at the X plane approximately equal to −13 Earth radii. Interplanetary conditions were steady with a near-radial interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). Approximately 15 vortices were observed over the 1.5 hours duration of Wind's crossing, each lasting approximately 5 min. The rolling up is inferred from the presence of a hot tenuous plasma being accelerated to speeds higher than in the adjoining magnetosheath, a circumstance which has been shown to be a reliable signature of this in single-spacecraft observations. A blob of cold dense plasma was entrained in each vortex, at whose leading edge abrupt polarity changes of field and velocity components at current sheets were regularly observed. In the frame of the average boundary layer velocity, the dense blobs were moving predominantly sunward and their scale size along the X plane was approximately 7.4 Earth radii. Inquiring into the generation mechanism of the vortices, we analyze the stability of the boundary layer to sheared flows using compressible magnetohydrodynamic Kelvin-Helmholtz theory with continuous profiles for the physical quantities. We input parameters from (i) the exact theory of magnetosheath flow under aligned solar wind field and flow vectors near the terminator and (ii) the Wind data. It is shown that the configuration is indeed Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) unstable. This is the first reported example of KH-unstable waves at the magnetopause under a radial IMF.

Magnetosheath↗
DOE OSTI2022

Integrating a ponderomotive guiding center algorithm into a quasi-static particle-in-cell code based on azimuthal mode decomposition

High fidelity modeling of plasma based acceleration (PBA) requires the use of three dimensional, fully nonlinear, and kinetic descriptions based on the particle-in-cell (PIC) method. In PBA an intense particle beam or laser (driver) propagates through a tenuous plasma whereby it excites a plasma wave wake. Three-dimensional PIC algorithms based on the quasi-static approximation (QSA) have been successfully applied to efficiently model the interaction between relativistic charged particle beams and plasma. In a QSA PIC algorithm, the plasma response to a charged particle beam or laser driver is calculated based on forces from the driver and self-consistent forces from the QSA form of Maxwell's equations. These fields are then used to advance the charged particle beam or laser forward by a large time step. Since the time step is not limited by the regular Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) condition that constrains a standard 3D fully electromagnetic PIC code, a 3D QSA PIC code can achieve orders of magnitude speedup in performance. Recently, a new hybrid QSA PIC algorithm that combines another speedup technique known as an azimuthal Fourier decomposition has been proposed and implemented. This hybrid algorithm decomposes the electromagnetic fields, charge and current density into azimuthal harmonics and only the Fourier coefficients need to be updated, which can reduce the algorithmic complexity of a 3D code to that of a 2D code. Modeling the laser-plasma interaction in a full 3D electromagnetic PIC algorithm is very computationally expensive due the enormous disparity of physical scales to be resolved. In the QSA the laser is modeled using the ponderomotive guiding center (PGC) approach. We describe how to implement a PGC algorithm compatible for the QSA PIC algorithms based on the azimuthal mode expansion. Here this algorithm permits time steps orders of magnitude larger than the cell size and it can be asynchronously parallelized. Details on how this is implemented into the QSA PIC code that utilizes an azimuthal mode expansion, QPAD, are also described. Benchmarks and comparisons between a fully 3D explicit PIC code (OSIRIS), as well as a few examples related to laser wakefield acceleration, are presented.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Conceptual Design Report -- eSPS

The design of a primary electron beam facility at CERN is described. It re-enables the SPS as an electron accelerator, and leverages the development invested in CLIC technology for its injector and as accelerator R&D infrastructure. The facility would be relevant for several of the key priorities in the 2020 update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, such as an electron-positron(e-p) Higgs factory, accelerator R&D, dark sector physics, and neutrino physics. In addition, it could serve experiments in nuclear physics. The electron beam delivered by this facility would provide access to light dark matter production significantly beyond the targets predicted by a thermal dark matter origin, and for natures of dark matter particles that are not accessible by direct detection experiments. It would also enable electro-nuclear measurements crucial for precise modelling the energy dependence of neutrino-nucleus interactions, which is needed to precisely measure neutrino oscillations as a function of energy. The implementation of the facility is the natural next step in the development of X-band high-gradient acceleration technology, a key technology for compact and cost-effective electron/positron linacs. It would also become the only facility with multi-GeV drive bunches and truly independent electron witness bunches for plasma wakefield acceleration. The facility would be used for the development and studies of a large number of components and phenomena for a future e-p Higgs and electroweak factory as the first stage of a next circular collider at CERN, and its cavities in the SPS would be the same type as foreseen for such a future collider. The operation of the SPS with electrons would train a new generation of scientists. The facility could be made operational in about five years and would operate in parallel and without interference with Run 4 at the LHC.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Ion concentration ratio measurements of ion beams generated by a commercial microwave electron cyclotron resonance plasma source

A commercially available electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma source (GenII Plasma Source, tectra GmbH) is widely used for surface processing. This plasma source is compatible with ultrahigh vacuum systems, and its working pressure is relatively low, around 10 –6 –10 –4 Torr even without differential pumping. Here, we report ion flux concentration ratios for each ion species in an ion beam from this source, as measured by a mass/energy analyzer that is a combination of a quadrupole mass spectrometer, an electrostatic energy analyzer, and focusing ion optics. In this study, the examined beams were those arising from plasmas produced from feed gases of H 2 , D 2 , N 2 , O 2 , Ar, and dry air over a range of input power and working pressures. H 2 (D 2 ) plasmas are widely used for nuclear fusion applications and, hence, the ion concentration ratios of H + , H 2 + , and H 3 + reported here will be useful information for research that applies this plasma source to well-controlled plasma-material interaction studies. Ion energy distributions, stability of operation, and impurity concentrations were also assessed for each of the plasma species investigated.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
NASA NTRS2003

Investigation of a Light Gas Helicon Plasma Source for the VASIMR Space Propulsion System

An efficient plasma source producing a high-density (approx.10(exp 19/cu m) light gas (e.g. H, D, or He) flowing plasma with a high degree of ionization is a critical component of the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) concept. We are developing an antenna to apply ICRF power near the fundamental ion cyclotron resonance to further accelerate the plasma ions to velocities appropriate for space propulsion applications. The high degree of ionization and a low vacuum background pressure are important to eliminate the problem of radial losses due to charge exchange. We have performed parametric (e.g. gas flow, power (0.5 - 3 kW), magnetic field , frequency (25 and 50 MHz)) studies of a helicon operating with gas (H2 D2, He, N2 and Ar) injected at one end with a high magnetic mirror downstream of the antenna. We have explored operation with a cusp and a mirror field upstream. Plasma flows into a low background vacuum (<10(exp -4) torr) at velocities higher than the ion sound speed. High densities (approx. 10(exp 19/cu m) have been achieved at the location where ICRF will be applied, just downstream of the magnetic mirror.

Squire, J. P.↗