Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “plasma properties”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 613 records · Page 34
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Influence of temporal variations in plasma conditions on the electric potential near self-organized dust chains

Self-organization of dust grains into stable filamentary dust structures (or “chains”) largely depends on dynamic interactions between individual charged dust grains and complex electric potential arising from the distribution of charges within a local plasma environment. Recent studies have shown that the positive column of the gas discharge plasma in the Plasmakristall-4 (PK-4) experiment at the International Space Station supports the presence of fast-moving ionization waves, which lead to variations of plasma parameters by up to an order of magnitude from the average background values. The highly variable environment resulting from ionization waves may have interesting implications for the dynamics and self-organization of dust particles, particularly concerning the formation and stability of dust chains. Here, we investigate the electric potential surrounding dust chains in the PK-4 experiment by employing a molecular dynamics model of the dust and ions with boundary conditions supplied by a particle-in-cell with Monte Carlo collision simulation of the ionization waves. The model is used to examine the effects of the plasma conditions within different regions of the ionization wave and compare the resulting dust structure to that obtained by employing the time-averaged plasma conditions. Here, the comparison between simulated dust chains and experimental data from the PK-4 experiment shows that the time-averaged plasma conditions do not accurately reproduce observed results for dust behavior, indicating that more careful treatment of plasma conditions in the presence of ionization waves is required. It is further shown that commonly used analytic forms of the electric potential do not accurately describe the electric potential near charged dust grains under these plasma conditions.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Deterministic modeling of hybrid nonlinear effects in epsilon-near-zero thin films

In nonlinear optics, significant effort is concentrated on improving the strength and efficiency of interactions; however, experimentally investigating nonlinear materials is a complex, time-consuming, and costly investment. Moreover, it is often challenging to isolate, study, and optimize material parameters in an experiment due to complexities in the growth process. Recently, epsilon-near-zero materials have received a great deal of attention as promising nonlinear optical materials, but like many up-and-coming materials, the ability to explore and optimize their properties has been challenging. Here, we establish a framework to rapidly evaluate the performance of nonlinear epsilon-near-zero materials for both inter- and intraband effects in silico, requiring only an energy-momentum (E-k) diagram, linear optical properties, and experimental conditions. Measured nonlinear reflection and transmission in gallium-doped zinc oxide films are compared to the numerical framework for both intra- and interband excitation to verify accuracy across wavelength and irradiance while two figures of merit (FoMs) are introduced to quickly evaluate the performance of films without a full numerical framework. This capability is used to predict the performance of highly doped gallium nitride, cadmium oxide, zinc oxide, and indium tin oxide films, and efficient intra- and interband operation conditions are identified. Through this numerical framework and the FoMs, the exploration of unstudied epsilon-near-zero materials is enabled without the need for a nonlinear experiment, thereby accelerating the search for more efficient nonlinear materials and excitation conditions.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2021

Study of detached plasma profile in the divertor simulation experimental module of tandem mirror GAMMA 10/PDX

A divertor simulation experimental module (D-module) in the tandem mirror GAMMA 10/PDX was used for the study of plasma detachment. In previous studies, it was difficult to measure far-upstream plasma parameters in the D-module, and only electrostatic probes on the target plate were used to perform electron temperature and density measurements. Furthermore, to study the detached plasma structure, a Thomson scattering (TS) system and a microwave interferometer system have been installed to measure the inside plasma parameters of the D-module, and a movable electrostatic probe has been placed at the inlet of the D-module to measure the inlet plasma density and temperature. The TS system in the central cell observed the electron temperature and density of the core plasma simultaneously. These measurements revealed the entire density and temperature structure from the core plasma to the divertor plate. The line average electron density measured by the microwave interferometer showed a rollover behavior during detachment. The results indicated that the ionization region was located around the center of the D-module, and it appears to move upstream along the axis.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Interacting quantum and classical waves: Resonant and non-resonant energy transfer to electrons immersed in an intense electromagnetic wave

Dynamics of electrons subjected to a constant amplitude classical electromagnetic (EM) wave is investigated as a fundamental, representative problem in the physics of interacting quantum and classical waves. In the nonrelativistic regime (electrons as Schrödinger waves), the electron energy acquires a constant and a time dependent part. Driven by EM waves, both parts scale strongly with the amplitude, but we expect no resonant enhancement since the parallel electron “speed” of nonrelativistic electrons could never match the wave phase velocity. In the relativistic regime (electron as a Klein–Gordon wave), however, a class of electron waves (with parallel speed matching the EM phase speed) are resonantly excited to extremely high energies. Such a direct resonant energy transfer from intense electromagnetic waves constitutes a mechanism that could, in principle, power the most energetic of cosmic rays (this mechanism will work on protons just as well). Some predictions of the theory will, hopefully, be tested in laboratory laser experiments. In conclusion, the nonrelativistic calculations will also be examined in the context of recent experiments using photon-induced near-field electron microscopy in detail.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Particle-in-cell modeling of plasma jet merging in the large-Hall-parameter regime

The merging process of magnetized plasma jets with parameters relevant to the plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion (PJMIF) design and the plasma liner experiment (PLX) is modeled by fully kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations in one and two spatial dimensions. Here, the modified two-stream instability is identified to be the main mechanism responsible for stopping the plasma jets and preventing species interpenetration. The electron and ion Hall parameters of the merged plasma are greater than unity, and the plasma β is close to unity, which is the desired characteristic of planned experiments at PLX. Our 2D PIC simulations validate the results of the radiation magneto-hydrodynamics code FLASH, which will be the primary tool for modeling various stages of future PJMIF experiments.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Kinetic modeling of neutral transport for a continuum gyrokinetic code

In this work we present the first-of-its-kind coupling of a continuum full- f gyrokinetic turbulence model with a 6D continuum model for kinetic neutrals, carried out using the Gkeyll code. Our objective is to improve the first-principle understanding of the role of neutrals in plasma fueling, detachment, and their interaction with edge plasma profiles and turbulence statistics. Our model includes only atomic hydrogen and incorporates electron-impact ionization, charge exchange, and wall recycling. These features have been successfully verified with analytical predictions and benchmarked with the DEGAS2 Monte Carlo neutral code. We carry out simulations for a scrape-off layer (SOL) with simplified geometry and National Spherical Torus Experiment parameters. We compare these results to a baseline simulation without neutrals and find that neutral interactions reduce the normalized density fluctuation levels and associated skewness and kurtosis, while increasing auto-correlation times. A flatter density profile is also observed, similar to the SOL density shoulder formation in experimental scenarios with high fueling.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Interpreting ion-energy distributions using charge exchange emitted from deeply kinetic field-reversed-configuration plasmas

Energy resolving the atomic hydrogen outflux created within plasmas by charge exchange (CX) of hot plasma ions with cooler hydrogen neutrals is used to infer the ion energy distribution within the plasma, IED p . In high- β plasma with field nulls and ion gyro-radii comparable to the plasma size, the measured ion energy distribution (IED m ) of the CX outflux will depend on the viewing angle and position of the detector. Here, we describe the physics for this, results from a synthetic diagnostic code that contrasts the IED m to the IED p within relatively small and hot field-reversed-configuration plasmas, and how these data can show the presence of magnetic nulls and different orbit classes in the plasma.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Two-dimensional plasma density evolution local to the inversion layer during sawtooth crash events using Beam Emission Spectroscopy

Here, we present methods for analyzing Beam Emission Spectroscopy (BES) data to obtain the plasma density evolution associated with rapid sawtooth crash events at the DIII-D tokamak. BES allows coverage over a 2D spatial plane, inherently local measurements, with fast time responses, and, therefore, provides a valuable new channel for data during sawtooth events. A method is developed to remove sawtooth-induced edge-light pulses contained in the BES data. The edge light pulses appear to be from the D α emission produced by edge recycling during sawtooth events, and are large enough that traditional spectroscopic filtering and data analysis techniques are insufficient to deduce physically meaningful quantities. A cross-calibration of 64 BES channels is performed by using a novel method to ensure accurate measurements. For the large-amplitude density oscillations observed, we discuss and use the non-linear relationship between the BES signal δI/ I 0 and the plasma density variation δn e / n e0 . The 2D BES images cover an 8 × 20 cm 2 region around the sawtooth inversion layer and show large-amplitude density oscillations, with additional significant spatial variations across the inversion layer that grows and peaks near the time of the temperature crash. The edge light removal technique and method of converting large-amplitude δI/ I 0 to δn e / n e0 presented here may help analyze other impulsive MHD phenomena in tokamaks.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Revisiting W–ZrC interfaces: A first principles study

We investigate W–ZrC interfaces using first-principles calculations based on the density functional theory. There have been theoretical and experimental studies exploring W–ZrC interfaces, however, the debate regarding the most stable interface continues to persist. In this study, we systematically simulated various W–ZrC interfaces merging W and ZrC surfaces with different orientations. Subsequently, we evaluated their stabilities and explained the corresponding stabilities in terms of the nature of bonding and charge-transfer processes at the interface. We find ZrC(111)–W(110) is the most stable interface with higher adhesive energy than the other interfaces. The additional stability associated with the ZrC(111)–W(110) results from significant interface reconstruction. Three layers of W and ZrC adjacent to the interface are involved in the charge-transfer process leading to stronger ionic bonds in ZrC(111)–W(110) as compared to the other potential candidate: ZrC(100)–W(100). The C and W atoms are found to be displaced from their symmetric position during the reconstruction process at the interface to facilitate stronger bonds with shorter W–C and W–Zr bonds in ZrC(111)–W(110) as compared to ZrC(100)–W(100). This leads to stronger covalent bonds in ZrC(111)–W(110) than that in ZrC(100)–W(100). Therefore, we conclude that the stronger covalent and ionic forces in ZrC(111)–W(110) than those in ZrC(100)–W(100) are responsible for making ZrC(111)–W(110) to be the most stable interface. In conclusion, this study addresses the long-standing question of the most stable W–ZrC interface and derives a number of implications for other W-transition metal carbide interfaces which are potential candidates for improving the mechanical properties of plasma facing materials.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Fluid and hybrid simulations of the ionization instabilities in Hall thruster

Low-frequency axial oscillations in the range of 5–50 kHz stand out as a pervasive feature observed in many types of Hall thrusters. While it is widely recognized that the ionization effects play the central role in this mode, as manifested via the large-scale oscillations of neutral and plasma density, the exact mechanism(s) of the instabilities remain unclear. To gain further insight into the physics of the breathing mode and evaluate the role of kinetic effects, a one-dimensional time-dependent full nonlinear low-frequency model describing neutral atoms, ions, and electrons is developed in full fluid formulation and compared to the hybrid model in which the ions and neutrals are kinetic. Both models are quasi-neutral and share the same electron fluid equations that include the electron diffusion, mobility across the magnetic field, and the electron energy evolution. The ionization models are also similar in both approaches. Further, the predictions of fluid and hybrid simulations are compared for different test cases. Two main regimes are identified in both models: one with pure low-frequency behavior and the other one, where the low-frequency oscillations coexist with high-frequency oscillations in the range of 100–200 kHz, with the characteristic time scale of the ion channel fly-by time, 100–200 kHz. The other test case demonstrates the effect of a finite temperature of injected neutral atoms, which has a substantial suppression effect on the oscillation amplitude.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Tin removal by an annular surface wave plasma antenna in an extreme ultraviolet lithography source

Tin contamination of the collector mirror surface remains one of the crucial issues of EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) sources, directly impacting the availability of the tool. Hydrogen plasma-based tin removal processes employ hydrogen radicals and ions to interact with tin deposits to form gaseous tin hydride (SnH 4 ), which can be removed through pumping. An annular surface wave plasma (SWP) source developed at the University of Illinois—Urbana Champaign is integrated into the cone and perimeter of the collection mirror for in situ tin removal. The SWP is characterized by high ion and radical densities, low electron temperature, and local generation where etching is needed. This method has the potential to significantly reduce downtime and increase mirror lifetime. Radical probe measurements show hydrogen radical densities in the order of 10 19 m -3 , while Langmuir probe measurements show electron temperatures of up to 6 eV and plasma densities on the order of 10 17–18 m -3 . The generated ions are essential to the tin cleaning and have sufficiently low energy to cause no damage to the collector capping layer. Tin etch rates of up to 270 nm/min were observed in a variety of experimental conditions, including various powers, pressures, flowrates, and temperatures. In conclusion, the high etch rates demonstrated in this study exceed the expected contamination rate of the EUV source.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Experimental study of electromagnetic wave scattering from a gyrotropic gaseous plasma column

We experimentally demonstrate the controlled scattering of incident transverse-electric electromagnetic waves from a gyrotropic magnetized plasma cylindrical discharge. Scattered electromagnetic waves can bend left and right by changing the external magnetic field of a plasma rod. Measured scattered wavefronts are in good agreement with electromagnetic simulations. A gyrotropic response is observed for incident wave frequencies ranging from 3.5 to 5.6 GHz for conditions corresponding to a ratio of cyclotron frequency to plasma frequency, ω ce /ω p ≈ 0.16. In conclusion, the observation of a gyrotropic response from cylindrical plasma discharges paves the way for their use as building blocks for future devices such as magnetized plasma photonic crystals, topological insulators, plasma metamaterials, non-reciprocal waveguide structures, and other devices, which require a tunable gyrotropic response from centimeter to meter-scale materials with application-specific geometry.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Role of hot electrons in shock ignition constrained by experiment at the National Ignition Facility

Shock ignition is a scheme for direct drive inertial confinement fusion that offers the potential for high gain with the current generation of laser facility; however, the benefits are thought to be dependent on the use of low adiabat implosions without laser–plasma instabilities reducing drive and generating hot electrons. A National Ignition Facility direct drive solid target experiment was used to calibrate a 3D Monte Carlo hot-electron model for 2D radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of a shock ignition implosion. The α = 2.5 adiabat implosion was calculated to suffer a 35% peak areal density decrease when the hot electron population with temperature T ℎ = 55 keV and energy E ℎ = 13 kJ was added to the simulation. Optimizing the pulse shape can recover ~1/3 of the peak areal density lost due to a change in shock timing. Here, despite the harmful impact of laser–plasma instabilities, the simulations indicate shock ignition as a viable method to improve performance and broaden the design space of near ignition high adiabat implosions.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

A multi-chord, two-color interferometer using Hilbert transform phase detection for measuring electron density in spheromak plasmas

A new, four-chord, CO 2 /He–Ne heterodyne interferometer has been designed and built for measuring line-averaged plasma density in the HIT-SI3 and subsequent HIT-SIU sustained spheromak devices. The two-color system successfully eliminates vibration-induced errors caused by mirrors that are secured to the vacuum chamber and is able to resolve electron densities ne in the full operating range of 10 18 –10 20 m –3 in both experiments with an integrated error of 4.7 × 10 17 m –2 . Here, data are presented from high toroidal current plasma discharges, showing the time evolution of electron densities n e and j Φ /n e along multiple chords.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Absolute calibration of the conical crystal configuration of the zinc spectrometer (ZSPEC) at the OMEGA laser facility

In this study, we present the absolute calibration of the conical crystal for the zinc spectrometer (ZSPEC), an x-ray spectrometer at the OMEGA laser facility at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. The ZSPEC was originally designed to measure x-ray Thomson scattering using flat or cylindrically curved highly oriented pyrolytic graphite crystals centered around Zn He-alpha emission at 9 keV. To improve the useful spectral range and collection efficiency of the ZSPEC, a conical highly annealed pyrolytic graphite crystal was fabricated for the ZSPEC. The conically bent crystal in the Hall geometry produces a line focus perpendicular to the spectrometer axis, corresponding to the detector plane of electronic detectors at large scale laser facilities such as OMEGA, extending the useful range of the spectrometer to 7–11 keV. Further, using data collected using a microfocus Mo x-ray source, we determine important characteristics of ZSPEC such as the dispersion, spatial resolution, and absolute sensitivity of the instrument. A ray-trace model of ZSPEC provides another point of agreement in calculations of the ZSPEC dispersion and crystal response.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Diagnosis of the imploding shell asymmetry in polar-direct-drive deuterium–tritium cryogenic target implosions on OMEGA

We discuss the analyses of gated, x-ray imaging data from polar-direct-drive experiments with cryogenically layered deuterium–tritium targets on the OMEGA laser. The in-flight shell asymmetries were diagnosed at various times during the implosion, which was caused by the beam pointing geometry and preimposed variations in the energy partition between the different groups of laser beams. The shape of the ablation surface during the acceleration phase of the implosion was measured along two different lines of sight, and a Legendre mode (ℓ-mode) decomposition was applied for modes of up to ten to investigate shell asymmetries. A clear causal relationship between the imposed beam imbalance and the shape of the in-flight shell asymmetries was observed. The imploded shell with a balanced energy ratio shows smaller values of the amplitudes of ℓ-mode 2 compared to that from implosions with an imbalanced ring energy ratio. The amplitudes of ℓ-modes 4 and 6 are the same within the measurement uncertainty with respect to the change in beam energy ratio.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2022

A diagnostic to measure neutral-atom density in fusion-research plasmas

For this study, a femtosecond two-photon-absorption laser-induced-fluorescence (TALIF) diagnostic was designed, installed, and operated on the Princeton-Field-Reversed Configuration-2 device to provide non-invasive measurements of the time and spatially resolved neutral-atom densities in its plasmas. Calibration of the H o density was accomplished by comparison with Kr TALIF. Measurements on plasmas formed of either H 2 or Kr fill gases allowed examination of nominally long and short ionization mean-free-path regimes. With multi-kW plasma heating and H 2 fill gas, a spatially uniform H o density of order 10 17 m –3 was measured with better than ±2 mm and 10 µs resolution. Under similar plasma conditions but with Kr fill gas, a 3-fold decrease in the in-plasma Kr density was observed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗