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At least 109 records · Page 6

30-cm electron cyclotron plasma generator

Experimental results on the development of a 30-cm-diam electron cyclotron resonance plasma generator are presented. This plasma source utilizes samarium-cobalt magnets and microwave power at a frequency of 4.9 GHz to produce a uniform plasma with densities of up to 3 x 10 to the 11th/cu cm in a continuous fashion. The plasma generator contains no internal structures, and is thus inherently simple in construction and operation and inherently durable. The generator was operated with two different magnetic geometries. One used the rare-earth magnets arranged in an axial line cusp configuration, which directly showed plasma production taking place near the walls of the generator where the electron temperature was highest but with the plasma density peaking in the central low B-field regions. The second configuration had magnets arranged to form azimuthal line cusps with approximately closed electron drift surfaces; this configuration showed an improved electrical efficiency of about 135 eV/ion.

Goede, Hank

Direct Measurement of ICRF-Enhanced Plasma Potentials on WEST Using Reciprocating Emissive Probes

An extensive documentation of ICRF-enhanced plasma potentials has been conducted over two experimental campaigns on the WEST tokamak using reciprocating emissive probes magnetically connected to two ICRF antennas. The collected data spans a wide range of antenna electrical settings (coupled power, toroidal phasing, left–right power balance) and plasma parameters (density at the antenna limiter above and below the lower hybrid resonance, plasma current, minority fraction). By scanning the edge safety factor across multiple probe plunges, the magnetic connection between the probe and the antenna varied, enabling the construction of a 2D map of the plasma and floating potentials around an active ICRF antenna. This dataset will be used to validate RF simulation tools equipped with the sheath boundary condition and used to predict RF rectified potentials and ICRF-induced impurity sputtering in future machines. This paper presents the diagnostic and some initial measurements, while the rest will be reported elsewhere.

Diab, Raymond [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (

Investigations of Remote Plasma Irregularites by Radio Sounding: Applications of the Radio Plasma Imager on IMAGE

The Radio Plasma Imager (RPI) on the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) mission operates like a radar by transmitting and receiving coherent electromagnetic pulses. Long-range echoes of electromagnetic sounder waves are reflected at remote plasma cutoffs. Thus, analyses of RPI observations will yield the plasma parameters and distances to the remote reflection points. These analyses assume that the reflecting plasma surfaces are cold and are sufficiently smooth that they effectively behave as plane mirrors to the incoming sounder waves, i.e., that geometric optics can be used. The RPI will employ pulse compression and spectral integration techniques, perfected in ground-based ionospheric digital sounders, in order to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio in long-range magnetospheric sounding. When plasma irregularities exist in the remote magnetospheric plasmas that are being probed by the sounder waves, echo signatures may become complicated. Ionospheric sounding experience indicates that while topside sounding echo strengths can actually be enhanced by the presence of irregularities, ground-based sounding indicates that coherent detection techniques can still be employed. In this paper we investigate the plasma conditions that will allow coherent signals to be detected by the RPI and the signatures to be expected, such as scattering and plasma resonances, in the presence of multi-scale irregularities, may possibly have on RPI signals. Sounding of irregular plasma structures in the plasmasphere, plasmapause and magnetopause are also discussed.

Fung, Shing F.

Complexity and Intermittent Turbulence in Space Plasmas

Sporadic and localized interactions of coherent structures arising from plasma resonances can be the origin of "complexity" of the coexistence of non- propagating spatiotemporal fluctuations and propagating modes in space plasmas. Numerical simulation results are presented to demonstrate the intermittent character of the non-propagating fluctuations. The technique of the dynamic renormalization-group is introduced and applied to the study of scale invariance of such type of multiscale fluctuations. We also demonstrate that the particle interactions with the intermittent turbulence can lead to the efficient energization of the plasma populations. An example related to the ion acceleration processes in the auroral zone is provided.

Chang, Tom

Ionospheric nf sub H resonances: Frequency shifts versus plasma conditions

The Alouette 2 resonances observed near the harmonics of the electron cyclotron frequency f sub H reveal frequency shifts (relative to the n(f sub H) values derived from model field calculations) which can be interpreted in terms of plasma wave dispersion effects. These effects are observed on the 2(f sub H) resonance when it is near the resonance observed close to the upper hybrid frequency f sub T. The observations suggest that an oblique echo model may be required to give a proper interpretation of the 2(f sub H) resonance. Cyclotron damping can be ignored only when the angle between the propagation vector and the direction perpendicular to the earth's magnetic field B is less than a few degrees for the 2(f sub H) wave, and less than a few tenths of a degree for the n(f sub H) waves with n 2. The negative offset of the absolute value of B inferred from the plasma resonance observations is consistent with expectations based on recent OGO 3 and OGO 5 rubidium magnetometer observations at higher altitudes in the equatorial regions.

Benson, R. F.

Relationship between directions of wave and energy propagation for cold plasma waves

The dispersion relation for plasma waves is considered in the 'cold' plasma approximation. General formulas for the dependence of the phase and group velocities on the direction of wave propagation with respect to the local magnetic field are obtained for a cold magnetized plasma. The principal cold plasma resonances and cut-off frequencies are defined for an arbitrary angle and are used to establish basic regimes of frequency where the cold plasma waves can propagate or can be evanescent. The relationship between direction of wave and energy propagation, for cold plasma waves in hydrogen atmosphere, is presented in the form of angle diagrams (angle between group velocity and magnetic field versus angle between phase velocity and magnetic field) and polar diagrams (also referred to as 'Friedrich's diagrams') for different directions of wave propagation. Morphological features of the diagrams as well as some critical angles of propagation are discussed.

Musielak, Zdzislaw E.

Overview of physics results from the ADITYA-U tokamak and future experiments

The ADITYA upgrade (ADITYA-U), a medium-sized (R 0 = 75 cm, a = 25 cm) conventional tokamak facility in India, has been consistently producing experiments findings by usingcircular and shaped-plasmas. Recognizing the plasma parameters aligning closely with the design parameters of circular limited plasmas, ADITYA-U shifted its focus toward exploring the operational regime for experimentation on saw-tooth and MHD phenomena. Moreover, ADITYA-U has made consistent advancements toward conducting preliminary plasma shaping experiments through the activation of top and bottom divertor coils utilizing hydrogen as well as deuterium fuels. Confinement is improved by a factor of ~1.5 in D 2 plasmas when compared to H 2 plasmas of ADITYA-U. Further, ADITYA-U operations emphasize preventing disruptions and runaway electrons (REs) to ensure safe operations for future fusion devices. Significant suppression of REs has been achieved in ADITYA-U with the application of pulsed localized vertical magnetic field (LVF) perturbation, thereby establishing the technique's independence from the tokamak device. The successful RE mitigation requires a critical threshold of LVF pulse magnitude, which is approximately 1% of the toroidal magnetic field, and a minimum duration of ~5 ms. Apart from this, several novel findings have been achieved in the ADITYA-U experiments, including the modification of sawtooth duration through gas-puff, the emergence of MHD-induced geodesic acoustic mode-like oscillations, the propagation of fast heat pulses induced by MHD activity, the control of RE dynamics through Gas-puffs, the propagation of pinch-driven cold-pulses, the transport and core accumulations of argon impurities, the mass dependency of plasma toroidal rotation and the detection of 'RICE' scaling, as well as the characterization of edge plasma using wall conditioning methods, such as glow discharge cleaning using a combination of Ar-H 2 mixture, localized wall cleaning by electron cyclotron resonant plasma, and the development of machine learning-based disruption predictions, will be discussed in this paper.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY

Z mode radiation in Jupiter's magnetosphere - The source of Jovian continuum radiation

Observations of Z-mode waves in Jupiter's magnetosphere are analyzed. The assumption that the frequency of the intensity minimum, which isolates the signal, corresponds to the electron plasma frequency provides a consistent interpretation of all spectral features in terms of plasma resonances and cutoffs. It is shown that the continuum radiation is composed of both left-hand and right-hand polarized waves with distinct cutoffs observed at the plasma frequency and right-hand cutoff frequency, respectively. It is found that the Z-mode peak frequency lies close to the left-hand cutoff frequency, suggesting that the observed characteristics of the emission are the result of wave reflection at the cutoff layer. Another distinct emission occurring near the upper hybrid resonance frequency is detected simultaneously with the Z mode. The entire set of observations gives strong support to the linear mode theory of the conversion of upper hybrid waves to continuum radiation mediated by the Z mode via the Budden radio window mechanism.

Barbosa, D. D.

Currents between tethered electrodes in a magnetized laboratory plasma

Laboratory experiments on important plasma physics issues of electrodynamic tethers were performed. These included current propagation, formation of wave wings, limits of current collection, nonlinear effects and instabilities, charging phenomena, and characteristics of transmission lines in plasmas. The experiments were conducted in a large afterglow plasma. The current system was established with a small electron-emitting hot cathode tethered to an electron-collecting anode, both movable across the magnetic field and energized by potential difference up to V approx.=100 T(sub e). The total current density in space and time was obtained from complete measurements of the perturbed magnetic field. The fast spacecraft motion was reproduced in the laboratory by moving the tethered electrodes in small increments, applying delayed current pulses, and reconstructing the net field by a linear superposition of locally emitted wavelets. With this technique, the small-amplitude dc current pattern is shown to form whistler wings at each electrode instead of the generally accepted Alfven wings. For the beam electrode, the whistler wing separates from the field-aligned beam which carries no net current. Large amplitude return currents to a stationary anode generate current-driven microinstabilities, parallel electric fields, ion depletions, current disruptions and time-varying electrode charging. At appropriately high potentials and neutral densities, excess neutrals are ionized near the anode. The anode sheath emits high-frequency electron transit-time oscillations at the sheath-plasma resonance. The beam generates Langmuir turbulence, ion sound turbulence, electron heating, space charge fields, and Hall currents. An insulated, perfectly conducting transmission line embedded in the plasma becomes lossy due to excitation of whistler waves and magnetic field diffusion effects. The implications of the laboratory observations on electrodynamic tethers in space are discussed.

Stenzel, R. L.

Interpretation of satellite gyroharmonic resonance observations

An analytical expression is obtained for the rendezvous conditions between a propagating wave near nfH and a moving ionospheric sounder antenna, where fH is the ambient value of the electron gyrofrequency and n is an integer greater than 1. The agreement between the theoretical predictions and Alouette 1 satellite observations indicates that most of the long duration resonances (those with durations greater than about 2 msec) can be interpreted in terms of the reception of sounder-stimulated electrostatic waves that are reflected and returned to the sounder antenna. The results provide a technique for obtaining from sounder-stimulated plasma resonances information on ambient electron temperature corresponding to electron motions perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field.

Benson, R. F.

An Interpretation of Banded Magnetospheric Radio Emissions

Recently-published Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorer/Isothermal Remanent Magnetization (AMPTE/IRM) banded magnetospheric emissions, commonly referred to as '(n + 1/2)f(sub ce)' emissions where f(sub ce) is the electron gyrofrequency, are analyzed by treating them as analogous to sounder-stimulated ionospheric emissions. We show that both individual AMPTE/IRM spectra of magnetospheric banded emissions, and a statistically-derived spectra observed over the two-year lifetime of the mission, can be interpreted in a self-consistent manner. The analysis, which predicts all spectral peaks within 4% of the observed peaks, interprets the higher-frequency emissions as due to low group-velocity Bernstein-mode waves and the lower-frequency emissions as eigen modes of cylindrical-electromagnetic-plasma-oscillations. The demarcation between these two classes of emissions is the electron plasma frequency f(sub pe), where an emission is often observed. This f(sub pe), emission is not necessarily the strongest. None of the observed banded emissions were attributed to the upper-hybrid frequency. We present Alouette-2 and ISIS-1 plasma-resonance data, and model electron temperature (T(sub e)) values, to support the argument that the frequency-spectrum of ionospheric sounder-stimulated emissions is not strongly temperature dependent and thus that the interpretation of these emissions in the ionosphere is relevant to other plasmas (such as the magnetosphere) where N(sub e) and T(sub e) can be quite different but where the ratio f(sub pe)/f(sub ce) is identical.

Benson, Robert F.

Principles of two-dimensional terahertz spectroscopy of collective excitations: The case of Josephson plasmons in layered superconductors

Two-dimensional terahertz spectroscopy (2DTS), a terahertz analog of nuclear magnetic resonance, is a new technique poised to address many open questions in complex condensed matter systems. The conventional theoretical framework used ubiquitously for interpreting multidimensional spectra of discrete quantum level systems is, however, insufficient for the continua of collective excitations in strongly correlated materials. Here, in this work, we develop a theory for 2DTS of a model collective excitation, the Josephson plasma resonance in layered superconductors. Starting from a mean-field approach at temperatures well below the superconducting phase transition, we obtain expressions for the multidimensional nonlinear responses that are amenable to intuition derived from the conventional single-mode scenario. We then consider temperatures near the superconducting critical temperature T c , where dynamics beyond mean-field become important and conventional intuition fails. As fluctuations proliferate near T c , the dominant contribution to nonlinear response comes from an optical parametric drive of counterpropagating Josephson plasmons, which gives rise to 2D spectra that are qualitatively different from the mean-field predictions. As such, and in contrast to one-dimensional spectroscopy techniques, such as third harmonic generation, 2DTS can be used to directly probe thermally excited finite-momentum plasmons and their interactions. Our theory can readily be tested in cuprates, and we discuss implications beyond the present context of Josephson plasmons.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND

Turbulence of electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic waves observed by Ogo 5.

Analysis of VLF emissions that have been observed near 3/2, 5/2, and 7/2 f sub H by Ogo 5 in the magnetosphere (f sub H is the electron cyclotron frequency) in the light of the mechanism used for the diffuse plasma resonance f sub Dn observed by Alouette 2 and Isis 1. The VLF emission is considered to be generated by nonlinear coupling mechanisms in certain portions of the observation as the f sub Dn is enhanced by its association with nonlinear wave-particle interaction of the electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic wave, including the instability due to the nonlinear inverse Landau damping mechanism in the turbulence. The difference between the two observations is in the excitation mechanism of the turbulence; the turbulence in the plasma trough detected by Ogo 5 is due to natural origins, whereas the ionospheric topside sounder makes the plasma wave turbulence artificially by submitting strong stimulation pulses. Electron density values in the plasma trough are deduced by applying the f sub Dn-f sub N/f sub H relationship obtained from the Alouette 2 experiment as well as by applying the condition for the wave-particle nonlinear interactions. The electron density values reveal good agreement with the ion density values observed simultaneously by the highly sensitive ion mass spectrometer.

Oya, H.