Characteristics of a reflex discharge in hydrogen in a magnetic field

The properties of an extensive reflex discharge of large power with one heated and one cold cathode in a magnetic field of 10 to 1500 Gauss were measured. At a neutral hydrogen pressure of 10^–4 to 10^–3 torr a plasma column was obtained which was 100 cm long, 10 cm in diameter and had a density greater than 10^–11 cm^–3. The dependence of the radial profile of the potential in the plasma was measured by a heated probe, and the temperature and electron density by Langmuir probes calibrated by a microwave interferometer.The dependence of the origin of low-frequency rotational instability on the parameters of the discharge was studied and the measured critical magnetic field was compared with theory. Apart from this low-frequency instability, intensive oscillations were also found in the discharge current in a frequency band up to 30 MHz, and the dependence of their spectrum on the magnetic field was measured.     

Threshold Frequency of Helical Electron–Hole Plasma Instability

Experimental evidence on the dependence of the threshold frequency of silicon oscillistors on the threshold electric field strength, magnetic induction, temperature, and injecting-contact separation is presented. In the temperature interval, where the weak magnetic field criterion is roughly satisfied, the experimental results are shown to be adequately explained by the classical theory of the bulk helical instability of an extrinsic plasma. The threshold frequency in this temperature interval is determined by the sum of two components. One component is due to the ambipolar drift of helical plasma perturbations, and the other results from the presence of the charge-carrier concentration gradient in a direction normal to the vectors of the electric field strength and magnetic induction. In short oscillistors (0.85·10^–3, 2.38·10^–3 m) at 77 K, a semiconductor plasma, wherein the helical instability is excited, approximates an intrinsic plasma, and the threshold frequency is determined by the rotation rate of helical perturbations.     

Independent UHF plasma source and possibility of filling open magnetic trap

A stationary UHF plasma source, its characteristics and possibility of filling open magnetic trap with plasma injected from it have been described. Plasma is created in the source at frequency of 2400 MHz (supplied power is up to 150 W) in the electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) regime under working gas pressure 10^–5–10^–2 Torr. By changing discharge conditions one can change the injected plasma density from 10⁹ to 10¹² cm^–3, at the temperatureT _e=2–10 eV. The possibility of efficient plasma injection from the source into the open magnetic trap of various configurations is shown experimentally. Plasma characteristics in the trap are presented under various experimental conditions. It is established that plasma parameters can be easily changed in the trap.     

Soft X-ray emission of continua from laser produced plasmas

Plasmas produced irradiating plane targets of low Z elements with moderate energy (3–10 J) lasers emit considerable amounts of free-free and free-bound continua in the soft X-ray region (10–100 Å) of the spectrum. With intensity calibrated grazing incidence spectrographs an intensity of the order of 10⁸ W sr^–1 Å^–1 cm^–2 emitted by the densest portion of the plasma inside the crater formed at the interaction was determined. This is in good agreement with theoretical predictions for a plasma of predetermined parameters. In case of high Z elements the continuum emitted has a very smooth wavelength dependence.     

Anomalous plasma phenomena of hollow cathode arc discharge

Magnetically confined argon plasma produced by hollow cathode arc discharge has been studied in different experimental conditions, with discharge current from 10–50 A, vessel argon pressure between 10^–3 and 10^–4 torr (1 torr=133·32 Pa) and axial magnetic field up to 0·12 T. The plasma density measured by a cylindrical Langmuir probe is found to be 10¹⁹ to 4 × 10¹⁹ m^–3 and the electron temperatureT _e varies between 2·5 and 4·8 eV. When an external axial magnetic field is applied the plasma temperature decreases with the increase in the magnetic field intensity until it reaches a minimum value at 0·075T and then increases with the same rate. This has been interpreted as high frequency waves excitation due to electron beam-plasma interaction, which explains the electron density jumps with the magnetic field intensity. Enhanced plasma transport across the magnetic field is studied and classified as anomalous diffusion.     

Plasma in open magnetic trap injected from independent UHF source

The properties of plasma injected into the open magnetic trap of uniform field from an independent UHF source have been investigated. It is established that a rather quiescent plasma with control density within the range of 2×10⁸–2×10¹² cm^–3 and temperature 2–3 eV is accumulated in the trap. It turned out that plasma lifetime in the trap is determined by a classical mechanism of particle escape at the expense of collisions, at fixed value of magnetic field in the trap it is not practically changed with the variation of neutral gas pressure and reaches the maximum value 4×10^–3 s at magnetic field strength in the trap equal 1600 Oe. Besides, the experimental data are analyzed on the basis of balance equations.     

Hard X-ray generation from microdroplets in intense laser fields

Microdroplets of 15-μm diameter are subjected to ultra-short laser pulses of intensities up to 10¹⁵Wcm⁻² to produce hot dense plasma. The hot electrons produced in the microdroplet plasma result in efficient generation of hard X-rays in the range 50–150keV at an irradiance as low as 8×10¹⁴Wcm⁻². The X-ray source efficiency is estimated to be about 2 ×10⁻⁷%. A prepulse that is about 11ns ahead of the main pulse strongly influences the droplet plasma and the resulting X-ray emission. For a similar laser prepulse and intensity, no measurable hard X-ray emission is observed when the laser is focused on a solid target of similar composition and this indicates that liquid droplet targets are best suited for hard X-ray generation in laser–plasma interactions.     

Threshold Characteristics of Silicon Oscillistors

Experimental evidence on the dependence of the threshold parameters of silicon oscillistors on magnetic induction, temperature, and injecting-contact separation is presented. Bulk helical instability of semiconductor plasma is shown to develop in this kind of oscillistors in a wide range of temperatures between 77 and 400 K. The threshold electric-field strength (resulting in plasma instability), threshold voltage, threshold current strength, and threshold power from a supply source in relation to the above factors are well described within a finite-size semiconductor sample theory. This approach accounts for the concentration gradient in nonequilibrium charge carriers in a direction normal to the vectors of the electric-field strength and magnetic induction. Rough estimation shows that the mean value of the relative concentration gradient in the samples under study is about 10³ m^–1 at 77 and 291 K.     

UHF generation in sub-micron layers of GaAs

Mathematical modelling of n⁺-n-n⁺ GaAs structures using the macroparticle method and the Monte Carlo procedure for simulating scattering events indicates that at a lattice temperature of 4.2 K ballistic and quasiballistic electron transport can lead to electron plasma instabilities. If the main scattering mechanism is the emission of polar optical phonons, plasma instability leads to UHF current oscillations at frequencies near 460 GHz.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 12, pp. 10–14, December, 1989.     

Production of a large-volume plasma by a hot-cathode arc

Probe measurements reveal that the plasma produced by a hot-cathode arc contains two groups of electrons, with temperatures 4 and 10 eV, with a density of 10¹⁰–10¹¹ cm^–3. These electrons are distributed uniformly over a volume of 0.2 m³. The discharge voltage is found as a function of the gas pressure and the heater current. Low-temperature regimes of the deposition of TiN coatings on metals and insulators after a plasma processing of the articles are described. The design of the discharge system is discussed.Institute of High-Current Electronics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 3, pp. 115–120, March, 1994.     

NOx generation in laser-produced plasma in air as a function of dissipated energy

An experimental study on the production of NO_x as a function of dissipated energy in laser-produced plasma in air is presented. A plasma was produced by focusing a (60–180) mJ, 5 ns, 532 nm pulse from a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. The results show that for laser energy in the range of 13–99 mJ the laser plasma generates 6.7×10¹⁶ NO_x molecules per joule and 4.6×10¹⁶ NO molecules per joule. An order of magnitude estimate of the NO and NO_x production per unit volume of heated gas based on a simple model show that the NO_x and NO production efficiency in air are about 3×10²² and 2×10²² molecules J⁻¹ m⁻³.     

High-voltage pulsed discharge in an electron source with a plasma cathode

The nature of and mechanism for producing a high-voltage discharge in an electron source with a plasma cathode are investigated. The possibility of generating pulsed electron currents with an amplitude of 10³–10⁴ A and a length of 10^–6 sec is considered.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 10, pp. 117–121, October, 1973.The authors thank B. M. Koval'chuk for help in developing the experimental arrangement and G. A. Mesyates for constant attention to the work and discussion of the results.     

General intense electron beams by means of a contracted arc discharge

Two types of contracted arc discharge are investigated with a view to generating intense electron beams over a wide pressure range (1–10^–3 Pa). For an arc discharge with a hollow cathode and anode, an electron beam corresponding to a current of up to 300 A and a pulse length of 25 µsec is obtained at a pressure of 1–10^–1 Pa in the accelerating gap with an accelerating voltage of up to 15 kV. At pressures of 10^–2–10^–3 Pa, emitting plasma is created by a low-pressure arc discharge on the basis of a Penning cell. Three discharge systems operating in parallel are used to increase the working life of the cathode and improve the current density distribution of the beam. An electron beam of diameter 200 mm with a current of up to 125 A and a pulse length of 50 µsec is obtained.Institute of High-Power Electronics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshkikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 3, pp. 76–82, March, 1994.     

Ion aging effects on the dissociative-attachment instability in CO2 lasers

Onset of the dissociative-attachment instability requires that the rate coefficient for electron detachment (k _d) from negative ions be below a critical value. The predominant negative and positive ions in a CO₂N₂He gas-discharge plasma are known to change with time. As secondary by-products form and the predominant negative-ion species changes from CO ₃ ^– to NO ₂ ^– , a decrease ink _d occurs destabilizing the discharge. Since NO ₂ ^– and NO ₃ ^– are largely unreactive with respect to associative detachment,k _d depends in a sensitive fashion on the concentration of certain minority negative ions (O^–, O ₂ ^– ) and neutrals (CO, O, N). The sufficient conditions for the dissociative-attachment instability are much less sensitive to changes in the electron-ion and ion-ion recombination rate coefficients resulting from the ion aging process.     

Renormalization method for computing the threshold of the large-scale stochastic instability in two degrees of freedom Hamiltonian systems

An approximate renormalization procedure is derived for the HamiltonianH(v,x,t)=v²/2–M cosx–P cosk(x–t). It gives an estimate of the large scale stochastic instability threshold which agrees within 5–10% with the results obtained from direct numerical integration of the canonical equations. It shows that this instability is related to the destruction of KAM tori between the two resonances and makes the connection with KAM theory. Possible improvements of the method are proposed. The results obtained forH allow us to estimate the threshold for a large class of Hamiltonian systems with two degrees of freedom.     

Hollow-Cathode Low-Pressure Arc Discharges and Their Application in Plasma Generators and Charged-Particle Sources

This paper presents the results of a study of hollow-cathode arc discharges which generate gas-discharge plasmas of densities 10¹⁰–10¹² cm^–3 in large volumes (1 m³) at low pressures (10^–2–1 Pa) and at discharge currents of up to 200 A. Consideration is given to the design and peculiarities of hot-cathode and cold-cathode discharge systems. The parameters of plasma generators and charged-particle sources where use is made of arc discharges are cited and the problems of the most efficient application of such systems in technological processes of solid surface modification are discussed.     

Optical emission diagnostics of laser-induced plasma for diamond-like film deposition

Optical emission from a laser-induced plasma plume is recorded during KrF excimer laser ablation of graphite in a gas mixture of Ar and H₂ (3%) for deposition of diamond-like thin films. At sub-GW/cm² laser intensities the spectrum is dominated by the bands of C₂ and CN. From the band intensities, the vibrational temperatures of both radicals are calculated to be 12–15×10³ K, and their concentrations are estimated to be 5×10¹⁴ cm^–3 and 2×10¹⁴ cm^–3, respectively.     

Radial distribution of the electron concentration in a rotating plasma with the help of an interferometer

Results of experiments on the investigation of a plasma rotating in crossed electric and magnetic fields are presented. The radial electron concentration distributions in a nitrogen plasma at pressures varying from 8·10^–2 to 3·10^–1 mm Hg are obtained with the help of a 3.39 m laser interferometer. The effect of the magnitude of the magnetic field on the form of the radial distribution is determined.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 1, pp. 72–75, January, 1982.     

Bi(Pb)–Sr–Ca–Cu–O layers prepared by a new method of laser ablation in air

Bi(Pb)–Sr–Ca–Cu–O layers were prepared by laser ablation in air, that is without using a vacuum chamber. At this method a much higher density of pulse energy of laser beam is required (10–30 J cm^–2) in comparison with the standard method (1–3 J cm^–2). The mentioned condition has specific effects on the nature of the transport of material from the target. As follows from the electron microprobe analysis of the layers, the starting composition of the transported material is identical with that of the superconducting phase sintered in the target; one exception represents Pb, the content of which in the transported material is lower. The image of the process is complemented by UV/VIS spectroscopy scans of the plasma plume.