Self-Interaction of Electron Plasma Waves in a Planar Plasma-Filled Waveguide

Nonlinear behaviour of electron plasma waves propagating in a planar plasma-loaded waveguide immersed in an infinite magnetic field is analysed including finite temperature and mobile ion effects. It is shown that the wave becomes modulationally unstable if the wavenumber exceeds certain critical value K_c, which decreases with rise of temperature. The growth rate of instability is calculated and is found to increase with the rise of temperature.     

W-Band Second-Harmonic Gyrotron Traveling Wave Amplifier with Distributed-Loss and Severed Structures

The second harmonic TE₀₂ gyrotron traveling wave amplifier (gyro-TWT) is a high-power, broadband, millimeter-wave amplifier with a low applied magnetic field. Mode-selective interaction circuits were applied to suppressing spurious oscillations. However, the mode-selective interaction circuit may perturb the operating mode in the gyro-TWT. A multi-stage gyro-TWT design with distributed-loss and severed structures is proposed to stabilize the amplification. This study presents a nonlinear analysis of typical oscillations, including absolute instability, gyrotron backward oscillation (gyro-BWO) and reflective oscillation. The lossy and severed sections of the multi-stage gyro-TWT seem to increase effectively the start-oscillation currents of the absolute instability, gyro-BWO, and reflection oscillation. The multi-stage gyro-TWT is predicted to yield a peak output power of 215 kW at 89.9 GHz with an efficiency of 14.3 %, a saturated gain of 60 dB and a bandwidth of 1.7 GHz for a 100 kV, 15 A electron beam with an axial velocity spread _z/ _z = 5%.     

磁场剪切对离子温度梯度模带状流产生的影响

对离子温度梯度模湍流非线性流体方程进行了解耦处理,得到包含磁场剪切效应的带状流与漂移波相互作用的非线性动力学方程.采用调制不稳定性的四波相互作用模型,研究了磁场剪切对带状流产生的影响.研究表明,在k_//值较小的范围内,当|k_//|增加时,带状流的增长率也呈增加的趋势. 关键词： 托卡马克等离子体 离子温度梯度模湍流 带状流 磁场剪切     

Hot electron plasmas trapped in helical magnetic surfaces

Experimental studies on nonneutral (pure electron) plasmas of finite temperature, trapped in helical closed magnetic surfaces have been conducted. The helical electron plasmas are produced with thermal electrons launched from the outside of the last closed flux surface (LCFS). About 150 μs after the electron injection, the plasmas reach equilibrium state. Around the LCFS, a steep gradient of plasma space potential φ _s is formed. The corresponding radial electric field is about 2.5 kV/m. On the other hand, around the magnetic axis of helical magnetic surfaces, φ _s is almost constant, indicating that there are little electrons there. The volume-averaged electron density is on the order of 10¹³ m^–3, smaller than the Brillouin density limit. The confinement time seems to be limited by a disruptive instability, and is so far about 1.5 ms.      

Suppression of electron temperature gradient turbulence via negative magnetic shear in NSTX

Negative magnetic shear is found to suppress electron turbulence and improve electron thermal transport for plasmas in the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX). Sufficiently negative magnetic shear results in a transition out of a stiff profile regime. Density fluctuation measurements from high-k microwave scattering are verified to be the electron temperature gradient (ETG) mode by matching measured rest frequency and linear growth rate to gyrokinetic calculations. Fluctuation suppression under negligible E×B shear conditions confirm that negative magnetic shear alone is sufficient for ETG suppression. Measured electron temperature gradients can significantly exceed ETG critical gradients with ETG mode activity reduced to intermittent bursts, while electron thermal diffusivity improves to below 0.1?electron gyro-Bohms.     

Kinetic Current-Convective Instability in Hot Electron Plasma

The kinetic current-convective instability excited in a hot electron plasma, i.e. for T_e ? T_i, is investigated in the linear stage. Density and temperature of plasma components have gradients along the x-direction. In the absence of longitudinal current (u = 0) and homogeneous temperature the instability is also excited with maximum growth rate much exceeding that obtained in the case of u ≠ 0. Gradual increasing of the ion temperature over that of the electrons and a large density gradient leads to reduce the instability in the linear stage.     

Self-focusing and defocusing of cosh Gaussian laser beam in the presence of nonlinearity of ponderomotive force and temperature gradient

In this paper, the propagation of Cosh Gaussian laser beam and its interaction with isothermal plasma without temperature gradient as well as the effect of the exponential electron temperature gradient are investigated. Here the ponderomotive nonlinearity force is effective mechanism. This force can modify the electron density distribution. All the investigations are carried out for different initial plasma temperatures. Using Maxwell’s equations we obtained the nonlinear second-order differential equation of the dimensionless beam-width parameter (f) on the distance of propagation for several initial electron temperatures and exponential temperature variations. These equations are solved numerically by taking WKB and paraxial approximation. Under the effect of initial electron temperature, self-focusing and defocusing of hyperbolic cosine (cosh) Gaussian laser beam is distinguished. Furthermore, the exponential temperature gradient cause to stationary propagation mode breaks, and self-focusing or defocusing properties is observable.     

Resonant decay of a Langmuir wave in the presence of dust grains in a cylindrical plasma

The resonant parametric decay of a Langmuir wave into a backward propagating Langmuir wave and an ion acoustic (IA) wave is studied in a cylindrical dusty plasma. The analysis shows that the frequency of the IA mode decreases with the parameter δ_c (where δ_c is the ratio of the ion density to the electron density) for negatively charged dust grains. The growth rate of the resonance decay instability (RDI) and the threshold required for its onset also decrease with δ_c and are strongly dependent on the electron to ion temperature ratio for both positively and negatively charged dust grains. The results obtained also illustrate the dependence of the threshold of the resonance decay instability (μ_th) on the plasma cylinder radius.     

Compressibility and collisional effects on thermal instability of a partially ionized medium

The thermal instability of a finitely conducting hydromagnetic composite and compressible medium is studied to include the frictional effects with neutrals. The effect of compressibility is found to be stabilizing. In contrast to the nonoscillatory modes for (C _p/g)β > 1 in the absence of a magnetic field;C _v, β andg being specific heat at constant pressure, uniform adverse temperature gradient and acceleration due to gravity respectively, the presence of magnetic field introduces oscillatory modes in the system. The overstable case is also discussed. The magnetic field is found to have a stabilizing effect on the system for (C _p/g)β > 1.     

Stability of quark gluon plasma to nielsen-olesen mode

Nielsen and Olesen showed that perturbative vacuum with uniform chromomagnetic field in one space and one color direction is unstable. This instability is called Nielsen-Olesen instability (NOI), and leads to formation of a ‘spaghetti of flux tubes’ as a model for non-perturbative vacuum and confinement. We re-examine this instability in presence of color sources, quarks and gluons, at a finite temperature and find that at sufficiently high temperature NOI is stabilized due to an ‘effective mass’ of gluons arising through plasma effects. This explains how a QGP with no confinement effects may exist at high temperature. As the temperature is lowered, NOI reappears at a valueT=T _c, which is very close to confinement-deconfinement transition from hadrons to QGP..     

Nonlinear drift waves in a plasma with Ti⪢Te

It is found that nonlinear ion drift waves in a plasma with ion temperature much larger than the electron temperature (T_i?T_e) satisfy certain well-known model evolution equations. The nonlinear development of the ion waves as well as their turbulent behaviour is therefore known in the light of these equations.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">I–V</Emphasis> characteristics and current instability in a high-temperature superconductor with a nonuniform temperature distribution over the cross section

The effect of a nonuniform temperature distribution in the cross section of a high-temperature superconductor on the formation of its I–V characteristic and the conditions for conservation of a stable distribution of the input current are analyzed. The equations permitting us to determine the boundary values of the electric field and current above which current instability can be developed with allowance for the dimensional effect are derived. It is shown that the input current quench determining the maximal permissible value of the input current decreases if thermal inhomogeneity of electrodynamic states is taken into account in theoretical analysis of its stability conditions. It is found that the limiting admissible values of the electric field and current are nonlinear functions of the thermal resistance of the superconductor, its critical parameters, and external heat-exchange conditions. Therefore, intense cooling of the superconductor does not result in an increase in the current corresponding to the emergence of instability in proportion to the increase in its cross-sectional area or critical current density.     

Experimental Evidence of Parametric Instabilities in an Unmagnetized Plasma Subjected to a Strong H.F. Electric Field

Experimental evidence of parametric excitation, by an intense external H.F. field, of an electron surface mode and an ion wave is presented. The pumping electromagnetic energy density is equal to or slightly larger than the thermal energy density of the electrons. The value of f_pc/f₀ (electron plasma frequency/external field frequency) is that for an electron surface wave. Depending on the pressure and field intensity, this decay instability can lead to three types of low frequency oscillations, with frequencies close to the ion plasma frequency. Two of these are described by Aliev and Silin's intense field theory: one is the volume ion plasma oscillation and the other a surface ion plasma oscillation. The third corresponds to no known ion eigenmode. Several other features of the theory by Aliev and co-workers are also confirmed experimentally, such as the harmonic excitation of the instability (nf₀ ≈ f_pe/√2, where n is an integer), the instability amplitude as a function of f_pe/f₀ (above threshold conditions), the value of the mismatch parameter as a function of field strength and ion mass, and the existence of a fine structure corresponding to the symmetric and antisymmetric electron surface oscillations. Even at high pump field strengths, the decay products are nearly monochromatic i.e. the plasma does not become turbulent.     

Effect of self-fields on the electron cyclotron maser instability in a dielectric loaded waveguide

The influence of self-fields on the cyclotron maser instability in a hollow electron beam propagating parallel to a uniform axial magnetic field B ₀ ê _z in a dielectric loaded waveguide is investigated. The theoretical analysis is carried out within the framework of linearized Vlasov-Maxwell equations. It is assumed that the beam is thin with the radial thickness much smaller than the beam radius. A new dispersion relation for azimuthally symmetric electromagnetic perturbation is derived and analyzed numerically. The influence of self-fields on the cyclotron maser instability in a dielectric loaded waveguide for different dielectric medium is studied. It is found that unlike the hollow waveguide the growth rate is increased by increasing self-fields. The instability band width decreases due to the increasing self-fields. The maximum growth rate increases gradually as self-fields increase as regards a different dielectric medium.     

Coaxial Discharge and Transverse Magnetic Field

The study deals with the effect of an applied transverse magnetic field on the dynamics and parameters of the focused and expanded plasma in a coaxial discharge. The experimental results were found with a 3 kJ Plasma focus device of a Mather geometry. The discharge takes place in hydrogen gas with base pressure of 0.5 Torr. The experiments are conducted with a 10 kV bank voltage, which corresponds to 100 kA peak discharge current with rise time 8 μs. Helmholtz magnetic coils are placed outside the expansions chamber to produce a transverse magnetic field with intensity 280 G perpendicular to the plasma expanded from the coaxial electrodes. The investigations have shown that the plasma flow along the expansion chamber axis is restricted when applying the externally transverse magnetic field and the maximum axial velocity of the expanded plasma is decreased by 33%. X-ray probe has been used to measure the focused plasma electron temperature (T_e). The experimental results and the calculations showed that T_e is decreased from 2.2 keV to 800 eV with the application of a transverse magnetic field. The expanded plasma electron temperature and density have been measured by an electric double probe, the results cleared that the expanded plasma electron temperature is decreased by 2.6 times while its density is increased by 9 times, when a transverse magnetic field is applied.     

Magnetotransport properties of La<Subscript>0.67</Subscript>Ca<Subscript>0.33</Subscript>MnO<Subscript>3</Subscript> with different grain sizes

The magnetotransport and magnetoresistive (MR) properties of manganese-based La_0.67Ca_0.33MnO₃ perovskite with different grain sizes are reported. The electrical resistivity was measured as a function of temperature in magnetic fields of 0.5 and 1 T. The insulator–metal transition temperature, T _IM, shifted to a higher temperature with the application of the magnetic field. In zero field, T _IM is almost constant (∼271 K) for all samples except for the sample with the largest grain size, where T _IM=265 K. The temperature dependence of resistivity was fitted with several equations in the metallic (ferromagnetic) region and the insulating (paramagnetic) region. The density of states at the Fermi level, N(E _F), and the activation energy of electron hopping were estimated by fitting the resistivity versus temperature curves. The ρ–T ² curves are nearly linear in the metallic regime, but the ρ–T ^2.5 curves exhibit a deviation from linearity. The variable range hopping model and small polaron hopping model fit the data well in the high-temperature region, indicating the existence of the Jahn–Teller distortion that localizes the charge carriers. MR was found to increase with an increase in the magnetic field, an effect which is attributed to the intergrain spin tunneling effect.     

The ion streaming effect on Weibel instability in the relativistic dense plasma

The Weibel instability plays an important role in stopping hot electrons and energy deposition mechanism in fast ignition of inertial fusion process. In this paper, the ion Weibel instability in counter propagating electron‐ion plasmas is investigate. The obtained results show that the growth rate of Weibel instability will be decreased about 40% with the anisotropy velocity as v_xe = 2v_ze = 20; the ion density ratio, b = n _{0i 1}/n _{0i 2}, and density gradient, are increasing 50 and 90% respectively. The ion streaming in density gradient of dense plasma leads to increasing the Weibel instability growth rate and its amplification through ion streaming in the large wavenumber. The maximum unstable wavenumber has been decreased with decreasing the ion beam density ratio. For fixed ion density ratio, increasing 90% of the density gradient in the near of fuel plasma corona leads to reducing growth rate and unstable wavenumber about 43 and 42% respectively.     

Effect of positron density and temperature on the electron acoustic waves in a magnetized dissipative plasma

Zakharov–Kuznetsov–Burgers (ZKB) equation is derived for electron acoustic shock waves in magnetized e–p–i plasma. In the present model, magnetized plasma containing two electron population with kappa distributed positrons has been considered. The propagation characteristics of three dimensional electron acoustic (EA) shock waves have been studied under the influence of magnetic field. Our present plasma model supports the negative potential shocks. Combined action of dissipation (η), superthermality (κ), concentration of positrons (β), temperature ratio of cold electrons to positrons (σ), and magnetic field (ω_c) significantly modify the properties of EA shock waves. The width and amplitude of the shock structures are modified by various physical parameters. It is found that shock wave width decreases with increase in β, η₀, and ω_c whereas it becomes wider for κ and σ. Further, potential of the shock wave decreases as one departs away from superthermal distribution.     

Structure property correlations in superconducting Ti-Nb alloys

Titanium-rich transition metal alloys are metastable in their quenched boc β phase. The instability is relieved by low temperature structural transformations. We have investigated this in a series of Ti-Nb alloys, through the measurements of electrical resistivity (ρ), superconducting transition temperature and upper critical field. Supporting structural evidence has been obtained from transmission electron microscopy (tem) and x-ray studies. It is shown that both ρ and dρ/dT can be used as useful indices of this instability. The enhanced value of resistivity on account of the instability results in the enhancement of upper critical field as shown from dH _c2/dT measurements.