Dynamic Processes of Cross-Tail Current in the Near-Earth Magnetotail

Current dynamic processes in realistic magnetotail geometry simulations under various driven conditions and Hall effects. are studied by Hall magnetohydrodynamic （MHD） Associated with the external driving force, a thin current sheet with a broad extent is built up in the near-Earth magnetotail. The time evolution for the formation of the current sheet comprises two phases： slow growth and a fast impulsive phase before the near-Earth disruption of the current sheet resulting from the fast magnetic reconnection. The simulation results indicate that as the external driving force increases, the site and the tailward speed of the near-Earth current disruption region are closer to the Earth and faster, respectively. Whether the near-Earth disruption of the current sheet takes place or not is mainly controlled by Hall effects. It is found that there is no sudden disruption of the current sheet in the near-Earth region if the ion inertial length is below di= 0.04.     

A Three-Dimensional Ray-Tracing Study of R-X Mode Waves during High Geomagnetic Activity

We further present a three-dimensional (3D) ray-tracing study on the propagation characteristic of the superluminous R-X mode waves during high geomagnetic activity following our recent two-dimensional results [J. Geophys. Res. 112(2007)A10214]. We perform numerical calculations for this mode which originates at specific altitude r=2.0R_E in the source cavity along a 70° night geomagnetic field line. We demonstrate that the ray path of the R-X mode is essentially governed by the azimuthal angle of the wave vector k. Ray paths starting with azimuthal angle 180° (or in the meridian plane) can reach the lowest latitude, but stay at relatively higher latitudes with the azimuthal angles other than 180° (or off the meridian plane). The results further supports the previous finding that the R-X mode may be physicallypresent in the radiation belts under appropriate conditions.     

Probability of Field-Aligned Currents Observed by the Satellite Cluster in the Magnetotail

Field-aligned current （FAC） density distribution at the plasma sheet boundary layers is statistically studied. The FAC is calculated by the so-called curlometer technique with the data from FGM onboard the four Cluster spacecraft in 2001. By calculation we obtain a large number of FAC samples. In the samples, most of calculated FAC densities were very small and around zero caused by some errors or noise. In order to get the real FAC density distribution in the magnetotail, we use a three-Gaussian distribution to fit the errors, then subtract the estimated error contribution from the full distribution and obtain the FAC density distribution. The result shows that the FAC occurrence versus its density has a distribution consisting of a Gauss/an distribution with an additional decreasing exponential distribution. The most probable value of the FAC density is 3.45 pT/km.     

On the formation of the central plasma sheet by echo clusters of ion beams

Multiple energy dispersion structures of H⁺ ions that were observed at the passage of the INTERBALL-Auroral satellite through the plasma sheet at a geocentric distance of about 3R _E, where R _E is the radius of the Earth, on November 3, 1996, have been analyzed. The structure in the plasma sheet boundary layer, which has direct dispersion in energy and invariant latitude, in the range of 0.5–10.0 keV (velocity-dispersed ion structure) is an “autograph” of accelerated ion beams (primary beamlets) generated in the current sheet along the geomagnetic tail. The central plasma sheet contains five dispersion structures c1–c5 with the average energy ranging from 2.80 to 7.36 keV. The average energy of the structures increases with a decrease in the latitude. The event under consideration is a case of the regime of formation of the central plasma sheet by echo beamlets of the accelerated ion beam in the absence of a diffusion thermalized population of ions. This phenomenon is possibly explained by the fact that a magnetically quite period was observed three days before the passage of the satellite, when the regime of long-term diffusion of particles from the central plasma sheet occurred.     

Properties of Field Aligned Current in Plasma Sheet Boundary Layers in Magnetotail: Cluster Observation

Field aligned current （FAC） distribution in the plasma sheet boundary layers （PSBLs） in the magnetotail is studied statistically by analysing magnetic field data from the Cluster 4-point measurements. The results show that the FAC distribution on the dusk side is not the same as that on the dawn side in the magnetotail. On the each side earthward and tailward, FA C occurrences are different; occurrence and average current density of FA Cs in the northern hemisphere are different from those in the southern hemisphere. This implies that the FACs have dusk-dawn side asymmetry, polarity asymmetry and inter hemisphere difference in the magnetotail. The present results give a good observation evidence for study on the FAC mechanism.     

利用Grad-Shafranov重构方法研究磁尾通量绳的特征参量和内部结构

2009年2月21日THEMIS-C卫星在磁尾X=-15.7R_E(R_E为地球半径,1R_E=6371 km)观测到典型的磁通量绳事件.采用Grad-Shafranov 重构技术研究该磁通量绳的特性、内部磁场和电流结构.研究表明,磁通量绳不变轴位于GSM(geocentric solar magnetospheric coordinates)坐标为(-0.3975,0.8905,0.221 关键词： 磁尾 磁通量绳 Grad-Shafranov重构 多X线重联     

Storm-Time Strong Field-Aligned Ion Upflow in Region of the SED Plume

We report the observations from the GPS TEC and DMSP F-13 satellites showing that very strong upward field-aligned （FA） ion velocity and flux in the outer region of the storm-enhanced density （SED） occurred in the event of the geomagnetic storm on 29-31 May 2003. By a method of coordinate transformation, upward FA ion velocities in excess of 25Orals are obtained from the observations of the DMSP F-13 satellite. Further, an FA ion flux is estimated to be about 4.5 x 1013 ions/m2 s in the dusk sector. The estimated FA ion velocity and flux provide a powerful direct proof to support the scenario that there is a strong coupling of particles between the ionosphere and plasmasphere in the region of the SED plume. In the process, FA ion flux transports from the ionosphere to the plasmasphere in the region of the SED plume. Therefore, the plume of SED in the ionosphere provides an important source to the enhanced density of O^＋ in the storm-time plasmasphere.     

Establishment of Configuration with Optimized Current Profile in Pellet Fuelled Discharge on HL-2A

A sawtooth-free period is produced following the pellet injection in the pellet fuelled discharge of qa = 3.4 （where qa is the safety factor at the plasma boundary） in the HL-2A tokamak. Establishment of the current profile such as in the hybrid scenario is studied under the condition of pellet injection in HL-2A. It is shown that a q-profile of weak negative shear is produced immediately after the pellet injection, and it then evolves to a broad flat profile with q0 〉 1 （where qo is the safety factor at the centre）. The measured MHD mode structures evidence consistencies of the evaluated q-profile with locations of the q = 1 surface in the sawtoothing period and of the q = 2 surface in the sawtooth-free period. TRANSP analysis indicates that the energy confinement is enhanced substantially during and after pellet injection, which is resulted from the q-profile optimization and the plasma density peaking.     

Large Relative Raman Shift for Molecules Adsorbed on Metallic Nano-particles

The enhancement of two order-of-magnitudes is observed in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy （SERS） of gases （CO, C2H2, C2H4, etc） adsorbed on nitric acid-roughened metal foil. In addition, some Raman lines of gases adsorbed on these active substrates show larger frequency shifts and linewidth broadening, compared with the Raman spectroscopy of free gases. Using the two-oscillator electromagnetic model, we explain this phenomenon. It is related to the large non-regular particles on the active substrate we prepared. It is found that the parameters of the surface-plasmon dispersion, the distance of molecules from the surface and the radius of particles play crucial roles on the relative large Raman shifts.     

Development and Characterization of Metal-Insulator-Metal Capacitors with SiNx Thin Films by Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

We report the fabrication of high breakdown voltage metal-insulator-metal （MIM） capacitors with 200-nm silicon nitride deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition with 0.957 SiH4/NH3 gas mixing rate, 0.9 Torr working pressure, and 60 W rf power at 250℃ chamber temperature. Some optimized mechanisms such as metal source wiping, pre-melting and evaporation rate adjustment are used for increasing the yield of the MIM capacitors. N2 annealing and O2/H2 plasma pre-deposition treatment is proposed to increase the reliability of the MIM capacitors in high-temperature, high-pressure, and high-humidity environments. A 97% yield and up to 148 V breakdown voltage of a 13.06pF MIM capacitor with 0.04 mm^2 die area can be fabricated.     

Surface Emission of Quark Gluon Plasma at RHIC and LHC

Within the framework of a factorization model, we study the behaviour of nuclear modification factor in Au Au collisions at RHIC and Pb-Pb collisions at LHC. We find that the nuclear modification factor is inversely proportional to the radius of the quark-gluon plasma and is dominated by the surface emission of hard jets. We predict the nuclear modification factor R^LHC AA - 0.15 in central Pb-Pb collisions at LHC. The study shows that the factorization model can be used to describe the centrality dependence of nuclear modification factor of the high transverse momentum particles produced in heavy ion collisions at both RHIC and LHC.     

AC field induced two-dimensional aggregation of multilamellar vesicles

The aggregation of 2D colloidal crystals can be performed by applying an AC field to a colloidal dispersion. This technique is used in this work for assembling multilamellar vesicles in suspension. The dynamics of the aggregation is followed by real-time recording of the pictures of the microsphere assembly through a phase contrast microscope. The influence of both the frequency and the amplitude of the alternating field on the dynamical evolution of the concentration of layered particles is discussed with respect to their size. A phenomenological model of double layer induced trapping of the particles is proposed and an electroconvective instability of the fluid surrounding the particles is suggested from the observation of the local dynamics of the particles, in accordance with a very recent argument of Yeh et al. [#!Yeh:97!#]. Received: 4 December 1997 / Revised: 24 March 1998 / Accepted: 4 May 1998     

Controlling crystal quality and orientation of pulsed-laser-deposited BaTiO3 thin films by the kinetic energy of the film-forming particles

The deposition of BaTiO₃ thin films by pulsed excimer laser radiation (248 nm) on Pt/Ti/Si(111) and Pt/Ti/Si(100) substrates is investigated as a function of the processing variables laser fluence, processing gas pressure, and target-to-substrate distance under conditions of temporal and spatial properties of the involved vapour and plasma states. The kinetic energy of the species in the laser-generated plasma, as measured by time-of-flight optical emission spectroscopy and time-of-flight quadrupole mass spectrometry, is described as a function of the pressure of the processing gas, the distance from the target, and the laser fluence. The influence of the kinetic energy of the film-forming particles on the crystalline structure, defects, and orientation, and on the resulting electrical properties of the films is investigated. X-ray diffraction measurements and polarisation-dependent micro-Raman measurements reveal a c-axis orientation normal to the substrate surface, in the case of high particle energy (>50 eV), whereas at low kinetic energies (<30 eV) a [111]_pc or [110]_pc orientation is preferred. The ferroelectricity and the dielectric constant of the films, determined by impedance measurements, decrease with increasing kinetic energy of the film-forming particles from )_r=1000-2200 to )_r=200-700. This decrease correlates with the change of the orientation and with an increasing lattice constant of the films, indicating that particles with high kinetic energies produce crystal defects and stress in the growing film.     

Optical Dispersion Behavior and Band Gap Energy of Relaxor Ferroelectric 0.92Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.08PbTiO3 Single Crystal

Refractive indices and extinction coefficients of 0.92Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-0.08PbTiO₃(PMN-0.08PT) single crystal are investigated by variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE) at different wavelengths. The parameters relative to the energy band structure are obtained by fitting to the single-oscillator dispersion equation, and the band gap energy is also deduced from the Tauc equation. Similar to most oxygen-octahedra ferroelectrics, PMN-0.08PT has the same dispersion behavior described by the refractive-index dispersion parameters.     

Simulation of Resonant Interaction between Energetic Electrons and Whistler-Mode Chorus in the Outer Radiation Belt

We construct a realistic model to evaluate the chorus wave-particle interaction in the outer radiation belt L = 4.5. This model incorporates a plasmatrough number density model, a field-aligned density model and a realistic wave power and frequency model. We solve the 2D bounce-averaged momentum-pitch-angle Fokker-Planck equation and show that the Whistler-mode chorus can be effective in the acceleration of electrons, and enhance the phase space density for energies of -1 MeV by a factor from 10 to 10^3 in about two days, consistent with the observation. We also demonstrate that ignorance of the electron number density variation along field line and magnetic local time in the previous work yields an overestimate of energetic electron phase space density by a factor 5-10 at large pitch-angle after two days, suggesting that a realistic plasma density model is very important to evaluate the evolution of energetic electrons in the outer radiation belt.     

Spatial-temporal ion structures in the earth’s magnetotail: Beamlets as a result of nonadiabatic impulse acceleration of the plasma

The properties of high-energy ion beams (beamlets) observed in the boundary layer of the plasma sheet of the Earth’s magnetotail during short time intervals (1–2 min) have been considered. Beamlets are induced by nonlinear impulse accelerating processes occurring in the current sheet of the far regions of the geomagnetic tail. Then, moving toward the Earth along the magnetic field lines, they are detected in the magnetotail (in the plasma sheet boundary layer) and in the high-latitude part of the auroral zone in the form of short bursts of high-energy ions (with energies of several tens of keVs). The size of the localization region of the beamlets in the magnetotail and auroral zone has been determined by the epoch-superposition method, and it has been shown that beamlets are concentrated in a narrow region near the plasma sheet boundary, whose latitude size is no more than 0.8δ. This conclusion corroborates the theoretical prediction that the nonadiabatic resonant acceleration of ions occurs in a spatially localized region near the separatrix separating the open magnetic field lines and closed field lines, which contain the hot and isotropic plasmas of the plasma sheet. Based on the CLUSTER multisatellite measurements, the spatial structure of beamlets is analyzed and it has been found that the Alfvén wave arises due to the excitation of fire-hose instability at the instant of the exit of the ion beam from the current sheet to the high-latitude region of the far tail of the Earth’s magnetosphere. The longitudinal (along the magnetic field) and transverse sizes of a beamlet are estimated. It has been found that the beamlet is a dynamic plasma structure whose longitudinal size is several hundred times larger than its transverse size.     

Response of auroral regions to directional changes of the interplanetary magnetic field: Case study

Summary On October 6, 1979, the low-altitude polar-orbiting satellites DMSP-F2 and-F4 crossed the auroral electron precipitation region in the opposite hemispheres at nearly the same universal time (UT) and in the same magnetic local-time (MLT) sector near midnight. Three pairs of such nearly simultaneous conjugate crossings took place during a period of enhanced magnetic activity and strongly turning northward or southward of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). These conjugate observations allowed the study, with time resolution better than six minutes, of the variation, in response to directional changes of the interplanetary magnetic field, of the latitudinal position and width of the auroral regions; these are believed to map the central plasma sheet (CPS) and boundary plasma sheet (BPS). During the equatorward expansion of the whole auroral electron precipitation region, its latitudinal width is observed to decrease markedly when the IMF turns from a northern to a southern direction. In particular, a different response of the equatorward boundary of the auroral oval with respect to the poleward boundary results from the observations, showing that the speed of the equatorward expansion of the equatorward boundary, measured at a temporal resolution of less than 6 minutes, is lower than the speed of the poleward boundary. The BPS/CPS boundary moves coherently with the southward turning of the IMF, with intermediate speed. It follows that the latitudinal width of the poleward part of the auroral region, assumed to map the boundary plasma sheet, decreases more dramatically than the width of the equatorward part of the region mapping the central plasma sheet. These findings could be explained in terms of changes of the total open magnetic flux. Actually, the equatorward shift of the poleward boundary of the auroral oval and the subsequent dramatic thining of the BPS region seem to be the consequence of a larger number of geomagnetic flux line interconnected with the IMF during a southward IMF condition.     

Inflections (knees) in wide-range spectra of solar energetic protons and heavy ions: Their form,parameters, and regularities

An analysis of fluences of solar cosmic rays (SCRs), measured by the ACE (ULEIS, SIS) and GOES satellites for 1998–2006 over the wide energy range of 0.05 to 500 MeV/nucleon, is performed. It is shown that the energy spectra of the fluences have two sections described by power functions of the energy per nucleon: a hard spectrum at low energies (E < 1–10 MeV/nucleon) and a soft spectrum at high energies (E > 10–30 MeV/nucleon). The main regularities inherent to the parameters of the spectra of different particles are determined.     

Laser Mode-Dependent Size of Plasma Zones Induced by Femtosecond Laser Pulses in Fused Silica

We carry out the numerical simulations of femtosecond laser propagation with TEMoo mode, TEM10 mode and a beam combining both the modes in fused silica. It is found that the transverse size of plasma zones induced by laser pulses with the TEM10 mode is smaller than that induced by the TEM00 mode, while the longitudinal size is almost the same, and the saturated plasma density is higher. The transverse size, the longitudinal size and the ratio of the longitudinal to transverse size, for the beam combining both the modes, all could be reduced at the same time in comparison with the TEM00 mode under the same focusing conditions.