Regimes and spectra of čerenkov beam instability in a nonlinear plasma

We study the nonlinear evolution of an arbitrary initial disturbance due to the development of Čerenkov beam instability in a magnetized plasma-beam system of finite transverse size. Singleparticle, collective, and aperiodic regimes of this instability are considered. We calculate the nonlinear spatial spectra of the waves excited at different development stages of the beam instability in a plasma for the cases of quasi-monochromatic, pulsed, and noise initial disturbances. We analyze the formation and decay of regular structures in the beam and plasma at the developed nonlinear stage of the process. We find that plasma nonlinearity leads to the transfer of disturbance energy to the short-wave region of the spectrum. We show that, due to the development of beam instability, noise initial disturbance tends to become more monochromatic, whereas the shape of a pulsed one tends to remain unchanged. Transformation of monochromatic spatial disturbances into quasi-monochromatic plasma waves due to the instability development is analyzed. Institute of General Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 42, No. 10, pp. 958–976, October 1999.     

Ionization wave as an Instability — Evolution and Nonlinear Effect

Evolution from the linear growth to the nonlinearly saturated state of ionization waves (moving striations) is investigated from a viewpoint of an instability which appears in a plasma. The experiments were performed observing backward waves excited below the upper critical current I_c in xenon, argon, and argon-mercury gases at pressures of the order of Torr. It is found that (1) the behavior of the evolution obeys the Landau amplitude equation; (2) the saturated amplitude does not depend on an initial value, but only on plasma parameters; (3) the linear growth and squared saturation level are proportional to the excess over I_c, and when frequency-controlled, they have a parabolic dependence on the frequency; and (4) nonuniform axial changes in the dc state due to the nonlinear effects appear in a form of enhanced ionization in the plasma where the electron temperature and density are increased. The way of these behavior can be applied to a large number of spatially or temporally unstable modes.     

The Theory of Ionization Waves in the Contracted Discharge of Noble Gases

Positive column plasma in noble gases at middle pressures is analysed for stability in the frames of the linear hydrodynamic theory. At critical values of pressure and current the discharge becomes unstable to radial contraction (contraction) and to wave disturbances of the type of current pinch constrictions (contraction ionization waves). Ionization waves in the contracted discharge are three-dimensional formations with electron concentration oscillations on the axis in the opposite phase with current pinch cross section. The discharge diffuse-recombination theory was used for analysing the problem of instability arising.     

Experiments on plasma-physical aspects of closed cycle MHD power generation

In this paper, important laboratory experiments in closed-cycle magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) generator plasmas are discussed. The following aspects are treated: electron temperature elevation and nonequilibrium ionization, fluctuations and nonuniformity, streamers as the nonlinear appearance of ionization instability, inlet relaxation, and fully ionized seed as a concept to suppress ionization instability. Conclusions are presented on electrical transport parameters in nonuniform plasmas, streamer fine structure, streamer velocity, streamer initiation in relation to inlet relaxation, and the fully ionized seed concept.     

Nonlinear Dynamics of Laser Interaction with High Z Plasma

The formation and evolution of a plasma in the interaction of laser radiation with gold targets are studied by computer simulations using MHD code (ESC-CASTOR). The nonlinear features of the interaction including the absorption of laser radiation, heating of the plasma components, and the deformation of the density profile under the action of the ponderomotive force are discussed. The role of these nonlinear effects together and the influence of the radiative and collisional transport in the evolution of the density profile are discussed based on the numerically obtained two-dimensional dynamical structures of the hydrodynamic parameter (electron density n_e, ion density n_i, electron temperature T_e, ion temperature T_i), radiation temperature T_r, ponderomotive force profile, and the space-time dependencies of the absorption efficiency and the ionization rates. The radiation spectrum is analyzed and the regularities in the motion of the critical density surface are clarified.     

Thermische Anregungsfunktionen und Normtemperaturen von Atom- und Ionenlinien in Zweikomponentenplasmen

Within the temperature region 3,000 °K–50,000 °K and the pressure region 0.1 atm—5 atm thermal excitation functions of several important I, II and III spectral lines of the metals Na, Al, Fe, Zn and C have been calculated by means of a computer. Their optimum temperatures have been tabulated. If these elements are mixed with a second component with an essentially higher ionization energy, such as argon, then the optimum temperatures of atom lines are shifted to lower values. The lowering of the total pressure in the plasma causes the same effect. Moreover a second optimum temperature occurs at approximately 11,000 °K in plasmas of high dilution. This second maximum depends on the starting ionization of argon which decelerates the decrease of the atoms of the metal component. The relationship of the optimum temperature with ionization energy, pressure and concentration can be described by linear equations, according to a previously published approximation formula. The spectral lines of ions are less influenced by these parameters, especially by the second component.     

电磁迴旋不稳定性的准线性理论

在有弱相对论性电子时,在电子迴旋频率Ω_e附近存在快x模的不稳定性。从这一事实出发,我们用准线性理论分析了具有粒子数倒转的分布函数引起的不稳定性最后达到饱和的物理机制。进行了一些近似的计算,求出了电磁迴旋不稳定性的饱和时间和饱和能量及垂直、平行分布函数随时间的演化过程。发现用此理论算出的饱和能级与观察到的AKR结果是一致的。 关键词：     

Effect of Intense Laser Irradiation on the Lattice Stability of Al_2Au

The structural, electronic and lattice-dynamical properties of the intermetallic Al 2 Au at different electronic temperatures have been investigated via density functional calculations. The results of electronic density of state indicate that, although its value changes considerably, Al2Au is still of metal with the increasing of electronic temperature. The acoustic mode of Al2Au gets negative which leads to lattice dynamical instability when the electronic temperature is beyond 1.44 eV. Moreover, with the increasing of the electronic temperature, the vibrational frequencies of the T1u optical mode (triply degenerate) of Al2Au at Γ point decrease first and increase then, the turning point is at Te = 1.40 eV. T2g optical mode at Γ point has a similar situation, but the turning point is at Te = 1.80 eV. The predicted melting temperatures of Al2Au undergo a sharp decrease from 1333K at normal temperature to 1172 K at Te = 1.8 eV after intense laser irradiation.     

强激光照射对6H-SiC晶体电子特性的影响

使用基于密度泛函微扰理论的第一性原理赝势法, 模拟研究了纤锌矿6H-SiC晶体在强激光照射下电子特性的变化. 研究结果表明, 电子温度T_e在升高到3.89 eV及以上后, 6H-SiC由间接带隙的晶体变为直接带隙的晶体; 带隙值随电子温度T_e升高先是增大后又快速减小, 当电子温度T_e大于4.25 eV以后, 带隙已经消失而呈现出金属特性.     

高气压均匀直流辉光放电等离子体的光学特性

在高气压(大于100 Torr, 1 Torr=1.33322×10² Pa)平板位形的均匀直流辉光放电中, 一定条件下观察到平行排列的明暗相间的等离子体辉纹. 结合等离子体的光发射谱诊断, 研究了气体组分对等离子体光学特性的影响. 研究发现, 随着甲烷浓度的增加, 辉纹间距减小, 相应的电子激发温度降低. 当甲烷浓度增加时, 等离子体中低电离能的粒种增加, 粒子平均电离能减小, 这种情况下, 电子被电场加速较短的距离所获得的能量就可以激发粒子, 产生可见的光发射, 表现为辉纹间距缩短. 随着氩气的引入, 能够观察到明显的辉纹, 且增大氩气含量, 辉纹间距增加, 这与氩的较高电离能有关, 而相应的电子激发温度增加. 研究结果表明, 随着工作气体的改变, 等离子体辉纹间距呈现出一种对电子温度的响应.     

Self-Focusing and Channeling of Wave Beams in a Nonuniform Magnetic Field under Conditions of Ionization Nonlinearity

We study experimentally the effect of ionization self-channeling of waves at the whistler frequencies in a nonuniform magnetic field. It is shown that the formed plasma nonuniformity localizes the radiation from a short high-frequency source inside a discharge channel stretched along an external magnetic field. We found a possibility to control the parameters of the formed plasma-wave channel as well as the dispersion characteristics and structure of wave fields in wide limits by varying the magnetic field in a specified spatial region. We propose a method for the formation of a plasma resonator and test this method in the laboratory experiment. The spatial plasma and field distributions in this resonator are similar to those along a geomagnetic field tube of the magnetospheric resonator. We reveal the plasma instability in such a resonator in the vicinity of the frequency of electron bounce oscillations between magnetic mirrors.     

Time-spatial structure of an electric arc anode region

This paper studies the anode region of an eroding anode with a nonstationary arc-root attachment. High-current free-burning short as well as long arcs at atmospheric pressure are investigated. A technique to study the anode region of the arc is suggested. An anode moving perpendicular to the arc axis was used for estimating parameters of the anode jets at a given moment of their development. The mechanism of current transfer in the anode region is considered on the basis of electrophysical and optical-spectroscopic investigations of the arc attachment traces and plasma parameters both of the anode jet and arc column. The anode jet was found to be of importance in the stationary arc operation. The near-anode plasma parameters depend on the effect of the cathode jet. In short arcs (L_a~2 mm), the plasma temperature at the anode exceeds 20000 K, while in long arcs (L_a >50 mm), it falls below 7000 K. At plasma temperature T_a >11000 K, the total arc current in the anode region is transferred through the arc plasma, while at lower temperatures, both the arc column and the anode jet take part in the current transfer     

Power Consideration for Pulsed Discharges in Potassium Seeded Argon

Minimization of energy consumed in plasma generation is critical for applications, in which a large volume of plasmas is needed. We suggest that a high electron density atmospheric pressure plasmas can be generated by pulsed discharges in potassium seeded argon at an elevated temperature with a very small power input. The ionization efficiency and power budget of pulsed discharges in such plasmas are analytically studied. The results show that ionization efficiency of argon, especially at small reduced electric field E/N （the ratio of the electric field to the gas number density）, is improved effectively in the presence of small amount of potassium additives. Power input of pulsed discharge to sustain a prescribed average level of ionization in potassium seeded argon is three orders of magnitude lower than that in pure argon. Further, unlike in pure argon, it is found that very short high-voltage pulses with very high repetition rates are unnecessary in potassium seeded argon. A pulse with lOOns of pulse duration, 5kHz of repetition rate, and 2Td （1 Td = 1 × 10^-21 Vm^2） of E/N is enough to sustain an electron density of 10^19 m^-3 in 1 arm 1500K Ar＋0.1% K mixture, with a very small power input of about 0.08 × 10^4 W/m^3.     

Numerical study on performance of disk MHD generator using frozen inert gas plasma

In an magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generator using a frozen inert gas plasma (FIP), the availability of a frozen argon plasma, the influence of plasma uniformity at the generator inlet on the performance, and the feasibility of a large-scale generator are numerically examined by /spl gamma/-/spl theta/ two-dimensional simulation. The FIP is produced by pre-ionizing inert gas without an alkali metal seed at the generator inlet, then the ionization degree of the plasma is kept almost constant in the whole of the channel because of considerable slow recombination of the inert gas just like frozen reaction plasma. It is found that not only helium, but also argon frozen plasma MHD generation is realized, although highly accurate control of inlet ionization degree is necessary for argon. It is important to reduce the nonuniformity of plasma properties at the generator inlet in order to raise the maximum enthalpy extraction ratio. Even for the large-scale generator with 1000-MW thermal input, the ionization degree is kept almost constant in the whole of the channel and the high performance is obtainable. This result is extremely attractive for the FIP MHD generator.     

The Lowering of the Spectral Series Limit of Hydrogen and Carbon in a Plasma

The lowering of the ionization potentials of hydrogen and carbon atoms immersed in a high temperature and high density thermal plasma generated in a wall stabilized arc have been estimated from the advance or shift of their respective series limits in the vacuum ultraviolet region of the spectrum for different electron densities and temperatures. Results show a close agreement with those theoretical calculations in which the effects of both microfield and polarization terms are added. However, our electron densities are lower by about two orders of magnitude than the critical electron densities required by theory for the inclusion of the microfield term. The question of validity of a critical electrom density will be discussed.     

Early out-of-equilibrium beam-plasma evolution

We solve analytically the out-of-equilibrium initial stage that follows the injection of a radially finite electron beam into a plasma at rest and test it against particle-in-cell simulations. For initial large beam edge gradients and not too large beam radius, compared to the electron skin depth, the electron beam is shown to evolve into a ring structure. For low enough transverse temperatures, the filamentation instability eventually proceeds and saturates when transverse isotropy is reached. The analysis accounts for the variety of very recent experimental beam transverse observations.     

Measurement of the argon continuum radiation in the near vacuum ultraviolet

Absolute argon continuum emission coefficients have been measured from 330 nm down to 110 nm in the near v.u.v. The radiation originates from a stationary 1 atm arc plasma with temperatures between 16900 and 21500 K. At these high temperatures, single ionization is almost complete and the plasma contains also a number of doubly ionized particles. These cause very intense recombination edges around 120 nm, which have been included in a recent theory. The agreement with these calculations is very good throughout the spectrum for lower plasma temperatures. Measurements at higher temperatures confirm only the results for the Ar(II) edges around 120 nm. At higher wavelengths the experimental values lie above the theoretical ones and do not show the predicted structure. This discrepancy may be partly due to omissions in the calculations and partly to line wing problems in the experiment.     

Characteristics of an argon rf plasma: Active discharge and laminar sonic flow region

The electron density, the excitation and the gas temperatures have been obtained from optical spectrometric, microwave interferometric and thermocouple measurements in an argon rf plasma. The investigation was carried out in an active discharge and a channel region characterized by sonic laminar flow. Optical measurements of the excitation temperature were made in the 4000–5000 Å range for discharge pressures of ∼ 63–644 torr and input rf power of 42–60 kW. Excitation temperatures in the discharge ranged between ∼ 7000–10,000 K. Electron densities measured by optical and microwave techniques showed good agreement. Thermocouple measurements in the channel and N₂ rotational spectra from traces of N₂ injected in the argon, as well as gas dynamic considerations, indicated that the gas temperature in the discharge and the channel regions were 2900–4400K and 1900–3300K, respectively. These values were substantially lower than the excitation temperatures corresponding to these regions, indicating that the plasma was in a two-temperature state in both regions. Standard tests for local thermal equilibrium (LTE) showed that the first excited level of argon constituted the bottleneck level.     

Ar原子序列双光双电离产生光电子角分布的理论计算

基于多组态Dirc-Fock方法和密度矩阵理论,给出了原子序列双光双电离光电子角分布的计算表达式,发展了相应的计算程序.利用该程序对Ar原子3p壳层序列双光双电离过程进行了理论研究,给出了光电离的总截面、磁截面、剩余离子取向以及光电子角分布的各向异性参数与入射光子能量的函数关系.结果显示在光电离截面的Cooper极小位置附近取向参数出现极大值,而光电子角分布的各向异性参数在该位置附近出现极小值.进一步给出了33.94和55.34 eV光子能量下序列双光双电离过程中第一步的Ar原子和第二步的Ar^+离子3p壳层光电子角分布,分析了序列双光双电离光电子角分布与单光电离光电子角分布的差异.将计算结果与文献已有的数据进行了比较,具有很好的一致性.本文的研究结果对揭示光与物质相互作用的非线性动力学机制具有重要的参考价值.     

Semiconductor laser absorption diagnostics of atomic oxygen in an atmospheric-pressure plasma

Narrow-bandwidth semiconductor (GaAlAs) lasers have been used to record spectrally resolved atomic oxygen (7772 Å) and argon (8425 Å) lineshapes, corresponding to the 3s⁵S⁰₂→3p⁵P₃ and 4s³P₁→4p³D₂ transitions, in an atmospheric pressure, 1.4- kW, 27-MHz inductively coupled argon-oxygen (12% O₂/argon) plasma. Electron number density and kinetic temperature values were inferred from the Stark- and Doppler-broadening components of the absorption lineshapes, respectively. The ionization temperature was calculated from the measured electron number density assuming ionization (Saha) equilibrium. Values of excited- state species number density and population temperature were determined from the frequency- integrated absorption coefficient for each transition. The difference between the ionization and population temperatures reflects the presence of a suprathermal electron number density in the flowfield. In addition, the excellent agreement between the kinetic and population temperatures suggests that the population in the oxygen and argon lowest excited states may be described by a Boltzmann distribution at the kinetic temperature. The methods presented extend effectively the range of semiconductor-laser diagnostics to mixed-gas plasmas and flowfields containing atomic oxygen.