Using three-body recombination to extract electron temperatures of ultracold plasmas

Three-body recombination, an important collisional process in plasmas, increases dramatically at low electron temperatures, with an accepted scaling of Te(-9/2). We measure three-body recombination in an ultracold neutral xenon plasma by detecting recombination-created Rydberg atoms using a microwave-ionization technique. With the accepted theory (expected to be applicable for weakly coupled plasmas) and our measured rates, we extract the plasma temperatures, which are in reasonable agreement with previous measurements early in the plasma lifetime. The resulting electron temperatures indicate that the plasma continues to cool to temperatures below 1 K.     

Onset of fast magnetic reconnection

We demonstrate the existence of a new steady-state magnetic reconnection configuration which lies at the boundary of the basins of attraction between the Sweet-Parker and Hall reconnection configurations. The solution is linearly unstable to small perturbations and its identification required a novel iterative numerical technique. The eigenmodes of the unstable solution are localized near the X line, suggesting that the onset of fast reconnection in a weakly collisional plasma is initiated locally at the X line as opposed to remotely at the boundaries.     

Development of a pure cryogenic positron plasma using a LINAC positron source

The development of a high density cryogenic pure positron plasma trap at the LLNL positron beam facility opens new possibilities for antihydrogen research. We discuss a planned measurement of the three-body collisional recombination rate in magnetized plasmas, a possible antihydrogen atomic beam experiment, and other applications of pure positron plasmas.     

弱电离等离子体对电磁波吸收的物理模型和数值求解

从物理基本方程、理论证明和数值分析三方面说明了在一维平板模型中，含时波动方程和亥 姆霍兹方程是等价的，即使电磁波波长小于等离子体的尺度，电磁波的全波解也具有简谐形 式. 对电磁波在弱电离强碰撞等离子体中的传播特性进行了数值研究，结果表明，弱电离强 碰撞等离子体对电磁波具有很强的吸收特性. 关键词： 电磁波 弱电离等离子体 过阻尼     

Energy transfer and dual cascade in kinetic magnetized plasma turbulence

The question of how nonlinear interactions redistribute the energy of fluctuations across available degrees of freedom is of fundamental importance in the study of turbulence and transport in magnetized weakly collisional plasmas, ranging from space settings to fusion devices. In this Letter, we present a theory for the dual cascade found in such plasmas, which predicts a range of new behavior that distinguishes this cascade from that of neutral fluid turbulence. These phenomena are explained in terms of the constrained nature of spectral transfer in nonlinear gyrokinetics. Accompanying this theory are the first observations of these phenomena, obtained via direct numerical simulations using the gyrokinetic code AstroGK. The basic mechanisms that are found provide a framework for understanding the turbulent energy transfer that couples scales both locally and nonlocally.     

Effect of subsonic toroidal flows on plasma poloidal rotation and ion heat conductivity. In collisional plasmas of elongated tokamaks

The ion poloidal rotation and heat conductivity in collisional plasmas of axially-symmetric tokamaks with elongated cross-sections and with subsonic toroidal plasma flows are considered. It is shown that subsonic toroidal plasma flows, induced by neutral beam injection or radio frequency waves, can strongly affect the poloidal plasma velocity and ion heat conductivity in collisional plasmas of tokamaks. The transport coefficients also depend on the tokamak ellipticity parameter which, in combination with the Mach number, allows to operate transport processes at smaller values of the toroidal Mach number. The importance of taking into account the ion-electron heat exchange and electron temperature toroidal perturbations to find ion temperature toroidal perturbations is demonstrated. This work was partially supported by the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) and the Rio de Janeiro Research Foundation (FAPERJ).     

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提出碰撞吸收型等离子体的等效折射指数,重新计算了折射角,并与利用常规方法得到的折射角进行了比较。分析了等离子体密度和碰撞频率对折射角的影响。考察了斜入射电磁波在吸收型等离子体中的折射特性,并以一维非均匀碰撞吸收型等离子体为例,对斜入射电磁波的反射特性进行了考察。结果表明,等效折射指数的概念涵盖了入射角度的影响,在考察斜入射时更准确、便捷。     

Experimental studies of plasma sheath near meshes of different transmissivity

<正>The measurements of the potential distributions in the boundary layer near meshes with different mesh spacing were conducted in weakly collisional plasmas using a fine-structured emissive probe and the results of the sheath thickness and electric field at the sheath-presheath edge were compared with theoretical models of collisional presheath and collisionless sheath.It was shown that,because the meshes are partially transparent to ions,the sheath is thinner and the electric field is stronger for the mesh of higher transmissivity,owing to the increased ion density in the sheath contributed from the ions transmitted from the other side of the mesh.However,the potential profiles in the presheath remain almost the same for different meshes except for the shift of the sheath-presheath edge.The thickness of the sheath decreases while the electric field at the edge increases with the increase of the neutral gas pressure.Furthermore, depending on the pressure,the measured electric fields at the edge are close to that from the models of a transition region.     

Nonlinear collisional monte carlo simulations for high-temperature SOL plasma

A nonlinear Monte Carlo collisional model is applied to to investigate scrape-off layer (SOL) plasmas with high temperatures. In the proposed SOL modeling, A steady state SOL plasma, which satisfies the particle and energy balances and neutrality constraint, is determined in terms of total particle and heat fluxes across the separatrix, the edge plasma temperature, the secondary electron emission coefficient, and the SOL size. A conductive heat flux into the SOL is effectively modeled via random exchange of source particles and the SOL plasma particles. It is found that the potential drop and the electron transmission factor in the collisional SOL plasma are in good agreement with the theoretical prediction. The cooling effect of secondary electrons in the high temperature divertor operation is investigated. In such a collisionless plasma, the present nonlinear collision model is useful because the electron distribution function deviates far from a Maxwellian distribution. In the presence of strong secondary electron emission, the electron sheath energy transmission factor in the collisionless regime is found to be significantly smaller than that in the collisional regime. This fact suggests that a high-temperature divertor operation can be possible.     

Intense laser-cluster interaction in the strong coupling regime

The interaction of noble gas clusters with moderately intense laser radiation at 100 and 800 nm is investigated via molecular dynamics simulations. It is shown that the laser-cluster interaction creates a strongly coupled plasma, which is characterized by a dominance of collisional processes. This has led to several findings. (1) A new heating mechanism is identified that explains the observation of unusually high-charge states in recent experiments with 100 nm radiation at DESY. We find that energy absorption takes place in the following cycle: many-body collisions resulting in an enhanced recombination of free electrons to exited states, and subsequent reionization. (2) Cluster interaction with 800 nm radiation is a promising system for investigating the transition from weakly coupled plasmas, where collective processes dominate, to strongly coupled plasmas. We achieve this transition by varying a single parameter: the laser intensity. The experimental and theoretical accessibility of laser-cluster interaction, thus, allows a systematic combined study of the interplay between collective and collisional processes.     

Electron energy distribution function in a collisional plasma heated by an electron beam

The electron energy distribution function for the non-resonant electrons in a collisional weakly ionized plasma is found, provided that the intensity of the Langmuir oscillation is spatially dependent. It is assumed that electron-electron collisions are responsible for energy loss.     

Neutrino dispersion in a charge-symmetric plasma

The influence of a charge-symmetric magnetized plasma on the neutrino dispersion is investigated. A general expression is derived for the contribution of a magnetized plasma to the additional neutrino energy. The physical conditions of weakly, moderately, and strongly magnetized plasmas are considered in detail. The result for the additional neutrino energy in the case of intermediate fields is shown to differ significantly from the results presented in the literature previously.     

Electromagnetic envelope solitons in magnetized plasma

A multiple scales technique is employed to solve the fluid-Maxwell equations describing a weakly nonlinear circularly polarized electromagnetic pulse in magnetized plasma. A nonlinear Schrödinger-type (NLS) equation is shown to govern the amplitude of the vector potential. The conditions for modulational instability and for the existence of various types of localized envelope modes are investigated in terms of relevant parameters. Right-hand circularly polarized (RCP) waves are shown to be modulationally unstable regardless of the value of the ambient magnetic field and propagate as bright-type solitons. The same is true for left-hand circularly polarized (LCP) waves in a weakly to moderately magnetized plasma. In other parameter regions, LCP waves are stable in strongly magnetized plasmas and may propagate as dark-type solitons (electric field holes). The evolution of envelope solitons is analyzed numerically, and it is shown that solitons propagate in magnetized plasma without any essential change in amplitude and shape.     

Measurement of the electron-atom collision integral in low-temperature helium plasma

An expression is obtained for the electron-atom collision integral for axisymmetric low-temperature plasmas. The Legendre components of the collision integral are determined experimentally by the probe method. Comparison of the measured Legendre components with their theoretical values shows that, depending on the plasma conditions, the collisional regime or a regime of dominant collective interactions is established in the system. Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 67, 19–24 (April 1997)     

Nonmonotonic spatial decay and shield height effects in inductivelycoupled plasmas

Nonmonotonic spatial decay in electric field and space current distributions was recently observed in weakly collisional plasmas. The anomalous skin effect is found to be responsible for this phenomenon. Based on our proposed self-consistent analytic model, we successfully modeled the nonmonotonic spatial decay effect in inductively coupled plasma sources. The simulated spatial distribution of the induced E-field is compared to the measurements for different applied RF powers. Quantitative agreements for the electric field and qualitative agreement for the induced space current are achieved between the simulated and measured data. Also demonstrated is that the RF power and the reactor geometry such as the shield height has a direct impact upon the anomalous skin effect and its skin depth     

Penetration of probe field in heated plasma

Dependences of the effective penetration depth of probe pulse field in current-carrying plasma with time-dependent temperatures of particles are determined. It is shown that the field penetration in fully and weakly ionized plasmas takes place in the subdiffusion and superdiffusion regimes, respectively.     

Resonant Joule phenomena in a magnetoplasma

The present state of research of resonant Joule interactions of collisional plasmas with electromagnetic waves, including both the problems of plasma heating and wave dynamics, is reviewed. The controlled development of non-linear wave processes in gaseous and solid-body plasmas in radiowave and microwave ranges via resonant heating is discussed. The series of thermal bistability effects, produced by electron-temperature hysteresis near Langmuir and cyclotron resonances, is considered. The geometrical resonances of absorption in layered structures and bounded volumes are illustrated. Localization of dissipation phenomena near resonant regions in heterogeneous and anisotropic magnetoplasmas is analyzed. Relativistic and quantum effects in resonant collisional attenuation of waves in a plasma are shown. Some analogous tendencies in Joule wave phenomena are marked in plasmas characterized by very different physical conditions-from laboratory devices up to cosmic objects.     

Experiments on the propagation of plasma filaments

We investigate experimentally the motion and structure of isolated plasma filaments propagating through neutral gas. Plasma filaments, or "blobs," arise from turbulent fluctuations in a range of plasmas. Our experimental geometry is toroidally symmetric, and the blobs expand to a larger major radius under the influence of a vertical electric field. The electric field, which is caused by nabla B and curvature drifts in a 1/R magnetic field, is limited by collisional damping on the neutral gas. The blob's electrostatic potential structure and the resulting E x B flow field give rise to a vortex pair and a mushroom shape, which are consistent with nonlinear plasma simulations. We observe experimentally this characteristic mushroom shape for the first time. We also find that the blob propagation velocity is inversely proportional to the neutral density and decreases with time as the blob cools.     

Characteristics of single and dual radio-frequency (RF) plasma sheaths

The characteristics of radio-frequency (RF) plasma sheaths have been topics of much scientific study for decades, and have also been of great importance in the manufacture of integrated circuits and fabricating microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), as well as in the study of physical phenomena in dusty plasmas. The sheaths behave special properties under various situations where they can be treated as collisionless or collisional, single-or dual-RF, one-or two-dimensional (1D or 2D) sheaths, etc. This paper reviews our recent progress on the dynamics of RF plasma sheaths using a fluid method that includes the fluid equations and Poission’s equation coupled with an equivalent circuit model and a hybrid method in which the fluid model is combined with the Monte-Carlo (MC) method. The structures of RF sheaths behave differently in various situations and plasma parameters such as the ion density, electron temperature, as well as the external parameters such as the applied frequency, power, gas pressure, magnetic field, are crucial for determining the characteristics of plasma sheaths.     

Effect of neutral pressure on the He plasma flow measurement in a linear device

Axial and azimuthal flow velocities have been measured in a linear plasma device called NAGDIS-II (NAGoya DIvertor Simulator-II), along with plasma density and electron temperature, using a vector Mach probe composed of two Mach probes, one of which is for the axial flow, and the other is for the azimuthal flow. To study the effect of neutral pressure on the deduction of the Mach numbers, the ratio of upstream to downstream currents are measured by changing the neutral pressure for the deduction of flow velocities. Helium plasma was generated with pressure of 2–35 mTorr. Since the ion gyro-radius at the magnetic flux of 300 G is larger than the probe size, an unmagnetized collisionless Mach probe theory was used for the deduction of Mach numbers and their variations. In order to check the range of collisionality, plasma density (n_e = 10¹⁰–10¹¹ cm^?3) and electron temperature (T_e = 2–9 eV) are measured by a single electric probe using a conventional collisionless probe theory. Variations of Mach number, electron temperature and plasma density with collisionless models are to be compared with those using collisional models for different pressures where ionization and ion-neutral collision are included. Mach numbers by the collisionless model are found to be overestimated by 120% for the maximum difference even in weakly collisional plasmas. A clear flow reversal exists in the axial direction with higher pressure plasma, even in the linear machine. Azimuthal flows are also measured simultaneously along with axial flows, yet they seem to be very small in the present cold ion plasma (T_i/T_e << 1).