Laser-generated waves and wakes in rotating ion crystals

Locally excited plasma waves are generated in a Coulomb crystal by "pushing" with radiation pressure on a rotating cloud of laser-cooled 9Be+ ions. The waves form a stationary wake that is directly imaged through the dependence of the ion fluorescence on Doppler shifts, and theoretical calculations in a slab geometry are shown to accurately reproduce these images. The technique demonstrates a new method of exciting and studying waves in cold ion clouds.     

Pattern phenomena in an rf discharge dusty plasma system

Various dust patterns are observed in an rf discharge dusty plasma system. According to the dust growth process from small to large in size, the formation of different dust patterns can be divided into two stages: the small-particle stage (or dust cloud stage), and the large-particle stage (or dust crystal stage). The evolution relations between different dust patterns with gas pressure changing are investigated. Dust voids, dust acoustic waves and strong turbulence modes are presented at the small-particle stage. The self-organized dust lattices and dust clusters are investigated at the large-particle stage. The static structure of a dust lattice is characterized by means of the pair correlation function. Dust clusters formed by particles with different numbers and the regular evolution of the clusters with gas pressure are also investigated. The packing sequences of dust clusters are verified through two-dimensional confined molecular dynamics simulations.     

新型大面积电磁表面波等离子体源

研制了一种新型电磁一面波等离子体源,并对其参数和特性进行了实验研究。实验结果表明,该源在２３０Ｐａ以下的气压范围内成功地产生了直径在１６０ｍｍ以上,电子密度达１０＾１０－１０＾１１ｃｍ＾－３、电子温度只有几电子伏特的大面积均匀等离子体柱,适合于大面积,大体的等离子体应用。     

Cavitation clouds created by shock scattering from bubbles during histotripsy

Histotripsy is a therapy that focuses short-duration, high-amplitude pulses of ultrasound to incite a localized cavitation cloud that mechanically breaks down tissue. To investigate the mechanism of cloud formation, high-speed photography was used to observe clouds generated during single histotripsy pulses. Pulses of 5-20 cycles duration were applied to a transparent tissue phantom by a 1-MHz spherically focused transducer. Clouds initiated from single cavitation bubbles that formed during the initial cycles of the pulse, and grew along the acoustic axis opposite the propagation direction. Based on these observations, we hypothesized that clouds form as a result of large negative pressure generated by the backscattering of shockwaves from a single bubble. The positive-pressure phase of the wave inverts upon scattering and superimposes on the incident negative-pressure phase to create this negative pressure and cavitation. The process repeats with each cycle of the incident wave, and the bubble cloud elongates toward the transducer. Finite-amplitude propagation distorts the incident wave such that the peak-positive pressure is much greater than the peak-negative pressure, which exaggerates the effect. The hypothesis was tested with two modified incident waves that maintained negative pressure but reduced the positive pressure amplitude. These waves suppressed cloud formation which supported the hypothesis.     

Temperature Effects on the Beat Heating of a Collisional Magnetoplasma

The beat heating of a magneto-plasma by two antiparallel electromagnetic waves at different temperatures is examined. The effects of plasma temperature, plasma electron collisions, plasma ion collisions and magnitude and direction of the magnetic field on the excitation of plasma electron waves and plasma ion waves are studied. A formula for the power absorption density of the plasma by using Maxwell's equations in conjuction with continuity and momentum equation. including collisions and pressure tensor terms, is derived. The contribution of the plasma temperature to the power absorption density, both at low and high beat frequencies, of the collisional and the non-collisional magnetised plasmas is found very significant and is illustrated numerically. The inclusion of pressure tensor term in the momentum equation is also found to cause characteristic changes in the power absorption density of the plasma with the orientation of magnetic field.     

Pressure dependence of plasma parameters in medium-vacuum nitrogenarc discharge with the titanium cathode

The plasma properties of a medium-vacuum nitrogen arc discharge from a titanium cathode were studied. The arc chamber use was 400 mm in diameter and 600 mm in length. The cathode diameter and thickness were 64 and 25 mm, respectively. The experimental conditions are given as follows: pressure range=1×10^-3~2×10^-1 torr; N₂ gas flow rate=6 ml/min; arc current=50 A. Electric probe characteristics are measured as a function of pressure and distance from the cathode surface. The analytical results obtained show that the electron energy distribution takes 1-Mx at pressures above 1×10^-2 torr but 2-Mx at pressures under 4×10^-2 torr and that the electron density has a maximum value at a certain pressure. The Ti⁺, Ti⁺⁺, and N ⁺₂ ion spectral intensities are measured as a function of pressure and distance from the cathode surface. On comparison of these results and the electron density, the Ti⁺ spectral intensity turns out to be proportional to that of the electron density. This suggests that the major ion in the plasma volume is of the Ti⁺ species     

An analysis of acoustic oscillations in dust plasma structures

Low-frequency oscillations in the density of dust particles, which are spontaneously excited in the standing plasma column of a dc glow discharge in neon, were experimentally studied. The longitudinal waves were monitored by a special visualization technique, and the dust sound oscillation characteristics were determined and analyzed using specially developed algorithm and data processing software. It was established that the longitudinal waves propagate from anode to cathode, the frequency and wavevector of the dust sound oscillations being dependent on the discharge current, gas pressure, particle density in the dust cloud, and spatial coordinates. Two-dimensional (2D) fields of the main wave characteristics were studied using an original algorithm. The possible mechanisms of excitation of the dust sound oscillations is discussed. The experimental spatial distributions of the wave parameters are compared to the patterns obtained within the framework of various theoretical models.     

超高速撞击产生碎片云相分布数值模拟

空间碎片与航天器的撞击速度通常大于10 km/s,这种速度条件下撞击过程的物理特点是高温、高压和高应变率,同时伴随着熔化、汽化及等离子体等相变问题发生。利用AUTODYN/SPH的二次开发功能,在程序中嵌入Sesame状态方程数据库和铝材料的相图,数值模拟出撞击速度为5.0和5.6 km/s时的防护屏穿孔直径分别为9.02 mm和9.34 mm,计算结果与实验结果符合较好,说明物理建模及参数的选取合理,同时也验证了数值模拟方法的正确性及有效性。通过计算给出碎片云的热力学量压力和温度分布,结合铝的相图,对超高速撞击产生碎片云的相分布进行了初步计算,给出了碎片云中固、液、气相的分布范围。     

Characteristics of the underwater explosion of a nonideally detonating aluminum-rich energetic material

An experimental study of the characteristics of the explosion of mixtures of ammonium perchlorate, aluminum, and nitromethane with a large excess of aluminum (1.45 to 1.66 g/cm³ in density) confined in plastic enclosures and immersed in small elastic-wall reservoirs with water is conducted. It is shown that composite charges, 20 mm in diameter, surrounded by a water layer of thickness 20–30 cm and detonate in a nonideal detonation mode. High-speed cinematography records show the possibility of the intense mixing of the detonation products with the surrounding water and of the burning of excess aluminum particles in a heterogeneous cloud. The time scales of the development of secondary energy release by burning of aluminum particles in water are estimated. The possibility of controlling the characteristics of the pressure waves generated by the explosion, for example, by means of a preliminary bubbling of the water with air near the charge, is demonstrated.     

Density quantization of metallic hydrogen

A cellular model of atomic hydrogen is hypothesized in which the Fermi pressure due to a single foreign electron invading the cell is examined in lieu of the entire degenerate gas. The Schrödinger equation is then solved in a self-consistent fashion with Laplace's equation for the electronic cloud. The Wronskian of the two possible wave functions does not vanish because the homogeneous Neumann condition is applied to the surface of the cell, while the Coulomb singularity compels a solution to be generated from the origin. Two quantum numbers result, one for the energy and one for the density, thus there is a lower limit to the density at zero temperature. Further corrections for electron waves by the Born Von-Karmen conditions broadens the radial quantum number into a continuum, but with an absolute lower limit to the density given by the ground state solutions to the Schrödinger equation.We obtain a bulk modulus of compressibility for metallic hydrogen of about 4.66×10¹² dynes/g on the average over a pressure range of 1 to 25 megabars with a density range of 0.4 to 4 g/cc. This is about a factor of 2 greater than Wigner and Huntington's estimate (1935). The zero temperature pressure and density at a maximum is 20.05 Mb and 4.8 g/cc. At the density Wigner and Huntington propose (0.8 g/cc) for the metallic modification, we obtain a necessary pressure of 2.2 Mb. Wigner and Huntington suggest 0.25 Mb while Stewart's data (1956) suggest about 1 Mb. Recent investigations in the literature run the gamut from 1 to 20 Mb (Alder & Christian, 1960). Furthermore, we obtain a latent heat of fusion of 134.3 kcal/g at maximum density, which decreases to zero at 19.1 Mb. The result means that the metallic state of hydrogen exists only over a pressure range of 1 Mb and below 19 Mb, it is a viscoelastic fluid until the molecular solid, formed above 20 Mb begins to form a plasma.     

Development of Ionization waves in an Atmospheric‐Pressure Micro‐Plasma Jet

Present study investigated the development of ionization waves in an atmospheric‐pressure plasma jet. Plasma was ignited by 6 kHz sinusoidal voltage applied to a cylindrical electrode surrounding the 500 μm inner diameter quartz tube and positioned 10 mm upstream from the tube orifice. The plasma current was observed using a plane electrode placed 20 mm downstream from the tube orifice. The spatial development of ionization waves was monitored by registering the optical emission along the axis of the tube. At voltages in range of 5.5 ‐ 7.5 kV only one pulse occurred during positive half‐period while at higher voltages the number of pulses increased up to 6 ‐ 7 per half‐period. The development of the first and subsequent pulses during one half‐period was essentially different. For the first pulse the sharp rise of optical emission characterizing the front of the ionization wave occurred initially near the high‐voltage electrode and moved towards the tube orifice and further in the He jet. The propagation of ionization wave coincided with the rise of the displacement current measured at the plane electrode. For subsequent ionization waves of the same half‐period, the emission occurred initially at the tube orifice and the ionization wave developed simultaneously in two directions: towards the high‐voltage electrode and towards the end of the jet. The velocity of ionization wave inside the tube was in range of (2. 5 ‐ 5.0) · 10⁴ m/s for first wave and as high as 1.2 · 10⁵ m/s for subsequent waves. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Control of the clustering process in molecular beams using IR lasers

The prebreakdown stage of a gas discharge in a diode with strongly overloaded cathode is studied by laser methods (by simultaneous use of multiframe interferometry and shadow and schlieren photographing) at atmospheric pressure. The spatial resolution of the methods is about 20 μm. A probing pulse of a laser (LS-2151 Nd: YAG laser with a half amplitude duration of 70 ps and a pulse energy of up to 40 mJ) is synchronized with a voltage pulse with accuracy of about 1 ns. High field strength at the cathode is achieved due to the use of thin individual metal tips on the electrodes. It is shown that the initial stage of breakdown of a discharge gap is accompanied by the emergence of a dense plasma cloud at the end of a tip with electron density of about 5 × 10¹⁹ cm^–3 with a size of tens of microns, as well as by a sharp increase in the total current through the diode. After the emergence of a dense plasma cloud at the end of a cathode tip, a similar cloud is formed on the surface of the anode; sometime later, these clouds join together and form a tubular current channel. The dynamics of the breakdown, as well as the parameters of the plasma are studied by the abovementioned techniques in three independent optical channels.     

Parametric excitation by a pump magnetic field in a high temperature plasma

The parametric growth rates of Alfvén waves, fast compressional waves and ion acoustic waves excited by a time modulated magnetic field are calculated for the case of a high temperature plasma with anisotropic pressure. The plasma is described by the C.G.L. model.     

On the waves and instability in self-gravitating magnetic molecular clouds with ambipolar diffusion Part 2: Cylindrical modal approach and nonlinear effects

The dynamics and evolution of molecular clouds, which are the main sites of active star formation in our Galaxy, are governed by the interaction of the self-gravity, magnetic fields, and ambipolar diffusion, in the form of waves and instability. In our earlier paper (Part 1), we carried out a detailed planar modal analysis. The present paper (Part 2) is an extension of Part 1 in order to include the three-dimensionality and the finite size of the cloud as well as the nonlinear effects. A cylindrical modal approach is developed to take into account the three-dimensionality and the finite size of the cloud as well as the special direction of the mean field B ₀. Dispersion relation and solutions of such cylindrical modes are obtained. It is shown that, in the most unstable direction (∥ B ₀), the growth rate is considerably reduced by the finite lateral size compared with the planar mode of the same wavelength. Nonlinear effects of the magnetic field and magnetic waves are discussed, with particular attention paid to their dependence on the coupling factor σ which is the ratio between the mean collision frequency of a neutral with ions and the gravitational response frequency. It is shown that fast magnetosonic waves are as important as Alfvén waves in the global support of the cloud. In order that the lower limit of the wavelengths in the moderately dissipative range of such waves is small compared with the cloud size, σ should be larger than 5. It is also shown that σ should be larger than 7.3 in order for the density growth of the neutral fluid in a free-fall time to be smaller than 30%. A typical value of σ ≈ 11 in molecular clouds is estimated. This corresponds to an ionization rate ζ = 10^?17 and a metal depletion δ = 0.1. For the clouds with such value of σ, both the density growth and the flux loss are smaller than 20% in a free-fall time. It is shown that a self-adjusting mechanism is able to slow down the global collapse at the early stage of cloud evolution in terms of the interaction between the global collapse and the then existing Alfvén and fast magnetosonic waves, which originate from the inhomogeneous velocity and density distributions in the cloud. Such interaction will not only strengthen these waves, but also create outwards decaying amplitudes of the field perturbation and therefore generate outward net magnetic forces to support the cloud against global collapse. The same mechanism also works for refreshing the outwards propagating Alfvén and fast magnetosonic waves caused by star-forming or core-forming activities, if the total energy supply rate due to these activities is lower than the total dissipation rate of these waves. In this way, a significant portion of the released gravitational energy during the global collapse is tapped and turned into the magnetic waves to slow down the global collapse itself. In terms of such a mechanism, the property that the dissipation rate of Alfvén and fast magnetosonic waves increases with the wave number leads to a simple explanation of the coexistence of the global quasi-stability and the local instability (formation of dense cores) in molecular clouds with cloud mass much larger than the Jeans mass.     

Relativistically strong electromagnetic radiation in a plasma

Physical processes in a plasma under the action of relativistically strong electromagnetic waves generated by high-power lasers have been briefly reviewed. These processes are of interest in view of the development of new methods for acceleration of charged particles, creation of sources of bright hard electromagnetic radiation, and investigation of macroscopic quantum-electrodynamical processes. Attention is focused on nonlinear waves in a laser plasma for the creation of compact electron accelerators. The acceleration of plasma bunches by the radiation pressure of light is the most efficient regime of ion acceleration. Coherent hard electromagnetic radiation in the relativistic plasma is generated in the form of higher harmonics and/or electromagnetic pulses, which are compressed and intensified after reflection from relativistic mirrors created by nonlinear waves. In the limit of extremely strong electromagnetic waves, radiation friction, which accompanies the conversion of radiation from the optical range to the gamma range, fundamentally changes the behavior of the plasma. This process is accompanied by the production of electron–positron pairs, which is described within quantum electrodynamics theory.     

Magnetic field-aligned plasma expansion in critical ionizationvelocity space experiments

The temporal evolution of a plasma cloud released in an ambient plasma is studied. Time-dependent Vlasov equations for both electrons and ions, as well as the self-consistent electric field parallel to the ambient magnetic field, are solved. The initial cloud is considered to consist of cold, warm, and hot electrons with temperatures of approximately 0.2 eV, 2 eV, and 10 eV, respectively. It is found that the minor hot electrons escape the cloud; their velocity distribution function shows the typical time-of-flight dispersion feature, i.e. the average drift velocity of the escaping electrons is proportional to the distance from the cloud. The major warm electrons expand along the magnetic field lines with the corresponding ion-acoustic speed. The combined effect of the escaping hot electrons and the expanding warm ones sets up an electric potential structure that accelerates the ambient electrons into the cloud. Thus, the energy loss due to the electron escape is partly replenished. The electric field distribution in the potential structure depends on the stage of the evolution; before the rarefaction waves propagating from the edges of the cloud reach its center, the electric fields point into the cloud. After this stage the cloud divides into two subclouds, each having its own bipolar electric field. The effects of collisions on the evolution of plasma clouds are also discussed. The relevance of the results seen from the calculations are discussed in the context of space experiments on critical ionization velocity     

Mathematical Modeling of the Interaction of a Shock Wave with a Dense Cloud of Particles within the Framework of the Two-Fluid Approach

A parametric numerical study of the interaction of a shock wave with a dense cloud of particles is performed. The problem is solved in the framework of the two-fluid approach, with both the gas and dispersed phases are considered compressible media non-equilibrium in velocity and pressure. The system of governing hyperbolic equations was numerically solved using the Harten–Lax–van Leer method. The statement of the problem corresponds to the arrangement of natural experiments. The simulations revealed the main features of the process, such as the formation of transmitted and reflected waves, the movement of the cloud with a steep leading edge and a smeared tailing edge. The amplitudes of the transmitted and reflected waves, as well as the dynamics of the motion of the cloud, are compared to those observed in real experiments. The influence of the parameters of the equation of state of the dispersed phase and some properties of the computational algorithm on the characteristics of the process is examined.     

Magnetoacoustic and Alfven waves excited by plasma cloud expansion in cold magnetized plasma

The propagation of Alfven and magnetoacoustic waves in a cold magnetized plasma to great distances from the expanding plasma cloud that is the source of these waves is investigated. Allowance is made for back-ground-plasma permittivity anisotropy, which leads to Alfven-and magnetoacoustic-wave interaction and channeling along the external magnetic field.Moscow Engineering-Physics Institute. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 36, No. 9, pp. 882–891, September, 1993.     

无碰撞等离子体电流片中的低频波

采用两种无碰撞二维三分量不可压缩磁流体力学（MHD）模型，计入电子扰动压力张量效应，研究了电流片等离子体的色散性质和波.由于得到的一般色散关系较为复杂，只解析讨论了电流片的中心区和电子β*e=0两种特殊情况.主要结果如下：(1)在短波区（kdi＞1），存在快磁声 动理学Alfven波和斜Alfven 哨声模，电子磁流体力学模型是足够精确的MHD模型；在长波区（kdi＜1＝，存在Alfven波和离子声波，理想的MHD模型是适用的.（2）电子β*e＝0情况下的结果，显然遗漏了一些波模（如离子声波和快磁声动理 关键词： 电流片 磁流体力学 电子压力张量 色散关系     

Laboratory Simulation of the Dynamics of a Dense Plasma Cloud Expanding in a Magnetized Background Plasma on a Krot Large-Scale Device

The first experimental results on the dynamics of a plasma cloud produced by a miniature coaxial gun in a magnetized background plasma have been reported. The record dimension of the plasma in the Krot device, which is more than 1 m across a magnetic field, has allowed the first implementation of the regime of “unbounded” background plasma, which is optimal for the simulation of astro- and geophysical phenomena. In the sub-Alfvénic regime of cloud expansion, a set of characteristic effects has been demonstrated, including the formation of a diamagnetic cavity, deceleration of ions of the cloud by the background plasma, and development of high-frequency instability at the edge of the cloud.