A DCN laser interferometer for electron density measurements of plasmas

The main characteristic of this interferometric system is such that the systems can be used for DCN laser (=195m, 190m) and also for HCN laser (=337m) by changing the work medium, regulating the temperature of tube wall and adjusting the optic path, without changing any optic element.     

High sensitivity HCN laser interferometer for plasma electron density measurements

This paper describes a high sensitivity 337 μm HCN laser interferometer for plasma electron density measurements. The plasma phase shift is transferred to a low frequency signal obtained by slightly shifting the frequency of the 337 μm radiation in the reference beam of the interferometer. The frequency shift is produced by diffracting the radiation of a cylindrical rotating blazed grating. A phase shift is deduced from the time variation of the zero crossings of the low frequency signal, giving a result which is independent of amplitude fluctuations. Using pyroelectric detectors, the interferometer has a time resolution of 100 μsec and a sensitivity of 10^-2 fringe.     

A vibrationally compensated far infrared laser interferometer for plasma density measurements

A modulated far-infrared laser interferometer which is presently operating on the PDX experiment at Princeton is described. The interferometer geometry permits the characterization of inside D, outside D as well as circular discharges. To achieve this versatility, a titanium corner cube reflector, mounted inside the PDX vacuum vessel is used in conjunction with a second visible wavelength interferometer for vibration corrections. In addition, the use of room temperature quasi-optical Schottky diodes in the far-infrared interferometer is reported. The minimum detectable line average density of the system is 5×10¹¹ cm^–3.     

First gravity measurements using the mobile atom interferometer GAIN

We present the compact Gravimetric Atom Interferometer (GAIN), based on laser-cooled ⁸⁷Rb atoms, and discuss its first measurements of the local gravitational acceleration. In this context, we also describe an active vibration isolation system and a tip-tilt stage, which allow for a suppression of vibrational noise and systematic effects like the Coriolis force due to Earth’s rotation.     

A DC probe diagnostics for fast electron temperature measurements in tokamak edge plasmas

The tunnel probe is a new kind of Langmuir probe for use in the tokamak scrape-off layer. It provides simultaneous measurements of electron temperature and parallel ion current density with high frequency at the same point in space. We describe ongoing work to characterize the ion flows within the probe, and to calibrate the diagnostics using 2D kinetic simulations. Presented at 5th Workshop “Role of Electric Fields in Plasma Confinement and Exhaust”, Montreus, Seitzerland, June 23–24, 2002.     

Temperature and density spectroscopic measurements in different laser-generated plasmas

A pulsed Nd:Yag laser, at intensities of the order of 10¹⁰ W/cm², is employed to irradiate different thick metallic targets (Ti, Fe, Ag, and Ni) placed in vacuum. The obtained non-equilibrium plasmas are investigated with various analytical techniques. An electrostatic ion energy analyzer and different ion collectors are employed to monitor in situ the ions ejected from the plasma and to determine the core plasma temperature, the ion energy distributions and the ion angular emission. An optical spectrometer is employed to analyze the plasma corona emitted light vs. wavelength and to identify the emitted characteristic lines. The optical spectroscopy permitted to evaluate the electron temperatures and densities. Results show strong temperature and density gradients occurring in the laser-generated plasma plume.     

Nonlinear shielding and electron density enhancement in moderately coupled plasmas

As the plasma coupling grows, the electron density in the vicinity of the central ion increases appreciably, and the atomic reaction rates evaluated with the free Maxwell distribution for weakly coupled plasmas require modifications. The Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution, expressed in terms of the screened ionic potential, provides a simple way to correct for the density change. Several adjustments of the distribution are considered, including the nonlinear shielding, the quantum effect, the charge neutrality condition, and electron–electron correlation. The nonlinear coupling is shown to add to the linearly shielded potential a new component with much stronger shielding and generally reduces the strength of the linear potential. A simple model for the density enhancement is then constructed for moderately coupled plasmas, which may be applied to approximately correct the existing rates which were obtained in the weak coupling limit.     

A modified Marton-type electron interferometer

It is shown that the original Marton-type electron interferometer is based on the Fresnel diffraction of two coherent beams by a crystal. The modified Marton-type electron interferometer presented here is based on the Fraunhofer diffraction. The advantages of the proposed interferometer are given in the text along with a simplified sketch of the major components.     

Oscillation correction to the electron density of an atom

The oscillation correction to the electron density of an atom in the Thomas-Fermi model is calculated with the help of the method of Green's functions and continuous integration. This correction has a nonanalytic dependence on Planck's constant and cannot be obtained by the usual methods, which employ an expansion in terms of a small parameter proportional to .The author is deeply grateful to L. Ya. Kobelev for suggesting this subject and supervising the work.     

An atom interferometer for measuring loss of coherence from an atom mirror

We describe an atom interferometer to study the coherence of atoms reflected from an evanescent wave mirror. The interferometer is sensitive to the loss of phase coherence induced by the defects in the mirror. The results are consistent with and complementary to recent measurements of specular reflection.Received: 3 August 2004, Published online: 26 October 2004PACS: 03.75.Be Atom and neutron optics - 03.75.Dg Atom and neutron interferometry - 39.20. + q Atom interferometry techniques The Laboratoire Charles Fabry is part of the Federation LUMAT, FR2764 du CNRS.     

A Michelson interferometer using electron waves

An electron interferometer of the Michelson type is realized. Monoenergetic 25 keV electrons emitted from a line source 1000 Å in width are deflected by 90 ° in a magnetic Castaing prism and reflected on two mirrorsM ₁ andM ₂ held at a potential ΔU _m negative with respect to the cathode. In the experiment the mirrors are represented by height differences on the surface of an silvered glass plate. The reflected electrons are once more deflected by the magnetic prism behind which the coherent partial beams 1 and 2 reflected on the mirrorsM ₁ andM ₂, respectively, are superimposed using an electrostatic biprism to form two-beam interferences. The observed fringe shift indicates a phase shift due to differences in height between the equipotentials reflecting the partial beams 1 and 2. It is estimated that path differences less than the electron wavelength of 0.08 Å can be observed.     

Electron state density and electron diffusion coefficient in energy space in nonideal nonequilibrium plasmas

We suggest a model for a hydrogenic low-temperature nonequilibrium nonideal plasma that allows the kinetic parameters of the plasma to be calculated by the method of molecular dynamics by taking into account the interparticle interaction. The charges interact according to Coulomb’s law; for unlike charges, the interaction is assumed to be equal to a constant at a distance smaller than several Bohr radii. For a system of particles, we solve the classical equations of motion under periodic boundary conditions. The initial conditions are specified in such a way that the electrons have a positive total energy. We consider the temperatures 1-50 K and densities n = 10⁹?10¹⁰ cm^?3 produced in an experiment through laser cooling and resonant excitation. We calculate the electron state density as a function of the plasma coupling parameter and the electron diffusion coefficient in energy space for highly excited (Rydberg) electron states close to the boundary of the discrete and continuum spectra.     

Transition wavelengths for helium atom in weakly coupled hot plasmas

We have investigated the effect of surrounding plasmas on several singly excited and doubly excited meta-stable bound states of helium atom using highly correlated basis functions for singly excited S, P, D states and CI-type basis functions for doubly excited meta-stable D states. Plasma effect is taken care of by using a screened Coulomb (Yukawa) potential obtained from the Debye model that admits a variety of plasma conditions, and such a model plays an important role in plasma spectroscopy. The wavelengths for transitions from the 1snp ¹P° (n=2,3)→1s²¹S^e, 1snp ³P° (n=2,3)→1s2s ³S^e, 2pnp ¹P^e (n=3,4)→1s2p ¹P°, 2pnp ³P^e (n=2,3)→1s2p ³P°, 2pnd ¹D° (n=3,4)→1s3d ¹D^e, 2pnd ³D° (n=3,4)→1s3d ³D^e, 2p3p ¹P^e→2pnd ¹D° (n=3,4), 2pnd ¹D°(n=3, 4)→2p4p ¹P^e, 2pnp ³P^e (n=2,3)→2p3d ³D°, and 2pnp ³P^e (n=2,3)→2p4d ³D° of helium atom in plasmas for various Debye lengths are reported.     

A laser interferometer for measuring electron densities in an arc plasma

A Michelson interferometer working simultaneously at two wavelengths is used to follow the decay of the electron density n_e along the axis of a short-circuited dc-argon arc. Using optical isolation, compensating mirrors and quadrature signal detection results in a random error of 1% for n_e=5×10¹⁶ cm^-3.     

Molecular dynamics simulations on density enhancement near ions at rest in electron plasmas

We use the molecular dynamics computer simulation technique to study the behavior of electron plasmas in the presence of highly charged ions and strong magnetic fields. Such systems are encountered in electron cooler and electron target facilities, where large recombination rates have been observed. Our simulation results show enhanced electron densities in the vicinity of the ion, with the enhancement depending only weakly on the bulk density. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A compact dual atom interferometer gyroscope based on laser-cooled rubidium

We present a compact and transportable inertial sensor for precision sensing of rotations and accelerations. The sensor consists of a dual atom interferometer operated with laser-cooled ⁸⁷Rb. Raman processes are employed to coherently manipulate the matter waves. We describe and characterize the experimental apparatus. A method for passing from a compact geometry to an extended interferometer with three independent atom-light interaction zones is proposed and investigated. The extended geometry will enhance the sensitivity by more than two orders of magnitude which is necessary to achieve sensitivities better than 10^-8rad/s/.