ALBERT

Description: A three-dimensional model is presented to investigate helium plasma generated by microwave under atmospheric pressure in this paper, which includes the physical processes of electromagnetic wave propagation, electron and heavy species transport, gas flow, and heat transfer. The model is based on the fluid approximation calculation and local thermodynamic equilibrium assumption. The simulation results demonstrate that the maxima of the electron density and gas temperature are 4.79 × 10 17  m −3 and 1667 K, respectively, for the operating conditions with microwave power of 500 W, gas flow rate of 20 l/min, and initial gas temperature of 500 K. The electromagnetic field distribution in the plasma source is obtained by solving Helmholtz equation. Electric field strength of 2.97 × 10 4  V/m is obtained. There is a broad variation on microwave power, gas flow rate, and initial gas temperature to obtain deeper information about the changes of the electron density and gas temperature.

Description: The paper analyzes the dielectric breakdown properties of N 2 –O 2 mixtures at different O 2 concentrations and gas pressures, taking into account electron detachments from negative ions. The reduced effective ionization coefficients α(eff)/N in N 2 –O 2 mixtures at different O 2 concentrations and gas pressures were calculated and analyzed, by considering electron detachments. The critical reduced electric fields (E/N) cr and the critical electron temperature T b were then determined. The result indicates a clear enhancement of α(eff)/N by collisional detachments, which causes a reduction in the (E/N) cr . In addition, a synergistic effect in the N 2 –O 2 mixture was also observed in both (E/N) cr and T b . The value of T b was decreased by the increase of pd product, however, T b tended to be constant at relatively high pd products.

Description: A novel backward wave oscillator (BWO) based on a hole-grating slow wave structure is proposed as a dual sheet beam millimeter wave radiation source. In this paper, we focus on the output characteristics of a 0.14 THz hole-grating BWO. The output characteristics of the hole-grating BWO, the conventional single-beam grating BWO, and the dual-beam grating BWO are contrasted in detail. 3-D particle-in-cell results indicate that the hole-grating slow wave structure can help to increase the maximum output power as well as lower the operating current density. Meanwhile, the hole-grating BWO shows good insensitivity to the differences between two sheet electron beams. These characteristics make the hole-grating BWO feasible to be a stable millimeter wave radiation source with higher output power.

Description: Particle drift driven by electrostatic wave fluctuations is numerically computed to describe the transport in a gradient velocity layer at the tokamak plasma edge. We consider an equilibrium plasma in large aspect ratio approximation with E × B flow and specified toroidal plasma velocity, electric field, and magnetic field profiles. A symplectic map, previously derived for infinite coherent time modes, is used to describe the transport dependence on the electric, magnetic, and plasma velocity shears. We also show that resonant perturbations and their correspondent islands in the Poincaré maps are much affected by the toroidal velocity profiles. Moreover, shearless transport barriers, identified by extremum values of the perturbed rotation number profiles of the invariant curves, allow chaotic trajectories trapped into the plasma. We investigate the influence of the toroidal plasma velocity profile on these shearless transport barriers.

Description: The propagation of surface plasmons on a quantum plasma half-space in the absence of any external confinement is investigated. By means of the Quantum Hydrodynamic Model in the electrostatic limit, it is found that the equilibrium density profile is a smooth continuous function which, in the linear regime, supports multiple non-normal surface modes. Defining a spectrum function and using a cutting condition, the dispersion relations of these modes and their relevance for realistic dynamics are computed. It is found that the multiple surface plasmons present a significant red-shift with respect to the case of fully bounded quantum plasmas.

Description: Splitting of the fundamental mode in an oversized Bragg resonator with a step of the corrugation phase, which operates over the feedback loop involving the waveguide waves of different transverse structures, was found to be the result of mutual influence of the neighboring zones of the Bragg scattering. Theoretical description of this effect was developed within the framework of the advanced (four-wave) coupled-wave approach. It is shown that mode splitting reduces the selective properties, restricts the output power, and decreases the stability of the narrow-band operating regime in the free-electron maser (FEM) oscillators based on such resonators. The results of the theoretical analysis were confirmed by 3D simulations and “cold” microwave tests. Experimental data on Bragg resonators with different parameters in a 30-GHz FEM are presented. The possibility of reducing the mode splitting by profiling the corrugation parameters is shown. The use of the mode splitting effect for the output power enhancement by passive compression of the double-frequency pulse generated in the FEM with such a resonator is discussed.

Description: The high-order mode oscillation is studied in designing a four-cavity intense relativistic klystron amplifier. The reason for the oscillation caused by high-order modes and a method to suppress these kinds of spurious modes are found through theoretical analyses and the study on the influence of major parameters of a high frequency structure (such as the oscillation frequency of cavities, the cavity Q value, the length of drift tube section, and the characteristic impedance). Based on much simulation, a four-cavity intense relativistic klystron amplifier with a superior performance has been designed, built, and tested. An output power of 2.22 GW corresponding to 27.4% efficiency and 61 dB gain has been obtained. Moreover, the high-order mode oscillation is suppressed effectively, and an output power of 1.95 GW corresponding to 26% efficiency and 62 dB gain has been obtained in our laboratory.

Description: The properties of bound-bound transitions in hydrogen-like ions in dense quantum plasmas, characterized by a cosine-Debye-Hückel interaction between charged particles, are studied in detail. The transition frequencies, oscillator strengths, and radiative transition probabilities of Lyman and Balmer series are calculated for a wide range of screening strengths of the interaction up to the n  = 5 shell. For Δ n ≠ 0 transitions, all these quantities exhibit a significant decrease with increasing screening strength, while for the Δ n = 0 transitions and for the radiative lifetimes, the opposite is true. The present results are compared with those available from the literature. They are also compared with the results for the pure Debye-Hückel potential with the same screening strength.

Description: An aerodynamic levitator with carbon dioxide laser beam heating was integrated with a hermetically sealed controlled atmosphere chamber and sample handling mechanism. The system enabled containment of radioactive samples and control of the process atmosphere chemistry. The chamber was typically operated at a pressure of approximately 0.9 bars to ensure containment of the materials being processed. Samples 2.5-3 mm in diameter were levitated in flowing gas to achieve containerless conditions. Levitated samples were heated to temperatures of up to 3500 °C with a partially focused carbon dioxide laser beam. Sample temperature was measured using an optical pyrometer. The sample environment was integrated with a high energy (100 keV) x-ray synchrotron beamline to enable in situ structure measurements to be made on levitated samples as they were heated, melted, and supercooled. The system was controlled from outside the x-ray beamline hutch by using a LabVIEW program. Measurements have been made on hot solid and molten uranium dioxide and binary uranium dioxide-zirconium dioxide compositions.

Description: We have developed an optical Absolute Distance Meter (ADM) based on the measurement of the phase accumulated by a Radio Frequency wave during its propagation in the air by a laser beam. In this article, the ADM principle will be described and the main results will be presented. In particular, we will emphasize how the choice of an appropriate photodetector can significantly improve the telemeter performances by minimizing the amplitude to phase conversion. Our prototype, tested in the field, has proven its efficiency with a resolution better than 15 μm for a measurement time of 10 ms and distances up to 1.2 km.

Description: The InfraRed Video Bolometer (IRVB) is a powerful tool to measure radiated power in magnetically confined plasmas due to its ability to obtain 2D images of plasma emission using a technique that is compatible with the fusion nuclear environment. A prototype IRVB has been developed and installed on NSTX-U to view the lower divertor. The IRVB is a pinhole camera which images radiation from the plasma onto a 2.5 μ m thick, 9 × 7 cm 2 Pt foil and monitors the resulting spatio-temporal temperature evolution using an IR camera. The power flux incident on the foil is calculated by solving the 2D+time heat diffusion equation, using the foil’s calibrated thermal properties. An optimized, high frame rate IRVB, is quantitatively compared to results from a resistive bolometer on the bench using a modulated 405 nm laser beam with variable power density and square wave modulation from 0.2 Hz to 250 Hz. The design of the NSTX-U system and benchtop characterization are presented where signal-to-noise ratios are assessed using three different IR cameras: FLIR A655sc, FLIR A6751sc, and SBF-161. The sensitivity of the IRVB equipped with the SBF-161 camera is found to be high enough to measure radiation features in the NSTX-U lower divertor as estimated using SOLPS modeling. The optimized IRVB has a frame rate up to 50 Hz, high enough to distinguish radiation during edge-localized-modes (ELMs) from that between ELMs.

Description: Hydrogen production from ethanol solution (ethanol/water) by pulsed spark discharge was optimized by varying the volume of ethanol solution (liquid volume). Hydrogen yield was initially increased and then decreased with the increase in solution volume, which achieved 1.5 l/min with a solution volume of 500 ml. The characteristics of pulsed spark discharge were studied in this work; the results showed that the intensity of peak current, the rate of current rise, and energy efficiency of hydrogen production can be changed by varying the volume of ethanol solution. Meanwhile, the mechanism analysis of hydrogen production was accomplished by monitoring the process of hydrogen production and the state of free radicals. The analysis showed that decreasing the retention time of gas production and properly increasing the volume of ethanol solution can enhance the hydrogen yield. Through this research, a high-yield and large-scale method of hydrogen production can be achieved, which is more suitable for industrial application.

Description: Magnetic flux ropes (MFR) are universal magnetoplasma structures (similar to cylindrical screw pinches) formed in reconnecting current sheets. In particular, MFR with scales from about the ion inertial length to MHD range are widely observed in the Earth magnetosphere. Typical MFR have force-free configuration with the axial magnetic field peaking on the MFR axis, whereas bifurcated MFR with an off-axis peak of the axial magnetic field are observed as well. In the present paper, we develop kinetic models of force-free and bifurcated MFR and determine consistent ion and electron distribution functions. The magnetic field configuration of the force-free MFR represents well-known Gold-Hoyle MFR (uniformly twisted MFR). We show that bifurcated MFR are characterized by the presence of cold and hot current-carrying electrons. The developed models are capable to describe MFR observed in the Earth magnetotail as well as MFR recently observed by Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission at the Earth magnetopause.

Description: In the literature, collisional processes are customarily discussed within the context of the Boltzmann-Balescu-Lenard-Landau type of collision integral, but such an equation is strictly valid for unmagnetized plasmas. For plasmas immersed in the ambient magnetic field, the foundational equation that describes binary collisions must be generalized to include the effects of magnetic field. The present paper makes use of such an equation in order to describe the collisional relaxation of temperatures under the assumption of bi-Maxwellian velocity distribution function. The formalism derived in the present paper may be useful for studying the effects of binary collisions on the isotropization of temperatures in the solar wind plasma, among possible applications.

Description: The slowing down as well as the deflection time of test particles in the plasma is studied in the non-extensive statistics. The relevant relations are derived using Fokker Planck equation. It is remarked that the slowing down and deflection times modify considerably in the non-extensive statistics in comparison with Boltzmann Gibbs one. It is found that by decreasing non-extensivity index q ( 1 / 3 〈 q ≤ 1 which corresponds to plasma with excess super extensive particles), both the slowing down and deflection times will be increased. Also, for q ≥ 1 , i.e., the sub-extensive particles, the same results are obtained by decreasing q . Additionally, the effects of non-extensive distributed particles on the electrical conductivity and diffusion coefficient of plasma are studied. It is shown that plasmas with smaller q s are better conductors in both 1 / 3 〈 q ≤ 1 and q ≥ 1 . In addition, it is observed that by increasing q , Dreicer field will increase in both super-extensive and sub-extensive particles. Moreover, it is found that the diffusion coefficient across a magnetic field is decreased by decreasing q . Furthermore, our results reduce to the solutions of Maxwellian plasma at the extensive limit q → 1. This research will be helpful in understanding the relaxation times and transport properties of fusion and astrophysical plasmas.

Description: The background to this work was a prototype shadow sensor, which was designed for retro-fitting to an advanced LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory) test-mass/mirror suspension, in which a 40 kg test-mass/mirror is suspended by four approximately 600 mm long by 0.4 mm diameter fused-silica suspension fibres. The shadow sensor comprised a LED source of Near InfraRed (NIR) radiation, and a “tall-thin” rectangular silicon photodiode detector, which together were to bracket the fibre under test. The photodiode was positioned so as to be sensitive (primarily) to transverse “Violin-Mode” vibrations of such a fibre, via the oscillatory movement of the shadow cast by the fibre, as this moved across the face of the detector. In this prototype shadow sensing system the photodiode was interfaced to a purpose-built transimpedance amplifier, this having both AC and DC outputs. A quasi-static calibration was made of the sensor’s DC responsivity, i.e., incremental rate of change of output voltage versus fibre position, by slowly scanning a fused-silica fibre sample transversely through the illuminating beam. The work reported here concerns the determination of the sensor’s more important AC (Violin-Mode) responsivity. Recognition of the correspondence between direct AC modulation of the source, and actual Violin-Mode signals, and of the transformative role of the AC / DC gain ratio for the amplifier, at any modulation frequency, f , resulted in the construction of the AC / DC calibration source described here. A method for determining in practice the transimpedance AC / DC gain ratio of the photodiode and amplifier, using this source, is illustrated by a specific numerical example, and the gain ratio for the prototype sensing system is reported over the frequency range 1 Hz–300 kHz. In fact, a maximum DC responsivity of 1.26 kV.m −1 was measured using the prototype photodiode sensor and amplifier discussed here. Therefore, the measured AC / DC transimpedance gain ratio of 922.5 for this sensor, at 500 Hz, translated into a maximum Violin-Mode ( AC ) responsivity of (1.16 ± 0.05) MV m −1 , at that frequency.

Description: A device is presented allowing for in situ investigation of chemically changing materials by means of X-ray imaging. A representative cork ablator sample, additionally instrumented with thermocouples, is encapsulated in an evacuated cell heating a sample surface with a heat flux of 230 kW/m 2 . The images show the sample surface and the in-depth progression of the char front dividing the char layer from the virgin material. Correlating the images to thermocouple data allows for the deduction of a reaction temperature. For the representative cork ablator investigated at the present conditions, the progression rate of the pyrolysis layer is determined to 0.0285 mm/s and pyrolysis temperature is 770 or 737 K, depending on the pre-existing conditions. It is found that the novel device is ideally suited for volume process imaging.

Description: In this communication, a novel optical technique has been proposed for the reconstruction of the shape of a Taylor bubble using measurements from multiple arrays of optical sensors. The deviation of an optical beam passing through the bubble depends on the contour of bubble surface. A theoretical model of the deviation of a beam during the traverse of a Taylor bubble through it has been developed. Using this model and the time history of the deviation captured by the sensor array, the bubble shape has been reconstructed. The reconstruction has been performed using an inverse algorithm based on Bayesian inference technique and Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling algorithm. The reconstructed nose shape has been compared with the true shape, extracted through image processing of high speed images. Finally, an error analysis has been performed to pinpoint the sources of the errors.

Description: Based on vibrational spectroscopy, coherent Raman Scattering (CRS) microscopy allows label-free imaging of biological and chemical samples with endogenous image contrast. Two-color, synchronized picosecond pulses are typically used for high spectral resolution imaging, which in turn constitutes a dramatic laser source challenge for CRS microscopy. Recently, synchronized time-lens source, inspired from ultrafast optical signal processing, has emerged as a promising laser source solution and has found application in various modalities of CRS microscopy. Time-lens is based on space-time analogy, which uses a “lens” in the time domain to compress long optical pulses or even continuous waves to ultrashort pulses, mimicking a lens in the space domain. Phase and intensity modulators driven with electrical signals are used in the time-lens source for picosecond pulse generation. As a result, the time-lens source is highly versatile and naturally compatible with modulation capabilities. More importantly, if the electrical signals used to drive the time-lens source are derived from other laser sources, such as mode-locked lasers, then synchronization between them can be realized, underlying the physics of a synchronized time-lens source. In this paper, we review recent progress on the basic principle, design of the synchronized time-lens source, and its applications to CRS microscopy of both biological and chemical samples.

Description: In this paper, a new double micropipettes configuration mode of scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM) is presented to better overcome ionic current drift and further improve the performance of SICM, which is based on a balance bridge circuit. The article verifies the feasibility of this new configuration mode from theoretical and experimental analyses, respectively, and compares the quality of scanning images in the conventional single micropipette configuration mode and the new double micropipettes configuration mode. The experimental results show that the double micropipettes configuration mode of SICM has better effect on restraining ionic current drift and better performance of imaging. Therefore, this article not only proposes a new direction of overcoming the ionic current drift but also develops a new method of SICM stable imaging.

Description: A new imaging algorithm is proposed to capture the kinematics of flexible, thin, light structures including frequencies and motion amplitudes for real time analysis. The studied case is a thin flexible beam that is preset at different angles of attack in a wind tunnel. As the angle of attack is increased beyond a critical value, the beam was observed to undergo a static deflection that is ensued by limit cycle oscillations. Imaging analysis of the beam vibrations shows that the motion consists of a superposition of the bending and torsion modes. The proposed algorithm was able to capture the oscillation amplitudes as well as the frequencies of both bending and torsion modes. The analysis results are validated through comparison with measurements from a piezoelectric sensor that is attached to the beam at its root.

Description: A thermal dissociation cavity attenuated phase shift spectroscopy (TD-CAPS) instrument was developed for measuring total peroxy nitrates (PNs) and organic nitrates (ONs) concentrations in the clean atmosphere. This instrument is easy to operate and can be applied to continuous measurement of PNs and ONs. A continuously measurable system is convenient to perform observations, especially in remote areas. Three lines (NO 2 , PNs, and ONs lines) were used for thermal dissociation. The NO 2 line contains a quartz tube that is not heated, while the PN and ON lines contain quartz tubes that are heated at 433 K and 633 K, respectively. The concentrations of NO 2 , NO 2 + PNs, and NO 2 + PNs + ONs can be obtained from the NO 2 , PN, and ON lines, respectively. The lower limit values of the detection limit (3σ) for PNs and ONs were estimated to be 21 parts per trillion by volume with an integration time of 2 min. PNs were selectively thermally decomposed in the PNs line and formed NO 2 quantitatively. In the ONs line, both PNs and ONs were thermally decomposed to produce NO 2 quantitatively, but partial decomposition of HNO 3 at 633 K interfered with the ONs measurement. Therefore, a HNO 3 scrubber is required before the ONs line. Continuous observations were conducted with the TD-CAPS instrument in a remote area, and the instrument performed well for obtaining PNs and ONs concentrations.

Description: A novel diamond anvil cell suitable for electrical transport measurements under high pressure has been developed. A boron-doped metallic diamond film was deposited as an electrode on a nano-polycrystalline diamond anvil using a microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition technique combined with electron beam lithography. The maximum pressure that can be achieved by this assembly is above 30 GPa. We report electrical transport measurements of Pb up to 8 GPa. The boron-doped metallic diamond electrodes showed no signs of degradation after repeated compression.

Description: Optical birefringence imaging systems demonstrate a high potential for comprehensively investigating various phase transitions. To completely demonstrate such abilities, the temperature dependence of birefringence (Δ n ) was measured in Δ n ≃ 0 materials (i.e., cubic crystals with imperfect crystallization) via a background subtraction method. As a result, highly accurate birefringence imaging at 384 × 288 pixels was obtained using phase transition processes as well as varying temperatures visually characterized by the spatial distribution of not only the retardance level but also the optical fast-axis azimuth.

Description: A free space measurement method, which consists of two horn antennas, a network analyzer, two frequency extenders, and a sample holder, is used to measure transmission ( S 21 ) coefficients in 75-110 GHz (W-Band) frequency range. Singular spectrum analysis method is presented to eliminate the error and noise of raw S 21 data after calibration and measurement processes. The proposed model can be applied easily to remove the repeated calibration process for each sample measurement. Hence, smooth, reliable, and accurate data are obtained to determine the dielectric properties of materials. In addition, the dielectric constant of materials (paper, polyvinylchloride-PVC, Ultralam® 3850HT, and glass) is calculated by thin sheet approximation and Newton-Raphson extracting techniques using a filtered S 21 transmission parameter.

Description: An electron density diagnostic (≥10 10 cm −3 ) capable of high temporal (ms) and spatial (mm) resolution is currently under development at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The diagnostic is based on measuring the Stark broadened, Doppler-free spectral line profile of the n = 6–2 hydrogen Balmer series transition. The profile is then fit to a fully quantum mechanical model including the appropriate electric and magnetic field operators. The quasi-static approach used to calculate the Doppler-free spectral line profile is outlined here and the results from the model are presented for H-δ spectra for electron densities of 10 10 –10 13 cm −3 . The profile shows complex behavior due to the interaction between the magnetic substates of the atom.

Description: It is well known that two-dimensional macroscale shear flows are susceptible to instabilities leading to macroscale vortical structures. The linear and nonlinear fate of such a macroscale flow in a strongly coupled medium is a fundamental problem. A popular example of a strongly coupled medium is a dusty plasma, often modelled as a Yukawa liquid. Recently, laboratory experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) studies of shear flows in strongly coupled Yukawa liquids indicated the occurrence of strong molecular shear heating, which is found to reduce the coupling strength exponentially leading to the destruction of macroscale vorticity. To understand the vortex dynamics of strongly coupled molecular fluids undergoing macroscale shear flows and molecular shear heating, MD simulation has been performed, which allows the macroscopic vortex dynamics to evolve, while at the same time “removes” the microscopically generated heat without using the velocity degrees of freedom. We demonstrate that by using a configurational thermostat in a novel way, the microscale heat generated by shear flow can be thermostatted out efficiently without compromising the large scale vortex dynamics. In the present work, using MD simulations, a comparative study of shear flow evolution in Yukawa liquids in the presence and absence of molecular or microscopic heating is presented for a prototype shear flow, namely, Kolmogorov flow.

Description: C-2U is a high-confinement, advanced beam driven field-reversed configuration plasma experiment which sustains the configuration for 〉5 ms, in excess of typical MHD and fast particle instability times, as well as fast particle slowing down times. Fast particle dynamics are critical to C-2U performance and several diagnostics have been deployed to characterize the fast particle population, including neutron and proton detectors. To increase our understanding of fast particle behavior and supplement existing diagnostics, an E ∥ B neutral particle analyzer was installed, which simultaneously measures H 0 and D 0 flux with large dynamic range and high energy resolution. Here we report the commissioning of the E ∥ B analyzer, confirm the instrument has energy resolution Δ E / E ≲ 0 . 1 and a dynamic range E max / E min ∼ 30 , and present measurements of initial testing on C-2U.

Description: A computational modeling study of high-voltage nanosecond pulsed microdischarge in xenon gas at 10 atm is presented. The discharge is observed to develop as two streamers originating from the cathode and the anode, and propagating toward each other until they merge to form a single continuous discharge channel. The peak plasma density obtained in the simulations is ∼10 24  m −3 , i.e., the ionization degree of plasma does not exceed 1%. The influence of the initial gas pre-ionization is established. It is seen that an increase in the seeded plasma density results in an increase in the streamer propagation velocity and an increase in the plasma density obtained after the merging of two streamers.

Description: Compact pulsed power system based on compact Marx generator is widely used in terms of drive resistance and capacitive loads. This system usually adopts high performance components such as high energy density capacitors, compact switches, and integrated structure. Traditional compact Marx generator can only output double-exponential pulse profile. In this paper a compact, low-impedance Marx module which can output rectangular pulse profile is design and tested. This module has multiple circuits of different discharge frequencies in parallel to generate quasi-rectangular pulse. Discharge characteristic of an ideal module with infinite branches is calculated theoretically. A module with two branches has been designed and tested. Test results show that the impedance of the module is 1.2 Ω. When charging voltage is 100.6 kV and load resistance is 1 Ω, the peak output pulse is 45.2 kV voltage, the peak power is about 2 GW, the pulse width is about 130 ns, and the rise time is about 35 ns. The energy density and power density of the module are 15 kJ/m 3 and 140 GW/m 3 , respectively.

Description: An optical flux sensor, based on the fluorescence properties of materials and nanoparticles, has been developed to control the deposition rate in thin film deposition systems. Using a simple diode laser and a photomultiplier tube with a light filter, we report the detection of gallium atoms and CdSe-ZnS quantum dots. This setup has a high sensitivity and reproducibility.

Description: One of the mechanisms for generating electromagnetic plasma waves (Z-mode and LO-mode) is mode conversion from electrostatic waves into electromagnetic waves in inhomogeneous plasma. Herein, we study a condition required for mode conversion of electrostatic waves propagating purely perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field, by numerically solving the full dispersion relation. An approximate model is derived describing the coupling between electrostatic waves (hot plasma Bernstein mode) and Z-mode waves at the upper hybrid frequency. The model is used to study conditions required for mode conversion from electrostatic waves (electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic waves, including Bernstein mode) into electromagnetic plasma waves (LO-mode). It is shown that for mode conversion to occur in inhomogeneous plasma, the angle between the boundary surface and the magnetic field vector should be within a specific range. The range of the angle depends on the norm of the k vector of waves at the site of mode conversion in the inhomogeneous region. The present study reveals that inhomogeneity alone is not a sufficient condition for mode conversion from electrostatic waves to electromagnetic plasma waves and that the angle between the magnetic field and the density gradient plays an important role in the conversion process.

Description: We report the discovery of an envelope Hamiltonian describing the charged-particle dynamics in general linear coupled lattices.

Description: Radiochromic films (RCF) are commonly used in dosimetry for a wide range of radiation sources (electrons, protons, and photons) for medical, industrial, and scientific applications. They are multi-layered, which includes plastic substrate layers and sensitive layers that incorporate a radiation-sensitive dye. Quantitative dose can be retrieved by digitizing the film, provided that a prior calibration exists. Here, to calibrate the newly developed EBT3 and HDv2 RCFs from Gafchromic™, we used the Stanford Medical LINAC to deposit in the films various doses of 10 MeV photons, and by scanning the films using three independent EPSON Precision 2450 scanners, three independent EPSON V750 scanners, and two independent EPSON 11000XL scanners. The films were scanned in separate RGB channels, as well as in black and white, and film orientation was varied. We found that the green channel of the RGB scan and the grayscale channel are in fact quite consistent over the different models of the scanner, although this comes at the cost of a reduction in sensitivity (by a factor ∼2.5 compared to the red channel). To allow any user to extend the absolute calibration reported here to any other scanner, we furthermore provide a calibration curve of the EPSON 2450 scanner based on absolutely calibrated, commercially available, optical density filters.

Description: The anode pulse of a photomultiplier tube (PMT) coupled with a scintillator is used for pulse shape discrimination (PSD) analysis. We have developed a novel emulation technique for the PMT anode pulse based on optical photon transport and a PMT response function. The photon transport was calculated using Geant4 Monte Carlo code and the response function with a BC408 organic scintillator. The obtained percentage RMS value of the difference between the measured and simulated pulse with suitable scintillation properties using GSO:Ce (0.4, 1.0, 1.5 mol%), LaBr 3 :Ce and BGO scintillators were 2.41%, 2.58%, 2.16%, 2.01%, and 3.32%, respectively. The proposed technique demonstrates high reproducibility of the measured pulse and can be applied to simulation studies of various radiation measurements.

Description: A diagnostic is developed for determining the hotspot mix in inertial confinement fusion experiments. A multi-channel pinhole camera measures Bremsstrahlung emissions from implosion capsules ranging from 6 keV to 30 keV and records an image of the hotspot. Meanwhile, a planar crystal spectrometer measures Ar line emissions used to deduce the electron density of the hotspot. An X-ray streaked camera records the burn duration. With the Bremsstrahlung spectrum, electron density, hotspot volume, and burn duration, the mix quantity is determined by solving a pair of linear equations. This inferred mix amount has an uncertainty due to the uncertainty of the electron density, but with the help of the measured neutron product, the most likely mix quantity value can be determined. This technique is applied to experimental images to infer the quantity of CH ablator mix into the hotspot.

Description: Sixty-four neutral density filters constructed of metal plates with 88 apertures of varying diameter have been radiographed with a soft x-ray source and CCD camera at National Security Technologies, Livermore. An analysis of the radiographs fits the radial dependence of the apertures’ image intensities to sigmoid functions, which can describe the rapidly decreasing intensity towards the apertures’ edges. The fitted image intensities determine the relative attenuation value of each filter. Absolute attenuation values of several imaged filters, measured in situ during calibration experiments, normalize the relative quantities which are now used in analyses of neutron spectrometer data at the National Ignition Facility.

Description: The atmospheric pressure non-equilibrium plasma has shown a significant potential as a novel food decontamination technology. In this paper, we report a computational study of the intersection of negative streamer produced by air dielectric barrier discharge with bacteria biofilm on an apple surface. The structure, conductivities, and permittivities of bacteria biofilm have been considered in the Poisson's equations and transportation equations of charge and neutral species to realize self-consistent transportation of plasma between electrode and charging surfaces of apple. We find that the ionization near the biofilm facilitates the propagation of negative streamer when the streamer head is 1 mm from the biofilm. The structure of the biofilm results in the non-uniform distribution of ROS and RNS captured by flux and time fluence of these reactive species. The mean free path of charged species in μ m scale permitted the plasma penetrate into the cavity of the biofilm, therefore, although the density of ROS and RNS decrease by 6–7 order of magnitude, the diffusion results in the uniform distribution of ROS and RNS inside the cavity during the pulse off period.

Description: A design to extend the unique divertor Thomson scattering system on DIII-D to allow measurements of electron temperature and density in high triangularity plasmas is presented. Access to this region is selectable on a shot-by-shot basis by redirecting the laser beam of the existing divertor Thomson system inboard — beneath the lower floor using a moveable, high-damage threshold, in-vacuum mirror — and then redirecting again vertically. The currently measured divertor region remains available with this mirror retracted. Scattered light is collected from viewchords near the divertor floor using in-vacuum, high temperature optical elements and relayed through the port window, before being coupled into optical fiber bundles. At higher elevations from the floor, measurements are made by dynamically re-focusing the existing divertor system collection optics. Nd:YAG laser timing, analysis of the scattered light spectrum via polychromators, data acquisition, and calibration are all handled by existing systems or methods of the current multi-pulse Thomson scattering system. Existing filtered polychromators with 7 spectral channels are employed to provide maximum measurement breadth ( T e in the range of 0.5 eV–2 keV, n e in the range of 5 × 10 18 –1 × 10 21 m 3 ) for both low T e in detachment and high T e measurement up beyond the separatrix.

Description: The effort to obtain a set of MagnetoHydroDynamic (MHD) equations for a magnetized collisionless plasma was started nearly 60 years ago by Chew et al . [Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 236 (1204), 112–118 (1956)]. Many attempts have been made ever since. Here, we will show the derivation of a set of these equations from the gyrokinetic perspective, which we call it gyrokinetic MHD, and it is different from the conventional ideal MHD. However, this new set of equations still has conservation properties and, in the absence of fluctuations, recovers the usual MHD equilibrium. Furthermore, the resulting equations allow for the plasma pressure balance to be further modified by finite-Larmor-radius effects in regions with steep pressure gradients. The present work is an outgrowth of the paper on “Alfven Waves in Gyrokinetic Plasmas” by Lee and Qin [Phys. Plasmas 10 , 3196 (2003)].

Description: Ion acceleration in near-critical plasmas driven by intense laser pulses is investigated theoretically and numerically. A theoretical model has been given for clarification of the ion acceleration dynamics in relation to different laser and target parameters. Two distinct regimes have been identified, where ions are accelerated by, respectively, the laser-induced shock wave in the weakly driven regime (comparatively low laser intensity) and the nonlinear solitary wave in the strongly driven regime (comparatively high laser intensity). Two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations show that quasi-monoenergetic proton beams with a peak energy of 94.6 MeV and an energy spread 15.8% are obtained by intense laser pulses at intensity I 0  = 3 × 10 20  W/cm 2 and pulse duration τ  = 0.5 ps in the strongly driven regime, which is more advantageous than that got in the weakly driven regime. In addition, 233 MeV proton beams with narrow spread can be produced by extending τ to 1.0 ps in the strongly driven regime.

Description: The validity of virial analysis to infer global MHD equilibrium poloidal beta β p and internal inductance ℓ i from external magnetics measurements is examined for low aspect ratio configurations with A 〈 2 . Numerical equilibrium studies at varied aspect ratio are utilized to validate the technique at finite aspect ratio. The effect of applying high- A approximations to low- A experimental data is quantified and demonstrates significant over-estimation of stored energy (factors of 2–10) in spherical tokamak geometry. Experimental approximations to equilibrium-dependent volume integral terms in the analysis are evaluated at low- A . Highly paramagnetic configurations are found to be inadequately represented through the virial mean radius parameter R T . Alternate formulations for inferring β p and ℓ i that are independent of R T to avoid this difficulty are presented for the static isotropic limit. These formulations are suitable for fast estimation of tokamak stored energy components at low aspect ratio using virial analysis.

Description: In the initial alignment process of strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS), large misalignment angles always bring nonlinear problem, which can usually be processed using the scaled unscented Kalman filter (SUKF). In this paper, the problem of large misalignment angles in SINS alignment is further investigated, and the strong tracking scaled unscented Kalman filter (STSUKF) is proposed with fixed parameters to improve convergence speed, while these parameters are artificially constructed and uncertain in real application. To further improve the alignment stability and reduce the parameters selection, this paper proposes a fuzzy adaptive strategy combined with STSUKF (FUZZY-STSUKF). As a result, initial alignment scheme of large misalignment angles based on FUZZY-STSUKF is designed and verified by simulations and turntable experiment. The results show that the scheme improves the accuracy and convergence speed of SINS initial alignment compared with those based on SUKF and STSUKF.

Description: An optical Thomson scattering diagnostic has been designed for the National Ignition Facility to characterize under-dense plasmas. We report on the design of the system and the expected performance for different target configurations. The diagnostic is designed to spatially and temporally resolve the Thomson scattered light from laser driven targets. The diagnostic will collect scattered light from a 50 × 50 × 200 μ m volume. The optical design allows operation with different probe laser wavelengths. A deep-UV probe beam ( λ 0 = 210 nm) will be used to Thomson scatter from electron plasma densities of ∼5 × 10 20 cm −3 while a 3 ω probe will be used for plasma densities of ∼1 × 10 19 cm −3 . The diagnostic package contains two spectrometers: the first to resolve Thomson scattering from ion acoustic wave fluctuations and the second to resolve scattering from electron plasma wave fluctuations. Expected signal levels relative to background will be presented for typical target configurations (hohlraums and a planar foil).

Description: This paper presents a scheme for the generation of high power terahertz radiation by the beating of two femtosecond super Gaussian lasers in plasma having dc electric field in the transverse direction. In this mechanism, a strong nonlinear ponderomotive force acts on the plasma electrons at the frequency difference of the two lasers ( ω 1 − ω 2 ) that imparts a nonlinear oscillatory velocity to plasma electrons which further result in the generation of a nonlinear current at this difference frequency (lying in THz domain). The dynamical equations governing the generation of THz waves have been solved semi-analytically; the result shows that the amplitude of the generated waves is considerably enhanced in the presence of dc electric field, and the index of super Gaussian beams also plays a keen role in governing the yield of THz waves.

Description: We present results from the comparison of high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) simulations with data from the implosions of inertial confinement fusion capsules with separated reactants performed on the OMEGA laser facility. Each capsule, referred to as a “CD Mixcap,” is filled with tritium and has a polystyrene (CH) shell with a deuterated polystyrene (CD) layer whose burial depth is varied. In these implosions, fusion reactions between deuterium and tritium ions can occur only in the presence of atomic mix between the gas fill and shell material. The simulations feature accurate models for all known experimental asymmetries and do not employ any adjustable parameters to improve agreement with experimental data. Simulations are performed with the RAGE radiation-hydrodynamics code using an Implicit Large Eddy Simulation (ILES) strategy for the hydrodynamics. We obtain good agreement with the experimental data, including the DT/TT neutron yield ratios used to diagnose mix, for all burial depths of the deuterated shell layer. Additionally, simulations demonstrate good agreement with converged simulations employing explicit models for plasma diffusion and viscosity, suggesting that the implicit sub-grid model used in ILES is sufficient to model these processes in these experiments. In our simulations, mixing is driven by short-wavelength asymmetries and longer-wavelength features are responsible for developing flows that transport mixed material towards the center of the hot spot. Mix material transported by this process is responsible for most of the mix (DT) yield even for the capsule with a CD layer adjacent to the tritium fuel. Consistent with our previous results, mix does not play a significant role in TT neutron yield degradation; instead, this is dominated by the displacement of fuel from the center of the implosion due to the development of turbulent instabilities seeded by long-wavelength asymmetries. Through these processes, the long-wavelength asymmetries degrade TT yield more than the DT yield and thus bring DT/TT neutron yield ratios into agreement with experiment. Finally, we present a detailed comparison of the flows in 2D and 3D simulations.

Description: Anomalous current pinch, in addition to the anomalous diffusion due to stochastic magnetic perturbations, is theoretically found, which may qualitatively explain the recent DIII-D experiment on resonant magnetic field perturbation. The anomalous current pinch, which may resolve the long-standing issue of seed current in a fully bootstrapped tokamak, is also discussed for the electrostatic turbulence.

Description: The parametric decay of large amplitude non-resonant beating mode of counter-propagating lasers (having a frequency difference ≥ 2 ω p ) into a pair of upper hybrid waves is studied in magnetized plasma. One of the excited upper hybrid waves (known as fast wave) having phase velocity close to c , can be utilized for electron acceleration. The coupled mode equations of fast and slow upper hybrid waves are modelled by solving equation of motion and continuity equation simultaneously (using the density perturbation technique) to derive the dispersion relation for two plasmon decay process. The growth rate of the present excitation process using right circularly polarized beating lasers is higher as compared with the growth rates of the excitation processes using ordinary and extraordinary beating lasers. However, the growth rate is not significant in the case of left circularly polarized beating lasers. The growth rate ∼ 0.15 ω p s − 1 is achieved for right circularly polarized beating lasers having v 1 , 2 / c = 0.1 for scattering angle θ s ∼ 160 ° and applied magnetic field ∼ 90 T. The growth rate of fast upper hybrid wave was reduced with the applied axial magnetic field in the present case. The present work is not only significant for the electron acceleration by fast upper hybrid wave but also for diagnostic purpose.

Description: This work presents a numerical investigation, using a 1-D fluid model, on the generation and loss of oxygen-related species and the spatial-temporal evolutions of the species densities in the atmospheric-pressure pulsed dielectric barrier discharge in the argon/oxygen mixture. The reaction pathways as well as their contributions to the generation and loss of oxygen-related species are given. The considered oxygen-related species include O, O( 1 D), O 2 ( 1 Δ g ), O 3 , O + , O 2 + , O − , O 2 − , and O 3 − . The following significant results are obtained. O, O( 1 D), O 2 ( 1 Δ g ), and O − are produced mainly via the electron impact with O 2 . Ar + plays an essential role in the generation of O + and O 2 + . Almost all of O 3 derives from the reaction O 2 + O 2 + O → O 3 + O 2 . The O 3 -related reactions produce an essential proportion of O 2 − and O 3 − . The substantial loss of O − , O 2 − , and O 3 − is induced by their reactions with O 2 + . Loss of O + , O, and O( 1 D) is mainly due to their reactions with O 2 , loss of O 2 ( 1 Δ g ) due to O 2 ( 1 Δ g ) impacts with O 3 as well as the de-excitation reactions between O 2 ( 1 Δ g ) and e, O 2 , and O, and loss of O 3 due to the reactions between O 3 and other neutral species. In addition, the densities of O + and O( 1 D) present two obvious peaks at the pulse duration, but the densities of O 2 + , O, O 2 ( 1 Δ g ), and O 3 are almost unchanged. The densities of negative oxygen ions increase at the pulse duration and then decline. O − density is obviously large nearby the dielectric surfaces and the densities of O 2 − and O 3 − present generally uniform distributions.

Description: Theory for neoclassical toroidal plasma viscosity has been developed to model transport phenomena, especially, toroidal plasma rotation for tokamaks with broken symmetry. Theoretical predictions are in agreement with the results of the numerical codes in the large aspect ratio limit. The theory has since been extended to include effects of finite aspect ratio and finite plasma β . Here, β is the ratio of the plasma thermal pressure to the magnetic field pressure. However, there are cases where the radial wavelength of the self-consistent perturbed magnetic field strength B on the perturbed magnetic surface is comparable to the width of the trapped particles, i.e., bananas. To accommodate those cases, the theory for neoclassical toroidal plasma viscosity is further extended here to include the effects of the finite banana width. The extended theory is developed using the orbit averaged drift kinetic equation in the low collisionality regimes. The results of the theory can now be used to model plasma transport, including toroidal plasma rotation, in real finite aspect ratio, and finite plasma β tokamaks with the radial wavelength of the perturbed symmetry breaking magnetic field strength comparable to or longer than the banana width.

Description: Computer based diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease can be performed by dint of the analysis of the functional and structural changes in the brain. Multispectral image fusion deliberates upon fusion of the complementary information while discarding the surplus information to achieve a solitary image which encloses both spatial and spectral details. This paper presents a Non-Sub-sampled Contourlet Transform (NSCT) based multispectral image fusion model for computer-aided diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. The proposed fusion methodology involves color transformation of the input multispectral image. The multispectral image in YIQ color space is decomposed using NSCT followed by dimensionality reduction using modified Principal Component Analysis algorithm on the low frequency coefficients. Further, the high frequency coefficients are enhanced using non-linear enhancement function. Two different fusion rules are then applied to the low-pass and high-pass sub-bands: Phase congruency is applied to low frequency coefficients and a combination of directive contrast and normalized Shannon entropy is applied to high frequency coefficients. The superiority of the fusion response is depicted by the comparisons made with the other state-of-the-art fusion approaches (in terms of various fusion metrics).

Description: The comparison between experimental data of ion distribution function at the parent gas plasma obtained by the authors and results of calculations presented by Lampe et al. are considered. It is shown that the experimental and calculated angular distributions of ions in the case at least of argon differ considerably. The analysis of Lampe et al. assumptions showed that the main reasons of these discrepancies were the assumptions of ion distribution function independence on field orientation and independence of charge exchange cross-section on the relative velocity of ion and atom.

Description: Time-delayed transition of normal-to-abnormal glow was investigated in discharge between spoke-like pins and ultrapure water by applying AC-driven power at a frequency of 14.3 kHz at atmospheric pressure. The normal-to-abnormal transition can be recognized from the slope changes of current density, gas temperature, electrode temperature, and OH density. The slope changes took place in tens of minutes rather than just after discharge, in other words, the transition was delayed. The time-delay of the transition was caused by the interaction between the plasma and water. The plasma affected water properties, and then the water affected plasma properties.

Description: We present an efficient and inexpensive method for calculating the time resolved emission spectrum from the time integrated spectrum by monitoring the time evolution of neutral and singly ionized species in the laser produced plasma. To validate our assertion of extracting time resolved information from the time integrated spectrum, the time evolution data of the Cu II line at 481.29 nm and the molecular bands of AlO in the wavelength region (450–550 nm) have been studied. The plasma parameters were also estimated from the time resolved and time integrated spectra. A comparison of the results clearly reveals that the time resolved information about the plasma parameters can be extracted from the spectra registered with a time integrated spectrograph. Our proposed method will make the laser induced plasma spectroscopy robust and a low cost technique which is attractive for industry and environmental monitoring.

Description: We report on experimental observations of flow induced large amplitude dust-acoustic shock waves in a complex plasma. The experiments have been carried out in a Π shaped direct current glow discharge experimental device using kaolin particles as the dust component in a background of Argon plasma. A strong supersonic flow of the dust fluid is induced by adjusting the pumping speed and neutral gas flow into the device. An isolated copper wire mounted on the cathode acts as a potential barrier to the flow of dust particles. A sudden change in the gas flow rate is used to trigger the onset of high velocity dust acoustic shocks whose dynamics are captured by fast video pictures of the evolving structures. The physical characteristics of these shocks are delineated through a parametric scan of their dynamical properties over a range of flow speeds and potential hill heights. The observed evolution of the shock waves and their propagation characteristics are found to compare well with model numerical results based on a modified Korteweg-de-Vries-Burgers type equation.

Description: The structure of the drift-island surface of passing fast ions (PFIs) is investigated in the presence of the resonant interaction with a magnetic island. Two overlapping regions of the drift-island surface and the magnetic island surface are found, one corresponding to local overlapping region and the other to non-local one. Here, the word “nonlocal” denotes that the resonances in the core plasma can have effects on the PFIs near the plasma boundary, while the “local” represents that the PFIs just near the resonant location are influenced. The nonlocal overlapping constructs a transport path along which the PFIs can become losses. There are three kinds of drift-island surfaces to join in forming the transport paths. A pitch angle region, which is called pitch angle gap, is found near the plasma boundary, where the drift-island surface cannot be formed and few PFIs are lost. The pitch-angle selective features of PFI losses are obtained by analyzing the three kinds of drift-island surfaces. The coupling between the crowd drift island surfaces and the collision can induce the prompt losses of PFIs and rapidly slowing down of PFI energy. The time of the prompt losses and the slowing down rate are calculated. Qualitatively, the theoretical results are in well agreement with the experimental observations in ASDEX Upgrade [M. García-Muñoz et al. , Nucl. Fusion 47 , L10 (2007)].

Description: A dimensionless empirical scaling for intrinsic toroidal rotation is given: M A ∼ β N ρ * , where M A is the toroidal velocity divided by the Alfvén velocity, β N is the usual normalized β value, and ρ* is the ion gyroradius divided by the minor radius. This scaling describes well experimental data from DIII-D and also some published data from C-Mod and JET. The velocity used in this scaling is in an outer location in minor radius, outside of the interior core and inside of the large gradient edge region in H-mode conditions. This scaling establishes the basic magnitude of the intrinsic toroidal rotation, and its relation to the rich variety of rotation profiles that can be realized for intrinsic conditions is discussed. This scaling has some similarities to existing dimensioned scalings, both the Rice scaling [J. E. Rice et al. , Phys. Plasmas 7 , 1825 (2000)] and the scaling of Parra et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108 , 095001 (2012)]. These relationships are described.

Description: The equilibrium properties of three-dimensional ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) are investigated. Incompressible and compressible flows are considered. The governing equations are taken in a steady state such that the magnetic field is parallel to the plasma flow. Equations of stationary equilibrium for both of incompressible and compressible MHD flows are derived and described in a mathematical mode. For incompressible MHD flows, Alfvénic and non-Alfvénic flows with constant and variable magnetofluid density are investigated. For Alfvénic incompressible flows, the general three-dimensional solutions are determined with the aid of two potential functions of the velocity field. For non-Alfvénic incompressible flows, the stationary equilibrium equations are reduced to two differential constraints on the potential functions, flow velocity, magnetofluid density, and the static pressure. Some examples which may be of some relevance to axisymmetric confinement systems are presented. For compressible MHD flows, equations of the stationary equilibrium are derived with the aid of a single potential function of the velocity field. The existence of three-dimensional solutions for these MHD flows is investigated. Several classes of three-dimensional exact solutions for several cases of nonlinear equilibrium equations are presented.

Description: The Thomson scattering diagnostic on the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) records excessive levels of stray Nd:YAG laser light. Stray light saturates the 1064 nm spectral channel in all polychromators, which prevents absolute electron density measurements via Rayleigh scattering calibration. Furthermore, stray light contaminates adjacent spectral channels for r / a ≥ 0.75, which renders the diagnostic unable to make electron temperature measurements at these radii. In situ measurements of stray light levels during a vacuum vessel vent are used to identify stray light sources and strategies for reduction of stray light levels. Numerical modeling using Zemax OpticStudio supports these measurements. The model of the vacuum vessel and diagnostic includes synthetic collection optics to enable direct comparison of measured and simulated stray light levels. Modeling produces qualitatively similar stray light distributions to MST measurements, and quantifies the mitigation effects of stray light mitigation strategies prior to implementation.

Description: A polarimeter has been designed to measure Faraday rotation and help to understand the profile of its safety factor, q, on the recently built SPECTOR magnetized target fusion machine at General Fusion. The polarimeter uses two counter-rotating, circularly polarized, 118.8 μ m beams to probe the plasma. Grad-Shafranov simulations have been used to investigate the effect of measurement error and chord geometry.

Description: Mechanical stimulation appears to be a critical modulator for many aspects of biology, both of living tissue and cells. The cell-stretcher, a novel device for the mechanical uniaxial stimulation of populations of cells, is described. The system is based on a variable stroke cam-lever-tappet mechanism which allows the delivery of cyclic stimuli with frequencies of up to 10 Hz and deformation between 1% and 20%. The kinematics is presented and a simulation of the dynamics of the system is shown, in order to compute the contact forces in the mechanism. The cells, following cultivation and preparation, are plated on an ad hoc polydimethylsiloxane membrane which is then loaded on the clamps of the cell-stretcher via force-adjustable magnetic couplings. In order to show the viability of the experimentation and biocompatibility of the cell-stretcher, a set of two in vitro tests were performed. Human epithelial carcinoma cell line A431 and Adult Mouse Ventricular Fibroblasts (AMVFs) from a dual reporter mouse were subject to 0.5 Hz, 24 h cyclic stretching at 15% strain, and to 48 h stimulation at 0.5 Hz and 15% strain, respectively. Visual analysis was performed on A431, showing definite morphological changes in the form of cellular extroflections in the direction of stimulation compared to an unstimulated control. A cytometric analysis was performed on the AMVF population. Results show a post-stimulation live-dead ratio deviance of less than 6% compared to control, which proves that the environment created by the cell-stretcher is suitable for in vitro experimentation.

Description: The kinematics of a 1-D electron hole is studied using a novel Particle-In-Cell simulation code. A hole tracking technique enables us to follow the trajectory of a fast-moving solitary hole and study quantitatively hole acceleration and coupling to ions. We observe a transient at the initial stage of hole formation when the hole accelerates to several times the cold-ion sound speed. Artificially imposing slow ion speed changes on a fully formed hole causes its velocity to change even when the ion stream speed in the hole frame greatly exceeds the ion thermal speed, so there are no reflected ions. The behavior that we observe in numerical simulations agrees very well with our analytic theory of hole momentum conservation and the effects of “jetting.”

Description: Atmospheric pressure H 2 O / O 2 gliding arc plasma is generated by a 88   Hz , 6   kV AC power supply. The properties of the produced plasma are investigated by optical emission spectroscopy. The relative intensity, rotational, vibrational, excitation temperatures and electron density are studied as a function of applied voltage, electrode spacing, and oxygen flow rate. The rotational and vibrational temperatures are determined simulating the OH ( A 2 Σ + ( v ″ = 0 ) → X 2 Π ( v ′ = 0 ) ) bands with the aid of LIFBASE simulation software. The excitation temperature is obtained from the CuI transition taking non-thermal equilibrium condition into account employing intensity ratio method. The electron density is approximated from the   H α Stark broadening using the Voigt profile fitting method. It is observed that the rotational and vibrational temperatures decrease with increasing electrode spacing and O 2 flow rate, but increase with the applied voltage. The excitation temperature is found to increase with increasing applied voltage and O 2 flow rate, but decrease with electrode spacing. The electron density increases with increasing applied voltage while it seems to be in a downward trend with increasing electrode spacing and O 2 flow rate.

Description: This paper presents the approximate analytic solutions of current density for annulus and circle cathodes. The current densities of annulus and circle cathodes are derived approximately from first principles, which are in agreement with simulation results. The large scaling laws can predict current densities of high current vacuum diodes including annulus and circle cathodes in practical applications. In order to discuss the relationship between current density and electric field on cathode surface, the existing analytical solutions of currents for concentric cylinder and sphere diodes are fitted from existing solutions relating with electric field enhancement factors. It is found that the space-charge-limited current density for the cathode with electric-field enhanced geometry can be written in a general form of J  =  g ( β E ) 2 J 0 , where J 0 is the classical (1D) Child-Langmuir current density, β E is the electric field enhancement factor, and g is the geometrical correction factor depending on the cathode geometry.

Description: Ion acceleration from the interaction of two intersecting intense laser pulses with an overdense plasma is investigated using a three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulation. It is found that, comparing with the single-pulse case, the charge of the resulting energetic ion bunch can be increased by more than an order of magnitude without much loss of quality. Dependence of the ion charge on the interaction parameters, including separation distance and incidence angles of the lasers, is considered. It is shown that the charge of the accelerated ion bunch can be optimized by controlling the degree of laser overlapping. The improved performance can be attributed to the enhanced laser intensity as well as stochastic heating of the accelerated electrons. Since at present the intensity of readily available lasers is limited, the two pulse scheme should be useful for realizing higher laser intensity in order to achieve higher-energy target normal sheath acceleration ions.

Description: The recent formulations of multi-region relaxed magnetohydrodynamics (MRxMHD) have generalized the famous Woltjer-Taylor states by incorporating a collection of “ideal barriers” that prevent global relaxation and flow. In this paper, we generalize MRxMHD with flow to include Hall effects, and thereby obtain the partially relaxed counterparts of the famous double Beltrami states as a special subset. The physical and mathematical consequences arising from the introduction of the Hall term are also presented. We demonstrate that our results (in the ideal MHD limit) constitute an important subset of ideal MHD equilibria, and we compare our approach against other variational principles proposed for deriving the partially relaxed states.

Description: Fluid-based models of collisional transport in multi-species plasmas have typically been applied to parameter regimes where a local thermal equilibrium is assumed. While this parameter regime is valid for low temperature and/or high density applications, it begins to fail as plasmas enter the collisionless regime and kinetic effects dominate the physics. A plasma model is presented that lays the foundation for extending the validity of the collisional fluid regime using an anisotropic 13-moment fluid model derived from the Pearson type-IV probability distribution. The model explicitly evolves the pressure tensor and heat flux vector along with the density and flow velocity to capture dynamics usually restricted to kinetic models. Each particle species is modeled individually and collectively coupled through electromagnetic and collisional interactions.

Description: The plasma equilibrium in a linear trap at β  ≈ 1 (or above the mirror-instability threshold) under the topology-conservation constraint evolves into a kind of diamagnetic “bubble.” This can take two forms: either the plasma body greatly expands in radius while containing the same magnetic flux, or, if the plasma radius is limited, the plasma distribution across flux-tubes changes, so that the same cross-section contains a greatly reduced flux. If the magnetic field of the trap is quasi-uniform around its minimum, the bubble can be made roughly cylindrical, with radius much larger than the radius of the corresponding vacuum flux-tube, and with non-paraxial ends. Then the effective mirror ratio of the diamagnetic trap becomes very large, but the cross-field transport increases. The confinement time can be found from solution of the system of equilibrium and transport equations and is shown to be τ E ≈ τ ∥ τ ⊥ . If the cross-field confinement is not too degraded by turbulence, this estimate in principle allows construction of relatively compact fusion reactors with lengths in the range of a few tens of meters. In many ways, the described diamagnetic confinement and the corresponding reactor parameters are similar to those claimed by the field-reversed configurations.

Description: We are developing x-ray Thomson scattering for applications in implosion experiments at the National Ignition Facility. In particular we have designed and fielded MACS, a high-efficiency, gated x-ray spectrometer at 7.5–10 keV [T. Döppner et al. , Rev. Sci. Instrum. 85 , 11D617 (2014)]. Here we report on two new Bragg crystals based on Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite (HOPG), a flat crystal and a dual-section cylindrically curved crystal. We have performed in situ calibration measurements using a brass foil target, and we used the flat HOPG crystal to measure Mo K-shell emission at 18 keV in 2nd order diffraction. Such high photon energy line emission will be required to penetrate and probe ultra-high-density plasmas or plasmas of mid-Z elements.

Description: The Helically Symmetric Experiment (HSX) has a number of active spectroscopy diagnostics. Due to the relatively large beam width compared to the plasma minor radius, it is difficult to achieve good spatial resolution at the core of the HSX plasma. This is due to the fact that the optical sightline cuts through many flux surfaces with varying field vectors within the beam. In order to compare the experimental results with theoretical models it is important to accurately model the beam width effects. A synthetic diagnostic has been developed for this purpose. This synthetic diagnostic calculates the effect of spot size and beam width on the measurements of quantities of interest, including radial electric field, flow velocity, and Stark polarization.

Description: We characterized the dissociation fraction of a thermal dissociation atomic hydrogen source by injecting the mixed atomic and molecular output of the source into an electron beam ion trap containing highly charged ions and recording the x-ray spectrum generated by charge exchange using a high-resolution x-ray calorimeter spectrometer. We exploit the fact that the charge exchange state-selective capture cross sections are very different for atomic and molecular hydrogen incident on the same ions, enabling a clear spectroscopic diagnostic of the neutral species.

Description: When a strong magnetic field diffuses into a solid metal, if the metal's resistance possesses an abrupt rise at some critical temperature and the magnetic field strength is above some critical value, the magnetic field will diffuse into the metal in the form of a sharp-front wave. Formulas for the critical conditions under which a sharp-front magnetic diffusion wave emerges and a formula for the wave-front velocity are derived in this work.

Description: The Brownian motion of a micro-particle, which is suspended in the sheath of a radio-frequency discharge, is studied by high-speed video microscopy. In this environment, stochastic heating by charge fluctuations is expected, which should lead to an anisotropic kinetic temperature of the particle with a preferential heating in the direction of the mean electric field in the sheath. The stochastic heating should become more effective at low gas pressures where cooling by the neutral gas becomes ineffective. Our refined experiments confirm the anisotropic heating and the temperature rise for diminishing pressure. Particle-in-cell simulations have guided us in modifying the gap width of the discharge and to specify the dependence of the plasma density on gas pressure as n i ∝ p 1 / 2 . Since the stochastic heating rate also depends on the life-time of charge fluctuations, a temperature scaling T kin ∝ p 3 / 2 results, which is in agreement with the experimental data. The experimental procedure to eliminate other spurious heating mechanisms is described in detail.

Description: The generation and control of high-quality proton bunches using focused intense laser pulse on an inverse cone target is investigated with a set of particle-in-cell simulations. The inverse cone is a high atomic number conical frustum with a thin solid top and open base, where the laser impinges onto the top surface directly, not down the open end of the cone. Results are compared with a simple planar target, where the proton angular distribution is very broad because of transverse divergence of the electromagnetic fields behind the target. For a conical target, hot electrons along the cone wall surface induce a transverse focusing sheath field. This field can effectively suppress the spatial spreading of the protons, resulting in a high-quality small-emittance, low-divergence proton beam. A slightly lower proton beam peak energy than that of a conventional planar target was also found.

Description: In an axisymmetric plasma, the conservation of canonical angular momentum constrains heavy ion beam probe (HIBP) trajectories such that measurement of the toroidal velocity component of secondary ions provides a localized determination of the poloidal flux at the volume where they originated. We have developed a prototype detector which is designed to determine the beam angle in one dimension through the detection of ion current landing on two parallel planes of detecting elements. A set of apertures creates a pattern of ion current on wires in the first plane and solid metal plates behind them; the relative amounts detected by the wires and plates determine the angle which beam ions enter the detector, which is used to infer the toroidal velocity component. The design evolved from a series of simulations within which we modeled ion beam velocity changes due to equilibrium and fluctuating magnetic fields, along with the ion beam profile and velocity dispersion, and studied how these and characteristics such as the size, cross section, and spacing of the detector elements affect performance.

Description: We have developed a single-shot mega-electronvolt ultrafast-electron-diffraction system to measure the structural dynamics of warm dense matter. The electron probe in this system is featured by a kinetic energy of 3.2 MeV and a total charge of 20 fC, with the FWHM pulse duration and spot size at sample of 350 fs and 120 μ m respectively. We demonstrate its unique capability by visualizing the atomic structural changes of warm dense gold formed from a laser-excited 35-nm freestanding single-crystal gold foil. The temporal evolution of the Bragg peak intensity and of the liquid signal during solid-liquid phase transition are quantitatively determined. This experimental capability opens up an exciting opportunity to unravel the atomic dynamics of structural phase transitions in warm dense matter regime.

Description: The use of a gas cell as a target for laser wakefield acceleration (LWFA) offers the possibility to obtain stable and manageable laser-plasma interaction process, a mandatory condition for practical applications of this emerging technique, especially in multi-stage accelerators. In order to obtain full control of the gas particle number density in the interaction region, thus allowing for a long term stable and manageable LWFA, real-time monitoring is necessary. In fact, the ideal gas law cannot be used to estimate the particle density inside the flow cell based on the preset backing pressure and the room temperature because the gas flow depends on several factors like tubing, regulators, and valves in the gas supply system, as well as vacuum chamber volume and vacuum pump speed/throughput. Here, second-harmonic interferometry is applied to measure the particle number density inside a flow gas cell designed for LWFA. The results demonstrate that real-time monitoring is achieved and that using low backing pressure gas (

Description: We report the calibration of the Orion High-Resolution X-ray (OHREX) imaging crystal spectrometer at the EBIT-I electron beam ion trap at Livermore. Two such instruments, dubbed OHREX-1 and OHREX-2, are fielded for plasma diagnostics at the Orion laser facility in the United Kingdom. The OHREX spectrometer can simultaneously house two spherically bent crystals with a radius of curvature of r = 67.2 cm. The focusing properties of the spectrometer allow both for larger distance to the source due to the increase in collected light and for observation of extended sources. OHREX is designed to cover a 2.5°–3° spectral range at Bragg angles around 51.3°. The typically high resolving powers at these large Bragg angles are ideally suited for line shape diagnostics. For instance, the nominal resolving power of the instrument (〉10 000) is much higher than the effective resolving power associated with the Doppler broadening due to the temperature of the trapped ions in EBIT-I. The effective resolving power is only around 3000 at typical EBIT-I conditions, which nevertheless is sufficient to set up and test the instrument’s spectral characteristics. We have calibrated the spectral range for a number of crystals using well known reference lines in the first and second order and derived the ion temperatures from these lines. We have also made use of the 50 μ m size of the EBIT-I source width to characterize the spatial focusing of the spectrometer.

Description: A data correction method that can reduce finite pulse time effects in the flash method is presented in this article. Based on the physical model of the classical flash method, the present method uses the cutoff time moment of laser heating as zero point. This article investigated the case of constant heat flux heating by using the theoretical method and obtained a new calculation formula. The formula was tested in the case where half temperature rise time is less than the pulse time (i.e., τ 0 /t 0.5 〉 1), and the result was satisfactory. Theoretically, this method can correct the effect of any finite pulse time and significantly expand the scope of application of the flash method.

Description: A digital lock-in detection technique is commonly used to measure the amplitude and phase of a selected frequency signal. A technique that uses a square wave as the reference signal has an advantage over the one using a sinusoidal wave due to its easier implementation and higher computational efficiency. However, demodulating multiple-frequency composite signals using square wave reference may result in interference between channels. To avoid interference between channels and reduce the computational complexity, we modify the calculations and determine the optimal parameter settings of the low-pass filter and carrier frequency, as detailed in this paper. The results of our analysis show that when the length of the average filter and carrier frequencies are properly set, the interference between the channels is removed. This optimization produces the digital lock-in detection suitable for measuring multi-channel sensor signals.

Description: We present a novel method for extracting two-dimensional (2D) conductivity profiles from large electrochemical potential datasets acquired by scanning tunneling potentiometry of a 2D conductor. The method consists of a data preprocessing procedure to reduce/eliminate noise and a numerical conductivity reconstruction. The preprocessing procedure employs an inverse consistent image registration method to align the forward and backward scans of the same line for each image line followed by a total variation (TV) based image restoration method to obtain a (nearly) noise-free potential from the aligned scans. The preprocessed potential is then used for numerical conductivity reconstruction, based on a TV model solved by accelerated alternating direction method of multiplier. The method is demonstrated on a measurement of the grain boundary of a monolayer graphene, yielding a nearly 10:1 ratio for the grain boundary resistivity over bulk resistivity.

Description: A radiative divertor technique is planned for the NSTX-U tokamak to prevent excessive erosion and thermal damage of divertor plasma-facing components in H-mode plasma discharges with auxiliary heating up to 12 MW. In the radiative (partially detached) divertor, extrinsically seeded deuterium or impurity gases are used to increase plasma volumetric power and momentum losses. A real-time feedback control of the gas seeding rate is planned for discharges of up to 5 s duration. The outer divertor leg plasma electron temperature T e estimated spectroscopically in real time will be used as a control parameter. A vacuum ultraviolet spectrometer McPherson Model 251 with a fast charged-coupled device detector is developed for temperature monitoring between 5 and 30 eV, based on the Δ n = 0, 1 line intensity ratios of carbon, nitrogen, or neon ion lines in the spectral range 300–1600 Å. A collisional-radiative model-based line intensity ratio will be used for relative calibration. A real-time T e -dependent signal within a characteristic divertor detachment equilibration time of ∼10–15 ms is expected.

Description: Ultrasonic techniques such as pulse echo, vibrating reed, or resonant ultrasound spectroscopy are powerful probes not only for studying elasticity but also for investigating electronic and magnetic properties. Here, we report on the design of a high pressure ultrasonic pulse echo apparatus, based on a piston cylinder cell, with a simplified electronic setup that operates with a single coaxial cable and requires sample lengths of mm only. The design allows simultaneous measurements of ultrasonic velocities and attenuation coefficients up to a pressure of 1.5 GPa. We illustrate the performance of the cell by probing the phase diagram of a single crystal of the ferromagnetic superconductor UGe 2 .

Description: We investigate magnetic reconnection in systems simultaneously containing asymmetric (anti-parallel) magnetic fields, asymmetric plasma densities and temperatures, and arbitrary in-plane bulk flow of plasma in the upstream regions. Such configurations are common in the high-latitudes of Earth's magnetopause and in tokamaks. We investigate the convection speed of the X-line, the scaling of the reconnection rate, and the condition for which the flow suppresses reconnection as a function of upstream flow speeds. We use two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations to capture the mixing of plasma in the outflow regions better than is possible in fluid modeling. We perform simulations with asymmetric magnetic fields, simulations with asymmetric densities, and simulations with magnetopause-like parameters where both are asymmetric. For flow speeds below the predicted cutoff velocity, we find good scaling agreement with the theory presented in Doss et al. [J. Geophys. Res. 120 , 7748 (2015)]. Applications to planetary magnetospheres, tokamaks, and the solar wind are discussed.

Description: We describe some notable aspects of the light emission and afterglow properties in pulsed, high-density ( 10 18 – 10 20   m − 3 ) argon inductively coupled discharges initiated following fast gas injection. The plasma was created in a long, narrow discharge tube and then expanded downstream of the radiofrequency (RF) antenna into a large chamber. Fast camera images of the expanding plasma revealed a multi-phase time-dependent emission pattern that did not follow the ion density distribution. Dramatic differences in visible brightness were observed between discharges with and without an externally applied magnetic field. These phenomena were studied by tracking excited state populations using passive emission spectroscopy and are discussed in terms of the distinction between ionizing and recombining phase plasmas. Additionally, a method is presented for inferring the unknown neutral gas pressure in the discharge tube from the time-dependent visible and infrared emission measured by a simple photodiode placed near the antenna. In magnetized discharges created with fast gas injection, the downstream ion density rose by Δ n i ∼ 10 18   m − 3 in the first ∼ 100   μ s after the RF power was turned off. The conditions conducive to this afterglow density rise are investigated in detail, and the effect is tentatively attributed to pooling ionization.

Description: Microwave plasma apparatus is often of particular interest due to their superiority of low cost, electrode contamination free, and suitability for industrial production. However, there exist problems of unstable plasma and low electron density in conventional waveguide apparatus based on single port, due to low strength and non-uniformity of microwave field. This study proposes a novel dual-port tapered waveguide plasma apparatus based on power-combining technique, to improve the strength and uniformity of microwave field for the applications of plasma. A 3D model of microwave-induced plasma (field frequency 2.45 GHz) in argon at atmospheric pressure is presented. On the condition that the total input power is 500 W, simulations indicate that coherent power-combining will maximize the electric-field strength to 3.32 × 10 5  V/m and improve the uniformity of distributed microwave field, which raised 36.7% and 47.2%, respectively, compared to conventional waveguide apparatus of single port. To study the optimum conditions for industrial application, a 2D argon fluid model based on above structure is presented. It demonstrates that relatively uniform and high-density plasma is obtained at an argon flow rate of 200 ml/min. The contrastive result of electric-field distribution, electron density, and gas temperature is also valid and clearly proves the superiority of coherent power-combining to conventional technique in flow field.

Description: The dispersion relation and the dissipation process of the space-charge wave propagating in a bounded plasma such as a cylindrical waveguide are investigated by employing the longitudinal dielectric permittivity that contains the diffusivity based on the Dupree theory of turbulent plasma. We derived the dispersion relation for space-charge wave in terms of the radius of cylindrical waveguide and the roots of the Bessel function of the first kind which appears as the boundary condition. We find that the wave frequency for a lower-order root of the Bessel function is higher than that of a higher-order root. We also find that the dissipation is greatest for the lowest-order root, but it is suppressed significantly as the order of the root increases. The wave frequency and the dissipation process are enhanced as the radius of cylindrical waveguide increases. However, they are always smaller than the case of bulk plasma. We find that the diffusivity of turbulent plasma would enhance the damping of space-charge waves, especially, in the range of small wave number. For a large wave number, the diffusivity has little effect on the damping.

Description: A redefinition of the Lagrangian of a multi-particle system in fields reformulates the single-particle, kinetic, and fluid equations governing fluid and plasma dynamics as a single set of generalized Maxwell's equations and Ohm's law for canonical force-fields. The Lagrangian includes new terms representing the coupling between the motion of particle distributions, between distributions and electromagnetic fields, with relativistic contributions. The formulation shows that the concepts of self-organization and canonical helicity transport are applicable across single-particle, kinetic, and fluid regimes, at classical and relativistic scales. The theory gives the basis for comparing canonical helicity change to energy change in general systems. For example, in a fixed, isolated system subject to non-conservative forces, a species' canonical helicity changes less than total energy only if gradients in density or distribution function are shallow.

Description: A three-dimensional KP (Kadomtsev Petviashvili) equation is derived here describing the propagation of weakly nonlinear and weakly dispersive dust ion acoustic wave in a collisionless unmagnetized plasma consisting of warm adiabatic ions, static negatively charged dust grains, nonthermal electrons, and isothermal positrons. When the coefficient of the nonlinear term of the KP-equation vanishes an appropriate modified KP (MKP) equation describing the propagation of dust ion acoustic wave is derived. Again when the coefficient of the nonlinear term of this MKP equation vanishes, a further modified KP equation is derived. Finally, the stability of the solitary wave solutions of the KP and the different modified KP equations are investigated by the small- k perturbation expansion method of Rowlands and Infeld [J. Plasma Phys. 3 , 567 (1969); 8 , 105 (1972); 10 , 293 (1973); 33 , 171 (1985); 41 , 139 (1989); Sov. Phys. - JETP 38 , 494 (1974)] at the lowest order of k , where k is the wave number of a long-wavelength plane-wave perturbation. The solitary wave solutions of the different evolution equations are found to be stable at this order.

Description: The effect of charged dust particle and their size distribution on the propagation of electromagnetic wave in a dusty plasma is investigated. It is shown that the additional collision mechanism provided by charged dust particles can significantly alter the electromagnetic properties of a plasma, leading to the appearance of attenuation of electromagnetic wave through dusty plasma. The attenuation coefficient mainly depends on the dust density, radius, and the charge numbers on the dust surface. The results described here will be used to enhance understanding of electromagnetic wave propagation processed in space and laboratory dusty plasma.

Description: Measurement of angularly dependent spectra of betatron gamma-rays radiated by GeV electron beams from laser wakefield accelerators (LWFAs) are presented. The angle-resolved spectrum of betatron radiation was deconvolved from the position dependent data measured for a single laser shot with a broadband gamma-ray spectrometer comprising four-quadrant sectored range filters and an unfolding algorithm, based on the Monte Carlo code GEANT4. The unfolded gamma-ray spectra in the photon energy range of 0.1–10 MeV revealed an approximately isotropic angular dependence of the peak photon energy and photon energy-integrated fluence. As expected by the analysis of betatron radiation from LWFAs, the results indicate that unpolarized gamma-rays are emitted by electrons undergoing betatron motion in isotropically distributed orbit planes.

Description: The optimum scheme for geometric phase measurement in EAST Tokamak is proposed in this paper. The theoretical values of geometric phase for the probe beams of EAST Polarimeter-Interferometer (POINT) system are calculated by path integration in parameter space. Meanwhile, the influences of some controllable parameters on geometric phase are evaluated. The feasibility and challenge of distinguishing geometric effect in the POINT signal are also assessed in detail.

Description: A technique for measuring residual motion during the stagnation phase of an indirectly driven inertial confinement experiment has been implemented. This method infers a velocity from spatially and temporally resolved images of the X-ray emission from two orthogonal lines of sight. This work investigates the accuracy of recovering spatially resolved velocities from the X-ray emission data. A detailed analytical and numerical modeling of the X-ray emission measurement shows that the accuracy of this method increases as the displacement that results from a residual velocity increase. For the typical experimental configuration, signal-to-noise ratios, and duration of X-ray emission, it is estimated that the fractional error in the inferred velocity rises above 50% as the velocity of emission falls below 24  μ m/ns. By inputting measured parameters into this model, error estimates of the residual velocity as inferred from the X-ray emission measurements are now able to be generated for experimental data. Details of this analysis are presented for an implosion experiment conducted with an unintentional radiation flux asymmetry. The analysis shows a bright localized region of emission that moves through the larger emitting volume at a relatively higher velocity towards the location of the imposed flux deficit. This technique allows for the possibility of spatially resolving velocity flows within the so-called central hot spot of an implosion. This information would help to refine our interpretation of the thermal temperature inferred from the neutron time of flight detectors and the effect of localized hydrodynamic instabilities during the stagnation phase. Across several experiments, along a single line of sight, the average difference in magnitude and direction of the measured residual velocity as inferred from the X-ray and neutron time of flight detectors was found to be ∼13  μ m/ns and ∼14°, respectively.

Description: Experimental evidence has accumulated to indicate that wakefield acceleration (WFA) accompanies intense and sometimes coherent emission of radiation such as from betatron radiation. The investigation of this issue has additional impetus nowadays because we are learning (1) there is an additional acceleration process of the ponderomotive acceleration; (2) WFA may become relevant in much higher density regimes; (3) WFA has been proposed as the mechanism for extreme high energy cosmic ray acceleration and gamma ray bursts for active galactic nuclei. These require us to closely examine the radiative mechanisms in WFA anew. We report studies of radiation from wakefield (self-injected betatron) and ponderomotive (laser field) mechanisms in scalings of the frequency and intensity of the driver, as well as the plasma density.

Description: The simplified model is proposed to simulate numerically air breakdown in a focused microwave beam. The model is 1D from the mathematical point of view, but it takes into account the spatial non-uniformity of microwave field amplitude along the beam axis. The simulations are completed for different frequencies and different focal lengths of microwave beams. The results demonstrate complicated regimes of the breakdown evolution which represents a series of repeated ionization waves. These waves start at the focal point and propagate towards incident microwave radiation. The ionization wave parameters vary during propagation. At relatively low frequencies, the propagation regime of subsequent waves can also change qualitatively. Each next ionization wave is less pronounced than the previous one, and the breakdown evolution approaches the steady state with relatively small plasma density. The ionization wave parameters are sensitive to the weak source of external ionization, but the steady state is independent on such a source. As the beam focal length decreases, the stationary plasma density increases and the onset of the steady state occurs faster.

Description: We present optical Thomson scattering results that image for the first time in a single measurement the spatial transition from collective to non-collective scattering. Data were taken in the Phoenix laser laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles. The Raptor laser was used to ablate a carbon plasma, which was diagnosed with the frequency-doubled Phoenix laser serving as a Thomson scattering probe. Scattered light was collected from the laser plasma up to 10 cm from the target surface and up to 10 us after ablation, and imaged with high spatial and spectral resolutions. The results show a strong Thomson collective feature close to the target surface that smoothly transitions to a non-collective feature over several mm.

Description: In this study, the propagation characteristics of electromagnetic wave in a glow discharge plasma with dust particles are experimentally investigated. A helium alternating current glow discharge plasmas have been successfully generated. Measurements of the plasma parameters using Langmuir probes, in the absence of dust particles, provide plasma densities ( n e ) of 10 17  m −3 and electron temperatures ( T e ) ranging from 2 to 4 eV. Dusty plasmas are made by adding 30 nm radius aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) particles into the helium plasma. The density of the dust particle ( n d ) in the device is about 10 11 –10 12  m −3 . The propagation characteristics of electromagnetic waves are determined by a vector network analyzer with 4–6 GHz antennas. An apparent attenuation by the dust is observed, and the measured attenuation data are approximately in accordance with the theoretical calculations. The effects of gas pressure and input power on the propagation are also investigated. Results show that the transmission attenuation increases with the gas pressure and input power, the charged dust particles play a significant role in the microwave attenuation.

Description: Recent experiments with pure electron plasmas in a Malmberg–Penning trap have observed the algebraic damping of m  = 1 diocotron modes. Transport due to small field asymmetries produces a low density halo of electrons moving radially outward from the plasma core, and the mode damping begins when the halo reaches the resonant radius r  =  R w at the wall of the trap. The damping rate is proportional to the flux of halo particles through the resonant layer. The damping is related to, but distinct from, spatial Landau damping, in which a linear wave-particle resonance produces exponential damping. This paper explains with analytic theory the new algebraic damping due to particle transport by both mobility and diffusion. As electrons are swept around the “cat's eye” orbits of the resonant wave-particle interaction, they form a dipole ( m  = 1) density distribution. From this distribution, the electric field component perpendicular to the core displacement produces E × B-drift of the core back to the axis, that is, damps the m  = 1 mode. The parallel component produces drift in the azimuthal direction, that is, causes a shift in the mode frequency.