Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Plasma production”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Research and Development to Reduce Impurity Production and Transport of the Impurities to the Target in Linear Plasma Devices Using Helicon Plasma Sources

Linear plasma devices used to test plasma facing materials (PFMs) and components for fusion reactors are often suffering under the production of intrinsic impurities from the plasma source system. Most linear plasma devices use internal electrodes (hollow cathodes, reflex arc, or cascading arc), which typically are the source of the main impurities. The next-generation plasma generators use radio frequency (RF) plasma sources like helicons to avoid internal electrodes. However, high power operation of helicons has proven to result in impurity production due to the high rectified sheath voltages created. Depending on the plasma parameters and magnetic configuration, these impurities can be transported to the target and deposited there to unacceptable high levels. Here, in this contribution, the experimental results from Proto-MPEX are summarized, and the conclusions of the impurity source physics are given. Methods to reduce the impurity production, the impurity transport, and the net deposition on the target are presented. These methods to reduce the impurity production include Faraday screens to reduce the sheath voltage drop, high-Z refractory coatings to reduce the erosion yield, and wall conditioning methods. Methods to reduce the impurity transport include changes in the magnetic configuration as well as electron heating to change axial and radial temperature profiles. Preliminary results on the effectiveness of some of these methods are presented.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Hot-electron generation at direct-drive ignition-relevant plasma conditions at the National Ignition Facility

Laser–plasma interaction instabilities can be detrimental for direct-drive inertial confinement fusion by generating high-energy electrons that preheat the target. Moreover, an experimental platform has been developed and fielded on the National Ignition Facility to investigate hot-electron production from laser–plasma instabilities at direct-drive ignition-relevant conditions. The radiation-hydrodynamic code DRACO has been used to design planar-target experiments that generate plasma and interaction conditions comparable to direct-drive ignition designs: I L ~10 15 W/cm 2 , T e > 3 keV, and density-gradient scale lengths of L n ~ 600 μ m in the quarter-critical density region. The hot-electron properties were inferred by comparing the experimentally observed hard x-ray spectra to Monte Carlo simulations of hard x-ray emission from hot electrons depositing energy in the target. Hot-electron temperatures of ~40 keV to 60 keV and the fraction of laser energy converted to hot electrons of ~0.5% to 5% were inferred in plastic targets for laser intensities at the quarter-critical density surface of (~4 to 14) × 10 14 W/cm 2 . The use of silicon ablators was found to mitigate the hot-electron preheat by increasing the threshold laser intensity for hot-electron generation from ~3.5 × 10 14 W/cm 2 in plastic to ~6 × 10 14 W/cm 2 in silicon. The overall hot-electron production is further reduced in silicon ablators when the intensity threshold is exceeded.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1989

The neutral cloud and heavy ion inner torus at Saturn

Voyager plasma data are used in conjunction with laboratory data on water molecule sputter-yields and energy distributions to calculate the morphology of the Saturn neutral water molecule and dissociated water molecule-product torus coexisting with the E-ring and icy satellites of this planet. Plasma production rates determined for this cloud exhibit a structure with distance from Saturn as well as from the orbit plane; this suggests a lack of equilibrium for the heavy ion plasma at less than 7 planet radii. Attention is given to the possibility that the Saturn E-ring may be a precipitate of the neutral cloud that is initiated by low-energy ion-molecule reactions.

Johnson, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS1969

Plasma display

Development and production of rectangular display panel connected to digital computer for two on state operation

Bitzer, D. L.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Production of hard X rays in a plasma focus

A model of a plasma focus is examined wherein large axial electric fields are produced by an imploding current sheet during the final nanoseconds of the collapse phase and where the fields provide a mechanism for creating a beam of electrons of highly suprathermal energies. The expected bremsstrahlung radiation above 100 keV is calculated for such a beam, which has a power-law spectrum, both from electron-deuteron collisions in the focused plasma and when the beam reaches the wall of the device. It is concluded that, since the experimental results indicate little or no radiation above 100 keV originating in the walls, that the electrons in the beam must be decelerated after leaving the plasma and before reaching the wall. Comparisons with the results and the total energy of the device yield qualitative agreement with the expected angular distribution of hard X-rays and reasonable agreement with the total energy in accelerated electrons required to produce the observed total energy in hard X-rays by this mechanism.

Newman, C. E.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Wave production in an ultrarelativistic electron-positron plasma

In this paper we calculate the eigenmodes associated with an ultrarelativistic electron-positron beam traversing a low-energy electron-positron plasma under physical conditions that may exist along open magnetic field lines above pulsar polar caps. We assume that both beam and plasma are cold and charge neutral, and that magnetic field strength and particle density decrease as the cube of (1/R). In the superstrong magnetic fields near the stellar surface where cyclotron frequencies exceed plasma frequencies, electrostatic waves and associated transverse low-frequency waves are driven unstable by the two-stream type particle distribution. At larger distances above the stellar surface the slow beam cyclotron wave is driven unstable. At even greater radial distance (approximately when particle energy density exceeds magnetic energy density) both the Ordinary and Alfven modes become unstable. All of these instabilities can lead to generation of radiation. If the particle distribution as generated at the stellar surface, assumed to consist of two streams, is modified only by plasma effects, then electrostatic and associated transverse waves may only be unstable near the stellar surface. The beam cyclotron mode which is driven by a two-stream or an inverted particle distribution may be stable.

Hardee, P. E.↗
NASA NTRS2005

An emergency response team for membrane repair

On demand, rapid Ca(2+)-triggered homotypic and exocytic membrane-fusion events are required to repair a torn plasma membrane, and we propose that this emergency-based fusion differs fundamentally from other rapid, triggered fusion reactions. Emergency fusion might use a specialized protein and organelle emergency response team that can simultaneously promote impromptu homotypic fusion events between organelles and exocytic fusion events along the vertices between these fusion products and the plasma membrane.

Review↗
NASA NTRS2004

Meteors do not break exogenous organic molecules into high yields of diatomics

Meteoroids that dominate the Earth's extraterrestrial mass influx (50-300 microm size range) may have contributed a unique blend of exogenous organic molecules at the time of the origin of life. Such meteoroids are so large that most of their mass is ablated in the Earth's atmosphere. In the process, organic molecules are decomposed and chemically altered to molecules differently from those delivered to the Earth's surface by smaller (<50 microm) micrometeorites and larger (>10 cm) meteorites. The question addressed here is whether the organic matter in these meteoroids is fully decomposed into atoms or diatomic compounds during ablation. If not, then the ablation products made available for prebiotic organic chemistry, and perhaps early biology, might have retained some memory of their astrophysical nature. To test this hypothesis we searched for CN emission in meteor spectra in an airborne experiment during the 2001 Leonid meteor storm. We found that the meteor's light-emitting air plasma, which included products of meteor ablation, contained less than 1 CN molecule for every 30 meteoric iron atoms. This contrasts sharply with the nitrogen/iron ratio of 1:1.2 in the solid matter of comet 1P/Halley. Unless the nitrogen content or the abundance of complex organic matter in the Leonid parent body, comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, differs from that in comet 1P/Halley, it appears that very little of that organic nitrogen decomposes into CN molecules during meteor ablation in the rarefied flow conditions that characterize the atmospheric entry of meteoroids approximately 50 microm-10 cm in size. We propose that the organics of such meteoroids survive instead as larger compounds.

Meteoroids↗
DOE OSTI2021

Entropy production far from equilibrium in a chiral charged plasma in the presence of external electromagnetic fields

We report on the time evolution of a charged strongly coupled N = 4 SYM plasma with an axial anomaly subjected to strong electromagnetic fields. The evolution of this plasma corresponds to a fully backreacted asymptotically AdS 5 solution to the Einstein-Maxwell-Chern-Simons theory. We explore the evolution of the axial current and production of axial charges. As an application we show that after a sufficiently long time both the entropy and the holographic entanglement entropy of a strip-like topology (both parallel to and transverse to the flow of axial current) grow linearly in time.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
NASA NTRS1987

The role of plasma wave turbulence in the formation of shock waves in collisionless plasmas

A data set containing measurements for approximately 100 shock crossings was compiled, and plasma wave profiles were plotted in conjunction with magnetic field data. Three emissions analyzed include upstream electron plasma oscillations, ion acoustic noise, and low frequency electromagnetic noise. The data demonstrate that the observed waves are consistent with generation by the kinetic cross-field streaming instability. Reanalysis of shock overshoots prompted by the presence of plasma feet upstream of nominally subcritical shocks leads to the conclusion that no firm evidence exists for a sharp subcritical supercritical transition. Electron plasma oscillations persist up to the ramps of subcritical shocks and begin decaying at the front edge of the feet of supercritical shocks. Their intensity is anticorrelated with the amplitude of the foot ion acoustic noise. Wave measurements support the predicted predominance of lower hybrid-like modes over ion acoustic noise in the production of resistive (plasma) heating. Evidence for variable shock normal angles is seen upstream from nominally quasiparallel shocks. The first cases of very strong electron heating observed at the terrestrial bow shock were discovered.

Mellott, M. M.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Rotating synchrotron radiation: Photon emission from magnetized and rotating quark-gluon plasma

This paper investigates the production of nonprompt photons originating from rotating synchrotron radiation (RoSyRa), specifically the emission of photons by a rigidly rotating quark-gluon plasma in thermal equilibrium, in the presence of an external magnetic field. We compute the nonprompt photon spectrum and its elliptic flow (𝑣 2 ) at midrapidity. In particular, we investigate the finite-volume effects. We find that at low transverse momentum, the magnetic field induces a significant 𝑣 2 , while the plasma rotation boosts the synchrotron radiation of negatively charged quarks. These findings make RoSyRa a viable candidate mechanism to resolve the “direct photon puzzle.”

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1983

Comparison of spherical double probe electric field measurements with plasma bulk flows in plasmas having densities less than 1 cm-3

For a three-hour period in the magnetotail over which plasma density varied from less than 0.1 to about 1/cu cm, comparisons of ISEE-1 spherical double probe (dawn to dusk) electric field measurements and ISEE-2 plasma flows (converted to electric fields) show the zero lag cross correlation coefficient between 768 second averages of the two data sets to have been 0.93. A statistical relative uncertainty between pairs of points in the two data sets, estimated by only including counting statistics in the plasma measurement and time variations of the observed electric field over the measurement interval, is able to account for at least 75 percent of the deviations between the two data sets. In agreement with simple Langmuir probe theory, it has been found that the spacecraft potential measured over the three-hour interval by the double probe instrument varied as the log of the product of the plasma density and the square root of the electron temperature.

Mozer, F. S.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Verification of a Monte Carlo binary collision model for simulating elastic and inelastic collisions in particle-in-cell simulations

We present the development and verification of a Monte Carlo binary collision model for simulating elastic and inelastic collisions in particle-in-cell simulations. We apply the corrected binary collision model originally developed for charged-particles collisions to all considered scattering channels, including Coulomb collisions, elastic neutral–neutral and charged–neutral collisions, ionization, excitation, and fusion. The model's implementation is described and verified through a series of simulations, including charged- and neutral-particle thermal equilibration, slowing of electrons in warm solid-density aluminum, collisional damping of a Langmuir wave, helium gas breakdown in an applied electric field, and thermonuclear and beam–target fusion. Then, we demonstrate the model within simulations of hydrogen plasma formation in the Princeton Field-Reversed Configuration as well as of the burning of aneutronic fusion fuel p-11B. The latter includes measurement of the fusion power density in a low-density plasma and fusion production due to the stopping of a proton ignitor beam in a compressed boron target.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1982

On charge exchange and knock-on processes in the exosphere of Io

One direct consequence of magnetospheric interaction of Io is the strong dynamical coupling of its neutral atmosphere with the corotating plasma. The absorption of the thermal ions and the associated neutral injection is an improtant issue not yet explored. As far as nonthermal escape of the neutral atmosphere is concerned, three processes stand out. That is, apart from sputtering, exospheric interactions like atom-ion knock-on collision and charge exchange recombination could be a significant source of the neutral clouds in the Jovian system. Using a current electrodynamic model of Io, both the absorption rate of the corotating thermal plasma and the production rates of new exospheric ions and the fast neutrals are considered. It is found that the source strength of the neutral atoms and molecules with speeds of about 100 km/sec could amount to 10 to the 26th/sec whereas exospheric neutrals emitted at lower speed (of about 10 km/sec) amounts to 4 x 10 to the 25th/sec. The generation of the new ions in connection with the streaming of the magnetospheric plasma around Io could also produce an asymmetric sputtering with a neutral flux of about 10 to the 27th/sec emitted from the region of Io which faces Jupiter. These results may be related to a number of sodium observations.

Ip, W.-H.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Deep potential molecular dynamics simulations of low-temperature plasma-surface interactions

Machine learning approaches to potential generation for molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of low-temperature plasma-surface interactions could greatly extend the range of chemical systems that can be modeled. Empirical potentials are difficult to generalize to complex combinations of multiple elements with interactions that might include covalent, ionic, and metallic bonds. This work demonstrates that a specific machine learning approach, Deep Potential Molecular Dynamics (DeepMD), can generate potentials that provide a good model of plasma etching in the Si-Cl-Ar system. Comparisons are made between MD results using DeepMD models and empirical potentials, as well as experimental measurements. Pure Si properties predicted by the DeepMD model are in reasonable agreement with experimental results. Simulations of Si bombardment by Ar + ions demonstrate the ability of the DeepMD method to predict sputtering yields as well as the depth of the amorphous-crystalline interface. Etch yields as a function of flux ratio and ion energy for simultaneous Cl 2 and Ar + impacts are in good agreement with previous simulation results and experiment. Predictions of etch yields and etch products during plasma-assisted atomic layer etching of Si-Cl 2 -Ar are shown to be in good agreement with MD predictions using empirical potentials and with experiment. Finally, good agreement was also seen with measurements for the spontaneous etching of Si by Cl atoms at 300 K. Further, the demonstration that DeepMD can reproduce results from MD simulations using empirical potentials is a necessary condition to future efforts to extend the method to a much wider range of systems for which empirical potentials may be difficult or impossible to obtain.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗