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Results for “Plasma ionization”

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.

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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1971

Instabilities and turbulence in highly ionized plasmas in a magnetic field

Experimental and theoretical work has been extended on the physical mechanisms of plasma turbulence and coherent instabilities. Turbulence is described in terms of parametric effects and experimental and theoretical results show that energy is transferred in both directions of the frequency spectrum. Energy transfer to higher frequencies results in turbulence acting as a safety valve against the growth of coherent, low frequency instabilities. Energy transfer to lower frequencies results in anomalously high diffusion rates. A linear theory has been applied to the drift instability in the Rensselaer HCD and reasonable agreement between predictions and experimental results has been obtained.

Noon, J. H.↗
NASA NTRS1972

Instabilities and turbulence in highly ionized plasmas in a magnetic field

Physical mechanisms were considered which are responsible for plasma turbulence and the establishment of necessary conditions for energy exchange and transfer in the frequency spectrum. In addition, work was performed to better understand the drift instability in the highly inhomogeneous Rensselaer arc, and methods to suppress this instability using feedback stabilization techniques. Correlation techniques were refined to study plasma turbulence, the diffusion wave technique for monitoring cross-field diffusion was extended to include regimes of high turbulence levels, and a technique for coupling stabilizing RF power to the Rensselaer arc was developed.

Jennings, W. C.↗
NASA NTRS1971

Ion-acoustic instability of a two-temperature, collisional, fully-ionized plasma.

From a perturbation analysis of the fluid equations for a homogeneous unmagnetized plasma, it is shown that long wavelength ion waves are unstable when the electron temperature exceeds the ion temperature. Thus, the temperature difference can drive a resistive-type ion wave instability in a plasma which on a collisionless basis is stable. The additional destabilizing effect of a current is also investigated.

Rognlien, T. D.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Experimental investigations of turbulence in magnetized, partially ionized plasmas

An experimental investigation of turbulent fluctuations associated with gradient cross-field and Farley-Buneman instabilities is described. The experiments are carried out in magnetized plasma columns with an imposed radial electric field. Microwave scattering and probe measurements provide the plasma diagnostics. Particular attention is given to the varying characteristics of the turbulent spectra for both potential and density as a function of neutral gas pressure.

Mikkelsen, T.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Partial redistribution in high-density, highly ionized plasmas

The conditions for which partial redistribution functions must be used for radiation transport in high-Z, high-density, laser-produced plasmas are examined. A previously developed two-photon formalism based on the model microfield method is used to calculate redistribution functions including electron and ion Stark broadening with ion dynamic effects. The competition between the relaxation rates and spontaneous emission is shown to determine the conditions for partial redistribution. The discussion makes use of microfield fluctuation rates and broadening coefficients which can be determined from simulation calculations. The redistribution function for the Ly-alpha transition of Ar XVIII is presented for typical plasma conditions.

Talin, B.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Kinetics and continuum emission of negative atomic ions in partially ionized plasmas

Kinetics and continuum emission of negative ions are studied in stationary atomic hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen plasmas. The intensity of the negative-ion emission was found to be neglibible when compared to those of bound-bound and free-bound emission at low and medium particle densities. However, the negative-ion continuum emission can contribute significantly in certain parts of the emission spectrum at high particle densities.

Soon, W. H.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Gravitational instability of a rotating partially-ionized plasma carrying a uniform magnetic field with Hall effect

The problem of gravitational instability of an infinite homogeneous self-gravitating medium carrying a uniform magnetic field in the presence of Hall effect has been investigated to include the effect due to rotation. The dispersion relation has been obtained. It has been found that the Jeans's criterion for the instability remains unaffected even when the effect due to rotation is considered in the presence of Hall effect carrying a uniform magnetic.

Kumar, Vinod↗
NASA NTRS2010

Role of the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Observations for the Study of Ionized Plasmas

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory, launched in 1999, is now beginning its 12-th year of operation. Chandra, the X-ray component of NASA s Great Observatory program, continues to operate efficiently, somewhat remarkable considering that the Observatory was designed for three years of operation with a goal of five. The Observatory features X-ray optics with sub-arcsecond angular resolution and a small suite of instruments, including transmission gratings, which allow for high-resolution spectroscopy of point sources. We will detail the capabilities of the Observatory for making such spectroscopic measurements and discuss a number of examples of what has been learned about the astrophysical plasmas capable of producing bright X-ray emission.

Weisskopf, Martin C.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Plasma Lens in Parametric Resonance Ionization Cooling

We present a concept of a plasma lens in a parametric resonance ionization cooling (PIC) for extra cooling of muon colliders. The PIC concept has been developed to overcome most aberrations. However, parasitic non-linear aberrations which is induced in an ionization cooling material still reduce a dynamic aperture of the PIC. The plasma lens generates an azimuthally symmetric focusing field in gas-filled RF cavities that is several orders of magnitude stronger than the conventional superconducting magnets. It allows for reduction of the beam size at the beam expansion points. This reduces the size of the aberrations and therefore greatly simplifies their compensation.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Dynamics and chemical mode analysis of plasma thermal-chemical instability

The stability of the weakly ionized plasma and the transition from a stable homogeneous discharge to unstable filaments play an important role in gas laser physics, plasma-assisted combustion, chemical reforming, and material synthesis. Here, theoretical stability analysis and thermal-chemical mode analysis were performed to understand the mechanism of plasma thermal-chemical instability by using a zero-dimensional plasma system with both simplified and detailed chemical kinetics of H 2 /O 2 /N 2 mixtures. The plasma dynamic and kinetic models accounted for multiple physical mechanisms in the chemically-reactive weakly ionized plasma, including ionization, attachment/detachment, recombination, vibrational and electronic energy relaxation, convective and diffusive species/heat removal, Joule heating, and detailed chemical kinetics. An analytical criterion and the explosive mode species/temperature pointers were formulated while the representative active species were identified for different thermal-chemical modes. The results showed that in addition to the classical thermal-ionization mechanism, various chemical modes from chemical heat imbalance and elementary kinetics significantly modified the time dynamics and the stability of the weakly ionized plasma. The present analysis provides insights and guidance to control plasma instability using chemical kinetics.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1990

Invariant criteria for bound states, degree of ionization, and plasma phase transition

Basis invariant characterizations of bound states and bound fraction of a partially ionized hydrogen plasma are given in terms of properties of the spectrum of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the equilibrium quantum statistical one-proton-one-electron reduced density matrix. It is suggested that these can be used to place theories of a proposed plasma-ionization phase transition on a firm foundation. This general approach may be relevant to cosmological questions such as the quark deconfinement-confinement transition.

Girardeau, M. D.↗