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Results for “BEAM-PLASMA SYSTEMS”

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 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

Nonlinear theory of intense laser-plasma interactions modified by vacuum polarization effects

The classical nonlinear theory of laser-plasma interactions is corrected by taking account of the vacuum polarization effects. A set of wave equations are obtained by using the Heisenberg-Euler Lagrangian density and the derivative correction with the first-order quantum electrodynamic effects. A model more suitable to formulate the interactions of ultra-strong lasers and high-energy-density plasmas is developed. In the result, some environments in which the effects of vacuum polarization will be enhanced are discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Enhancement of proton acceleration field in laser double-layer target interaction

A mechanism is proposed to enhance a proton acceleration field in laser plasma interaction. A double-layer plasma with different densities is illuminated by an intense short pulse. Electrons are accelerated to a high energy in the first layer by the wakefield. The electrons accelerated by the laser wakefield induce the enhanced target normal sheath (TNSA) and breakout afterburner (BOA) accelerations through the second layer. The maximum proton energy reaches about 1 GeV, and the total charge with an energy higher than 100 MeV is about several tens of μC/μm. Both the acceleration gradient and laser energy transfer efficiency are higher than those in single-target-based TNSA or BOA. The model has been verified by 2.5D-PIC simulations.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Spontaneous ion beam formation in the laboratory, space, and simulation

We present experimental evidence for the spontaneous formation of multiple double layers within a single divergent magnetic field structure. Downstream of the divergent magnetic field, multiple accelerated ion populations are observed. The similarity of the accelerated ion populations observed in these laboratory experiments to ion populations observed in the magnetosphere and in numerical simulations suggests that the observation of a complex ion velocity distribution alone is insufficient to distinguish between simple plasma expansion and magnetic reconnection. Further, the effective temperature of the aggregate ion population is significantly larger than the temperatures of the individual ion population components, suggesting that insufficiently resolved measurements could misidentify multiple beam creation as ion heating. Ions accelerated in randomly oriented electric fields that mimic heating would have an ion heating rate dependent on the ion charge and mass that is qualitatively consistent with recent experimental observations of ion heating during magnetic reconnection.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

On the fully nonlinear acoustic waves in a plasma with positrons beam impact and superthermal electrons

Arbitrary amplitude ion-acoustic waves in an unmagnetized plasma consisting of cold positive ions, superthermal electrons, and positrons beam are reported. The basic set of fluid equations is reduced to an energy-balance like equation. The latter is numerically analyzed to examine the existence regions for solitary and shock waves. It is found that only solitary waves can propagate, however, the model cannot support shocks. The effects of superthermality and beam parameters (via, positrons concentration and streaming velocity) on the existence region, as well as solitary wave profile have been discussed.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Control of focusing forces and emittances in plasma-based accelerators using near-hollow plasma channels

A near-hollow plasma channel, where the plasma density in the channel is much less than the plasma density in the walls, is proposed to provide independent control over the focusing and accelerating forces in a plasma accelerator. In this geometry the low density in the channel contributes to the focusing forces, while the accelerating fields are determined by the high density in the channel walls. The channel also provides guiding for intense laser pulses used for wakefield excitation. Both electron and positron beams can be accelerated in a nearly symmetric fashion. Near-hollow plasma channels can effectively mitigate emittance growth due to Coulomb scattering for high-energy physics applications.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Effect of subdominant species on the evolution of intense primary beam in a low energy beam transport line

The dynamics of space-charge-dominated multispecies beam with different distributions has been studied in a solenoid based low energy beam transport line using a particle-in-cell simulation method. Results are presented in wide parameter regimes covering emittance dominated as well as space charge dominated multispecies beams consisting of p, H{sub 2}{sup +}, and H{sub 3}{sup +} beams. Simulation shows the formation of hollow distribution of H{sub 2}{sup +} and H{sub 3}{sup +} beams around the desired proton beam and separation is more distinct as the fraction of proton is increased. The hollow formation is almost independent of combination of H{sub 2}{sup +} and H{sub 3}{sup +} beams, once the fraction of proton beam is fixed. The emittance growth of proton is found to increase sharply in the space-charge-dominated regime and is more in the cases where proton fraction is low.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

High-bandwidth polarimeter for a high density, accelerated spheromak

A three-beam heterodyne polarimeter has been built to diagnose the PI-1 plasma injector at General Fusion, Inc. The polarimeter measures plasma density and Faraday rotation, which can provide estimates of magnetic field magnitude and direction. Two important calibration steps are required for the polarimeter to produce reasonable Faraday rotation signals. Beam polarization ellipticity must be measured to ensure there is a linear Faraday rotation response. In addition, the two beams travelling through the plasma must be collinear to reduce error due to differences in plasma density. Once calibrated, the Faraday rotation signals are in much better agreement with other diagnostics. For a null signal, the Faraday rotation measurement noise floor is 0.1° at 0.5 MHz bandwidth. Comparing preliminary spheromak Faraday rotation measurements to a model, the maximum error is about 0.3° at 0.5 MHz bandwidth, which is primarily due to electrical noise during the injector's capacitor discharge and limitations of the model. At a bandwidth of 0.5 MHz, the polarimeter has an axial resolution between 6 cm and 30 cm depending on the speed of the spheromak, which varies between 30 km/s and 150 km/s. The spheromak length ranges from 0.75 m to 2 m. Additional polarimeter chords will be added in future upgrades.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2013

Detection of electromagnetic pulses produced by hypervelocity micro particle impact plasmas

Hypervelocity micro particles (mass < 1 ng), including meteoroids and space debris, routinely impact spacecraft and produce plasmas that are initially dense (∼10{sup 28} m{sup −3}), but rapidly expand into the surrounding vacuum. We report the detection of radio frequency (RF) emission associated with electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) from hypervelocity impacts of micro particles in ground-based experiments using micro particles that are 15 orders of magnitude less massive than previously observed. The EMP production is a stochastic process that is influenced by plasma turbulence such that the EMP detection rate that is strongly dependent on impact speed and on the electrical charge conditions at the impact surface. In particular, impacts of the fastest micro particles occurring under spacecraft charging conditions representative of high geomagnetic activity are the most likely to produce RF emission. This new phenomenon may provide a source for unexplained RF measurements on spacecraft charged to high potentials.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

Ultra-bright, ultra-broadband hard x-ray driven by laser-produced energetic electron beams

We propose a new method of obtaining a compact ultra-bright, ultra-broadband hard X-ray source. This X-ray source has a high peak brightness in the order of 10{sup 22} photons/(s mm{sup 2} mrad{sup 2} 0.1\%BW), an ultrashort duration (10 fs), and a broadband spectrum (flat distribution from 0.1 MeV to 4 MeV), and thus has wide-ranging potential applications, such as in ultrafast Laue diffraction experiments. In our scheme, laser-plasma accelerators (LPAs) provide driven electron beams. A foil target is placed oblique to the beam direction so that the target normal sheath field (TNSF) is used to provide a bending force. Using this TNSF-kick scheme, we can fully utilize the advantages of current LPAs, including their high charge, high energy, and low emittance.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Optical emission spectroscopy at the large RF driven negative ion test facility ELISE: Instrumental setup and first results

One of the main topics to be investigated at the recently launched large (A{sub source}= 1.0 × 0.9 m{sup 2}) ITER relevant RF driven negative ion test facility ELISE (Extraction from a Large Ion Source Experiment) is the connection between the homogeneity of the plasma parameters close to the extraction system and the homogeneity of the extracted negative hydrogen ion beam. While several diagnostics techniques are available for measuring the beam homogeneity, the plasma parameters are determined by optical emission spectroscopy (OES) solely. First OES measurements close to the extraction system show that without magnetic filter field the vertical profile of the plasma emission is more or less symmetric, with maxima of the emission representing the projection of the plasma generation volumes, and a distinct minimum in between. The profile changes with the strength of the magnetic filter field but under all circumstances the plasma emission in ELISE is much more homogeneous compared to the smaller IPP prototype sources. Planned after this successful demonstration of the ELISE OES system is to combine OES with tomography in order to determine locally resolved values for the plasma parameters.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Acceleration of positrons by a relativistic electron beam in the presence of quantum effects

Using the quantum magnetohydrodynamic model and obtaining the dispersion relation of the Cherenkov and cyclotron waves, the acceleration of positrons by a relativistic electron beam is investigated. The Cherenkov and cyclotron acceleration mechanisms of positrons are compared together. It is shown that growth rate and, therefore, the acceleration of positrons can be increased in the presence of quantum effects.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Self-pinched transport of a high ν/γ electron beam

The self-pinched transport of a 0.5 MeV, 18 kA cylindrical electron beam has been studied experimentally and computationally. The relatively low voltage and high current required for materials surface modification applications leads to complicated beam dynamics as the Alfven limit is approached. Transport and focusing of the high ν/γ beam was done in a sub-Torr, neutral gas-filled, conducting tube in the ion-focused regime. In this regime, beam space charge forces are progressively neutralized to allow focusing of the beam by its self-magnetic field. The beam exhibits stable envelope oscillations as it is efficiently and reproducibly propagated for distances greater than a betatron wavelength. Experimental results follow the trends seen in 2-D particle-in-cell simulations. Results show that the input electron beam can be periodically focused to a peaked profile with the beam half-current radius decreased by a factor of 2.84. This results in an increase of a factor of 8 in beam current density. This focusing is sufficient to produce desired effects in the surface layers of metallic materials.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

The beat in laser-accelerated ion beams

Regular modulation in the ion velocity distribution becomes detectable if intense femtosecond laser pulses with very high temporal contrast are used for target normal sheath acceleration of ions. Analytical and numerical analysis of the experimental observation associates the modulation with the half-cycle of the driving laser field period. In processes like ion acceleration, the collective and laser-frequency determined electron dynamics creates strong fields in plasma to accelerate the ions. Even the oscillatory motion of electrons and its influence on the acceleration field can dominate over smoothing effects in plasma if a high temporal contrast of the driving laser pulse is given. Acceleration parameters can be directly concluded out of the experimentally observed modulation period in ion velocity spectra. The appearance of the phenomenon at a temporal contrast of ten orders between the intensity of the pulse peak and the spontaneous amplified emission background as well as remaining intensity wings at picosecond time-scale might trigger further parameter studies with even higher contrast.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Turning point temperature and competition between relativistic and ponderomotive effects in self-focusing of laser beam in plasma

The propagation characters of Gaussian laser beam in collisionless plasma are investigated by considering the ponderomotive and relativistic nonlinearities. The second-order differential equation of dimensionless beam width parameter is solved numerically, taking into account the effect of electron temperature. The results show that the ponderomotive force does not facilitate the relativistic self-focusing in all intensity ranges. In fact, there exists a certain intensity value that, if below this value, the ponderomotive nonlinearity can contribute to the relativistic self-focusing, or obstruct it, if above. It is also indicated that there is a temperature interval in which self-focusing can occur, while the beam diverges outside of this region. In addition, the results represent the existence of a “turning point temperature” in the mentioned interval that the self-focusing has the strongest power. The value of the turning point is dependent on laser intensity in which higher intensities result in higher turning point.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Effect of laser beam filamentation on coexisting stimulated Raman and Brillouin scattering

This paper presents the study of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) when both of these processes are coexisting and pump laser beam initial power is more than filamentation threshold. On account of the ponderomotive nonlinearity, the pump laser beam gets filamented, and both the scattering processes (SRS and SBS) get affected. Simultaneous presence of SRS and SBS (five wave interaction case) also affect the pump filamentation process due to pump depletion. Both the scattering processes (SRS and SBS) are enhanced due to filamentation of laser beam. Results are also compared with the three wave interaction case (either SRS or SBS) with and without filamentation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Linear stability and nonlinear dynamics of the fishbone mode in spherical tokamaks

Extensive linear and nonlinear simulations have been carried out to investigate the energetic particle-driven fishbone instability in spherical tokamak plasmas with weakly reversed q profile and the q{sub min} slightly above unity. The global kinetic-MHD hybrid code M3D-K is used. Numerical results show that a fishbone instability is excited by energetic beam ions preferentially at higher q{sub min} values, consistent with the observed appearance of the fishbone before the “long-lived mode” in MAST and NSTX experiments. In contrast, at lower q{sub min} values, the fishbone tends to be stable. In this case, the beam ion effects are strongly stabilizing for the non-resonant kink mode. Nonlinear simulations show that the fishbone saturates with strong downward frequency chirping as well as radial flattening of the beam ion distribution. An (m, n) = (2, 1) magnetic island is found to be driven nonlinearly by the fishbone instability, which could provide a trigger for the (2, 1) neoclassical tearing mode sometimes observed after the fishbone instability in NSTX.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Numerical investigation of electron self-injection in the nonlinear bubble regime

The process of electron self-injection in the nonlinear bubble wake generated by a short and intense laser pulse propagating in a uniform underdense plasma is studied by means of fully self-consistent particle-in-cell simulations and test-particle simulations. We consider a wake generated by a non-evolving laser driver traveling with a prescribed velocity, which then sets the structure and the velocity of the wake, so the injection dynamics is decoupled from driver evolution, but a realistic structure for the wakefield is retained. We show that a threshold for self-injection into a non-evolving bubble wake exists, and we characterize the dependence of the self-injection threshold on laser intensity, wake velocity, and plasma temperature for a range of parameters of interest for current and future laser-plasma accelerators.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗