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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 145 records · Page 8
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1999

The Conductor-Dielectric Junctions in a Low Density Plasma

A conductor-dielectric junction exposed to the space environment is a frequent spacecraft design feature. Due to spacecraft charging and/or solar array operation, the conductor can acquire a high potential with respect to the surrounding plasma. If this potential is positive the insulators adjacent to exposed conductors can collect current as if they were conductors themselves. This phenomenon, called snapover, results in a substantial increase in current collection, and may even result in a glow discharge if the potential is high enough. If a conductor has a negative potential, arcing can occur at the site of a junction. Both of these phenomena negatively affect spacecraft operation. To prevent negative consequences, the physical mechanisms of snapover and arc inception require investigation. In this paper, results are presented of an experimental and theoretical study of snapover, glow discharge, and arc phenomena for different materials immersed in argon or xenon plasmas. The effect of snapover is investigated for several metal-dielectric junctions: copper-teflon, copper-Kapton, copper-glass, aluminum-teflon, aluminum-Kapton, steel-teflon, anodized aluminum with pinholes, and copper-ceramics. I-V curves are measured and snapover inception voltages, essential parameters (increase in current and collection area due to secondary electrons), and glow discharge inception thresholds are determined. Optical spectra are obtained for glow discharges in both argon and xenon plasmas. These spectra provide information regarding atomic species entrapped in the glow region. Some spectral lines can be used to estimate plasma parameters in the discharge area. A video-camera and linear array were used to confirm that snapover inception is accompanied by very low intensity visible light emission. This result seems to be important for the estimate of the light pollution around spacecraft. Optical spectra (wavelengths 380-650 nm) of arcs are also obtained on a negatively biased chromic acid anodized aluminum plate immersed in low density argon and xenon plasmas. Analysis of these spectra confirms our earlier findings that aluminum atoms are ejected from the arc site. Moreover, it is found that chromium atoms are also quite abundant in the arc plasma. It is believed that the latter results contribute considerably to the understanding of processes of plasma contamination caused by arcing.

Vayner, Boris↗
NASA NTRS1990

A plasma density model for Saturn based on Voyager observations

The present combination of ion and electron data sets from both Voyager flybys are to yield the broad view of the Saturn plasma environment indicates that a small, -10 to -20 V spacecraft potential furnishes a plausible basis for reconciliation of differences between observed ion and electron densities. A map of density contours within L = 12 is produced which incorporates all available Voyager thermal plasma data in this region, assuming that the inner mesosphere was stable during the nine months between encounters. The oxygen flux tube content decreases rapidly within L = 5, indicating the occurrence of losses in this region. Neural atom lifetimes in the inner magnetosphere lie in the range of weeks to years, and are a strong function of latitude.

Richardson, John D.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Time-of-flight vs time-of-arrival in neutron spectroscopic measurements for high energy density plasmas

The neutron time-of-flight (nToF) diagnostic technique has a lengthy history in Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) and High Energy Density (HED) Science experiments. Its initial utility resulted from the simple relationship between the full width half maximum of the fusion peak signal in a distant detector and the burn averaged conditions of an ideal plasma producing the flux [Lehner and Pohl, Z. Phys. 207, 83–104 (1967)]. More recent precision measurements [Gatu-Johnson et al., Phys. Rev. E 94(8), 021202 (2016)] and theoretical studies [Munro, Nucl. Fusion 56, 035001 (2016)] have shown the spectrum to be more subtle and complicated, driving the desire for an absolute calibration of the spectrum to disambiguate plasma dynamics from the conditions producing thermonuclear reactions. In experiments where the neutron production history is not well measured, but the neutron signal is preceded by a concomitant flux of photons, the spectrum can be in situ calibrated using a set of collinear detectors to obtain a true “time-of-flight” measurement. This article presents the motivation and overview of this technique along with estimates of the experimental precision needed to make useful measurements in existing and future nToF systems such as the pulsed power Z-machine located in Albuquerque, NM, at Sandia National Laboratories.

Fusion experiments↗
DOE OSTI2023

Ion cyclotron heating at high plasma density in Proto-MPEX

The physics of ion cyclotron heating (ICH) relevant to the steady-state linear machine MPEX (Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment) has been explored in its predecessor, short-pulse device: Proto-MPEX. MPEX will utilize fundamental ICH to increase heat flux at the target and produce ion temperatures and velocity distributions with improved fidelity to those found in a tokamak divertor region, in comparison to those produced by substrate biasing. In the experiments on Proto-MPEX described here, bulk ion temperatures up to ~15 eV have been achieved with 20 kW net ICH power at 6.5 MHz, using ICH heating of a deuterium plasma produced by a helicon plasma source. The heat flux at the target has been observed to increase throughout the plasma cross section, including in the core region. Core $T_i$ and target heat flux are observed to scale linearly with injected ICH power. Further, measurements of plasma loading and target heat flux as a function of the magnetic field strength at the antenna, together with modeling of the wave propagation from the antenna to the ion cyclotron resonance using the ANTENA and COMSOL codes with a warm plasma dielectric tensor, indicate that power is coupled to the core plasma via fast wave excitation of a kinetic Alfvén wave.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

On the study of hydrodynamic instabilities in the presence of background magnetic fields in high-energy-density plasmas

Blast-wave-driven hydrodynamic instabilities are studied in the presence of a background B-field through experiments and simulations in the high-energy-density (HED) physics regime. In experiments conducted at the Laboratoire pour l’utilisation des lasers intenses (LULI), a laser-driven shock-tube platform was used to generate a hydrodynamically unstable interface with a prescribed sinusoidal surface perturbation, and short-pulse x-ray radiography was used to characterize the instability growth with and without a 10-T B-field. The LULI experiments were modeled in FLASH using resistive and ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), and comparing the experiments and simulations suggests that the Spitzer model implemented in FLASH is necessary and sufficient for modeling these planar systems. These results suggest insufficient amplification of the seed B-field, due to resistive diffusion, to alter the hydrodynamic behavior. Although the ideal-MHD simulations did not represent the experiments accurately, they suggest that similar HED systems with dynamic plasma-β (=2μ0ρv2/B2) values of less than ∼100 can reduce the growth of blast-wave-driven Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities. These findings validate the resistive-MHD FLASH modeling that is being used to design future experiments for studying B-field effects in HED plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
NASA NTRS1995

A modified thermal conductivity for low density plasma magnetic flux tubes

In response to inconsistencies which have arisen in results from a hydrodynamic model in simulation of high ion temperature (1-2 eV) observed in low density, outer plasmasphere flux tubes, we postulate a reduced thermal conductivity coefficient in which only particles in the loss cone of the quasi-collisionless plasma contribute to the thermal conduction. Other particles are assumed to magnetically mirror before they reach the topside ionosphere and therefore not to remove thermal energy from the plasmasphere. This concept is used to formulate a mathematically simple, but physically limiting model for a modified thermal conductivity coefficient. When this modified coefficient is employed in the hydrodynamic model in a case study, the inconsistencies between simulation results and observations are largely resolved. The high simulated ion temperatures are achieved with significantly lower ion temperatures in the topside ionosphere. We suggest that this mechanism may be operative under the limited low density, refilling conditions in which high ion temperatures are observed.

Comfort, R. H.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Runaway electron beam dynamics at low plasma density in DIII-D: energy distribution, current profile, and internal instability

Parameters of the post-disruption runaway electron (RE) beam in the collisionless background plasma achieved after deuterium injection are investigated in DIII-D. The spatially resolved RE energy distribution function is measured for the first time during the RE plateau stage by inverting hard X-ray bremsstrahlung spectra. It has maximum energy up to 20 MeV and a non-monotonous feature at 5{6 MeV observed only in the core of the beam supporting the possibility of kinetic instabilities. The RE current profile is reconstructed for the first time using the spatially resolved RE energy distribution. It is found to be more peaked than the pre-disruption plasma current, with higher internal inductance, suggesting preferential formation of REs in the core plasma or potentially a radially inward motion of the REs. The accessed relatively low-current (180 kA) RE beam is found stable, likely due to its elevated q profile. From this base stable equilibrium, instability is accessed by ramping the solenoid current. Under a large applied accelerating loop voltage an internal kink mode is observed. The kink mode leads to sawtooth-like relaxation of the RE current profile, but drives no RE loss. Under conditions of a large decelerating voltage, chirping Alfvénic instabilities driven by REs during the RE plateau stage are observed for the first time. The low-frequency (0.1{7 MHz) Alfvénic instabilities, supposedly compressional Alfvén eigenmodes, are found to be correlated with a RE loss signal. Finally, this provides novel plasma conditions to study these instabilities and investigate opportunities to utilize them for RE control. Bifurcated electron cyclotron emission (ECE) spectrum is measured during the collisionless RE plateau, with a break point at ≈100 GHz suggesting resonant absorption of the ECE at low frequencies.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Turbulence suppression at extreme plasma densities on DIII-D and EAST

Recent high-poloidal-beta (high-βP) experiments on DIII-D and EAST have made coordinated breakthroughs for high confinement quality at high density near the Greenwald limit. Density gradient amplification of turbulence suppression at high βP can explain both of these achievements. Experiments on DIII-D have achieved Greenwald fraction (fGr = line-averaged density/Greenwald density) above 1 simultaneously with normalized energy confinement (H98y2) around 1.5, as required in fusion reactor designs but never before verified in tokamak experiments with the divertor configuration. A synergy between increased H98y2 and fGr is observed with strong gas puffing, due to the build-up of an internal transport barrier at large radius in the temperature and density channels. Transport simulations reveal that the favorable trend of reduced turbulent energy transport at higher density is only expected when increasing the density gradient at high local safety factor and high β, thus at high βP to ensure strong α-stabilization. These conditions are crucial to many conceptual designs for steady-state reactors. New experiments on EAST have nearly doubled the ion temperature at fGr ∼ 0.9, consistent with predict-first modeling results based on the same physics revealed from the DIII-D analysis. All previous EAST long-pulse H-modes have Ti ≪ Te near plasma axis. Transport modeling indicates that the profiles are limited by ion-temperature-gradient modes at mid-radius. The modeling also suggested potential solutions, including reducing magnetic shear, enhancing density gradients, and higher impurity concentration. Following this guidance, EAST experiments directly show a strong enhancement of Ti achieved with a combination of a second plasma current ramp-up, a density gradient increase, and a Zeff perturbation by a short pulse (100 ms) of impurity injection, as predicted by the earlier modeling.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Attosecond light-field control of high-density plasmas (Final Scientific/Technical Report)

Sub-optical-cycle dynamics of dense electron bunches in relativistic-intensity laser—solid interactions (relativistic plasma mirrors) lead to the emission of high-order harmonics and attosecond light pulses. The aim of this project was to advance our understanding of the fundamental principles underlying high-energy-density physics behind this phenomenon. We achieved this goal by conducting experiments and a comprehensive theoretical analysis of harmonics driven by specially tailored light waveforms providing precise control over the sub-laser-cycle trajectories of the emitting electron bunches. The multi-color laser waveforms, generated in our experiments in a cascaded plasma mirror configuration, allowed us to manipulate (enhance and suppress) harmonic generation in relativistic laser-solid interactions by adjusting the relative phase between the colors.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Dependence of divertor turbulence on plasma density and current in TCV

To reliably predict the distribution of heat and particle fluxes at the target plates of tokamaks, a comprehensive understanding of turbulence throughout the entire Scrape-Off-Layer (SOL) is imperative. This study examines divertor turbulence systematically across a broad parameter range on the TCV tokamak, including variations in magnetic field direction, plasma current I p ∈ [140,320] kA, edge safety factor q 95 ∈ [2.6,4.7] and Greenwald fraction f G ∈ [0.18,0.6]. The TCV X-point Gas Puff Imaging (GPI) system is used to measure 2D filament properties in the inner and outer divertor region. The fluctuation levels in the divertor are found to strongly increase with density (to 80% over most of the SOL) while remaining insensitive to I p . The previously identified divertor-localized filaments (DLF), located on the bad curvature side of the outer divertor leg, are found to be a common feature on TCV, while no filaments are observed in the PFR. DLFs are present over most of the parameter space and in both field directions. However, they are absent, or appear only closer to the target, for sufficiently large Λ div ≳ 10 or q 95 ≳ 3.7. Across both I p and f G scans, some clear trends with Λ div are found for divertor filament sizes and velocities, and with target fall-off lengths of density and heat flux profiles at the outer target. This study provides important experimental insights to turbulent transport in the divertor also for comparison with self-consistent, turbulence simulations and extrapolation to future reactor conditions.

cross-field transport↗
DOE OSTI2021

Gold-tantalum alloy films deposited by high-density-plasma magnetron sputtering

Gold-tantalum alloy films are of interest for biomedical and magnetically-assisted inertial confinement fusion applications. Here, we systematically study the effects of substrate tilt (0°–80°) and negative substrate bias (0–100 V) on properties of ≲3-μm-thick films deposited by high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) from a Au–Ta alloy target (with 80 at. % of Ta). Results reveal that, for all the substrate bias values studied, an increase in substrate tilt leads to a monotonic decrease in film thickness, density, residual compressive stress, and electrical conductivity. Larger substrate bias favors the formation of a body-centered cubic phase, with films exhibiting lower column tilt and higher density, electrical conductivity, and residual compressive stress. Furthermore, these changes are attributed to metal atom ionization effects, based on the lack of correlation with distributions of landing energies and incident angles of depositing species as calculated by Monte Carlo simulations of ballistic collisions and gas phase atomic transport. By varying substrate tilt and bias in HiPIMS deposition, properties of Au–Ta alloy films can be controlled in a very wide range, including residual stress from –2 to +0.5 GPa, density from 12 to 17 g/cm 3 , and the electrical resistivity from 50 to 4500 μΩ cm, enabling optimum deposition conditions to be selected for specific applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Three-dimensional signatures of self-similarity in a high-energy-density plasma shear-driven mixing layer

A hydrodynamic shear mixing layer experiment at the National Ignition Facility had previously demonstrated Eulerian scaling of integrated, late-time quantities, including turbulent kinetic energy. In this manuscript, the experiment is repeated with new materials. In this work, using the new dataset, we demonstrate that Euler-number scalings hold not just for late time, but dynamically throughout the experiment, for measurements in all three spatial dimensions. Incorporating the dynamic scaling leads to an enhanced calculation that the heavier of the two scaled experiments has approached three generations of mergers of its primary instability's structures and a consistent observation of such a merger in action in the lighter of the two scaled experiments. Furthermore, the improved scrutiny of the time evolution of instability structures leads to sharper estimates of turbulent kinetic energy, including a demonstration of different behaviors correlating with surface roughness (quantitatively consistent with transitions between laminar and turbulent initial states), as predicted by a Reynolds-averaged turbulent model, which evidently correctly handles the differing shock-roughness interactions to drive its internal state of the model into different regimes. Altogether, a picture arises of the analytical improvements in treating these variations (of times, densities, and roughnesses) as a unified whole and of multiple ways by which deviations from the scaling could indicate an onset of non-hydrodynamic behavior. Such deviations were not expected for these experiments (which models correctly indicated would remain hydrodynamic) but could be introduced by, for example, imposing external fields or increasing drive energy to test conditions relevant to inertial confinement fusion or other high-energy-density experiments.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Simulated effect of edge plasma density parameters on lower hybrid wave scattering in EAST

The incorporation of lower hybrid (LH) wave spectrum broadening in the poloidal wavenumber (⁠k θ ) space at the last close field surface (LCFS) is reported to lead to better agreement of the modeled LH wave current profile with the experimental results [Baek et al., Nucl. Fusion 61, 106034 (2021)]. To further understand its underlying mechanism and find the possible influence factors, effects of wave scattering caused by drift-wave type density fluctuation on the probability distribution of the LH wave polar refractive index (⁠N θ ) at the LCFS are studied under density parameters in the scrape-off-layer. According to a scattering model [P. T. Bonoli and E. Ott, Phys Fluids 25(2), 359–375 (1982)], scattering probability and scattering angle distribution are two main factors that determine the degree of spectral broadening. Studies presented here show that the total scattering probability increases first and then decreases as the wave propagates toward a smaller normalized radius of poloidal magnetic flux (⁠ρ⁠). The degree of spectral broadening is found to depend on the density and density fluctuation together by changing the intensity and a proportion of the geometrical optics approximation term and the E×B drift term in the scattering model. Additionally, the fluctuation correlation length can significantly modify the probability distribution of N θ at the LCFS, which is found to significantly change the LH wave current profile.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS1990

Plasma density enhancements created by the ionization of the Earth's upper atmosphere by artificial electron beams

Analytical calculations and experimental observations relating to the interaction with the Earth's upper atmosphere of electron beams emitted from low altitude spacecraft are presented. The problem is described by two coupled nonlinear differential equations in the up-going (along a magnetic field line) and down-going differential energy flux. The equations are solved numerically, using the MSIS atmospheric model and the IRI ionospheric model. The results form the model compare well with recent observations from the CHARGE 2 sounding rocket experiment. Two aspects of the beam-neutral atmosphere interaction are discussed. First, the limits on the electron beam current that can be emitted from a spacecraft without substantial spacecraft charging are investigated. This is important because the charging of the spacecraft to positive potentials limits the current and the escape energy of the beam electrons and thereby limits the ionization of the neutral atmosphere. As an example, we find from CHARGE 2 observations and from the model calculations that below about 180 km, secondary electrons generated through the ionization of the neutral atmosphere by 1 to 10 keV electron beams from sounding rockets, completely balance the beam current, thereby allowing the emission of very high beam currents. Second, the amount of plasma production in the beam-streak is discussed. Results are shown for selected values of the beam energy, spacecraft velocity, and spacecraft altitude.

Neubert, Torsten↗