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A summary of theoretical calculations of the ionization processes in mercury plasma is presented. Various possible ionization processes are analyzed and discussed. It is found that the ionization due to excited state interactions is dominant when the degree of ionization is small and that the ionization due to multistep electron impact is significant when the degree of ionization is high.
Mathematical model for thermal and chemi- ionization processes in turbulent nonequilibrium afterburning rocket exhausts plume, studying neutral and charged species distribution
We propose an accurate and efficient procedure in the calculation of multiphoton ionization processes. In addition to the calculational advantage, this procedure also enables us to study the relative contributions of the resonant and nonresonant intermediate states.
This Basic Energy Sciences (BES) award provided targeted support to early-career investigators to facilitate their attendance and participation in the International Conference on Ionizing Processes (ICIP 2024), organized and hosted at the University of Notre Dame campus between August 11th and 15th, 2024. The support enabled young researchers to present their work through oral and poster presentations, engage with senior leaders in the field, and strengthen national research capabilities in radiation chemistry and related disciplines. A total of 19 young investigators from U.S. academic institutions and national laboratories received registration discounts, and 8 of them also received additional travel-offset awards. Four of the young investigators received travel offset awards without registration discounts; hence, the total number of awardees was 23. Five awards were given to young investigators from Brookhaven National Laboratory, five to Idaho National Laboratory, one to Los Alamos National Laboratory, one to Michigan State University, one to Colorado School of Mines, and 10 to Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory. Total DOE funding directly reduced financial barriers to participation, enhancing U.S. early-career representation at this important international conference.
Context. The Cassini-Huygens mission has revealed the importance of particle precipitation in the atmosphere of Titan thanks to in-situ measurements. These ionizing particles (electrons, protons, and cosmic rays) have a strong impact on the chemistry, hence must be modeled. Aims. We revisit our computation of ionization in the atmosphere of Titan by cosmic rays. The high-energy high-mass ions are taken into account to improve the precision of the calculation of the ion production profile. Methods. The Badhwahr and O Neill model for cosmic ray spectrum was adapted for the Titan model. We used the TransTitan model coupled with the Planetocosmics model to compute the ion production by cosmic rays. We compared the results with the NAIRAS/HZETRN ionization model used for the first time for a body that differs from the Earth. Results. The cosmic ray ionization is computed for five groups of cosmic rays, depending on their charge and mass: protons, alpha, Z = 8 (oxygen), Z = 14 (silicon), and Z = 26 (iron) nucleus. Protons and alpha particles ionize mainly at 65 km altitude, while the higher mass nucleons ionize at higher altitudes. Nevertheless, the ionization at higher altitude is insufficient to obscure the impact of Saturn s magnetosphere protons at a 500 km altitude. The ionization rate at the peak (altitude: 65 km, for all the different conditions) lies between 30 and 40/cu cm/s. Conclusions. These new computations show for the first time the importance of high Z cosmic rays on the ionization of the Titan atmosphere. The updated full ionization profile shape does not differ significantly from that found in our previous calculations (Paper I: Gronoff et al. 2009, 506, 955) but undergoes a strong increase in intensity below an altitude of 400 km, especially between 200 and 400 km altitude where alpha and heavier particles (in the cosmic ray spectrum) are responsible for 40% of the ionization. The comparison of several models of ionization and cosmic ray spectra (in intensity and composition) reassures us about the stability of the altitude of the ionization peak (65 km altitude) with respect to the solar activity.
Results of a study of the energy spectra of electrons produced in collisions of N atoms with inert gases at low keV energies are reported. Ionization here is partly due to production of the (1Dnl) autoionizing states of nitrogen and partly due to another mechanism, which is presumably quasi molecular Auger ionization. A discussion of the assignments of the autoionizing states is presented.
Proton bombardment for generation of polar glow aurora
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Field-ion microscope image formation, determining periodic surface potential variation effects on high field tunneling
The ionization dynamics and transient behavior of under-dense plasma irradiated by an intense laser are investigated. We report two significant effects in the ionization behavior: (1) a surprisingly large delay in ionization response and (2) a stepwise ionization process which involves collisional and laser-driven photoionization (LDP) processes. Ionization induced by intense lasers can exhibit delayed responses due to rapid changes in conditions, particularly when atomic transition processes occur more slowly than the relevant time scales. Furthermore, modeling reveals that the two-step ionization process—collisional excitation followed by LDP—plays an important role in this ionization delay, with collisional excitation acting as the bottleneck. Even low-energy photons (∼3.5 eV) can predominantly ionize plasmas, challenging the conventional belief that such energies are insufficient to overcome the binding energy of bound electrons. These findings underscore the necessity of including such processes into plasma simulations for various laser-plasma experiments.
The critical ionization velocity process is studied by first investigating a coupled system of equations describing the production of several ion species and electrons by impact ionization, their collisions with neutrals, and the heating of electrons. Analytic relations derived from this were tested with the help of a particle simulation, including collisional processes between neutrals and plasma particles. It was found that resistive heating of electrons plays an important role when the density of the neutrals is high, and that electron heating due to lower hybrid waves is significant when the neutral density is low. In both cases, the control of the plasma production rate by the ratio of the beam velocity to the critical velocity was verified.
Ionizing radiation effects on uracil carbon 14 incorporation into Escherichia coli cells in dilute suspension
Ionization of nitrogen molecules by nitrogen molecules
Electromagnetic effects on the critical ionization velocity (CIV) process become important when the neutral gas velocity V(n) exceeds the local Alfven speed V(A). The electron heating due to unstable lower hybrid waves necessary for CIV still occurs, but the efficiency of the electron heating is significantly reduced when the electromagnetic effect comes into play. This is verified by a series of simulation runs using two-dimensional electromagnetic particle code combined with PANIC. The significance of the electromagnetic effects for the occurrence of CIV in the comet-solar wind interaction and other space phenomena is briefly discussed. It is found that the comet environment is marginal for the excitation of CIV.
Enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio in avalanche photodiodes by utilizing impact ionization gain requires materials exhibiting low excess noise factors. Amorphous selenium (a-Se) as a wide bandgap at ~2.1 eV, a solid-state avalanche layer, demonstrates single-carrier hole impact ionization gain and manifests ultralow thermal generation rates. A comprehensive study of the history dependent and non-Markovian nature of hot hole transport in a-Se was modeled using a Monte Carlo (MC) random walk of single hole free flights, interrupted by instantaneous phonon, disorder, hole–dipole, and impact-ionization scattering interactions. The hole excess noise factors were simulated for 0.1–15 μm a-Se thin-films as a function of mean avalanche gain. The hole excess noise factors in a-Se decreases with an increase in electric field, impact ionization gain, and device thickness. The history dependent nature of branching of holes is explained using a Gaussian avalanche threshold distance distribution and the dead space distance, which increases determinism in the stochastic impact ionization process. An ultralow non-Markovian excess noise factor of ~1 was simulated for 100 nm a-Se thin films corresponding to avalanche gains of 1000. Future detector designs can utilize the nonlocal/non-Markovian nature of the hole avalanche in a-Se, to enable a true solid-state photomultiplier with noiseless gain.
Height distribution analysis for kinetic molecular ionization-recombination processes in F 2 region during solar activities
In high density, high temperature plasmas, the plasma sheath that develops can result in extremely high electric fields, on the order of tens to hundreds of V/nm. Under the right conditions, these electric fields can reach magnitudes that can increase the probability of electron tunneling ionization to occur, resulting in one or more electron-ion pairs. The presence of tunneling ionization can then modify the development of the plasma sheath, as well as properties such as the ion and electron densities and plasma potential. The tunnel ionization process for hydrogen atoms is demonstrated, in this work, as implemented in a Sandia National Laboratories, particle-in-cell code Aleph. Results are presented for the application of the tunnel ionization process to a one-dimensional, undriven plasma sheath. Additional results for cases that consider warm ions and neutrals, the inclusion of electron–neutral collisions, and the injection of neutral particles, as well as the application to various plasma devices, will be discussed.