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Results for “PLASMA FILAMENT”

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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2016

Initial measurements of two- and three-dimensional ordering, waves, and plasma filamentation in the Magnetized Dusty Plasma Experiment

The Magnetized Dusty Plasma Experiment at Auburn University has been operational for over one year. In that time, a number of experiments have been performed at magnetic fields up to B = 2.5 T to explore the interaction between magnetized plasmas and charged, micron-sized dust particles. This paper reports on the initial results from studies of: (a) the formation of imposed, ordered structures, (b) the properties of dust wave waves in a rotating frame, and (c) the generation of plasma filaments.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Diagnosis of femtosecond plasma filament by channeling microwaves along the filament

We introduce a simple, fast, and non-intrusive experimental method to obtain the basic parameters of femtosecond laser-generated plasma filament. The method is based on the channeling of microwaves along both a plasma filament and a well-defined conducting wire. By comparing the detected microwaves that propagate along the plasma filament and a copper wire with known conductivity and spatial dimension, the basic parameters of the plasma filament can be easily obtained. As a result of the possibility of channeling microwave radiation along the plasma filament, we were then able to obtain the plasma density distribution along the filament length.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2015

Terahertz waves radiated from two noncollinear femtosecond plasma filaments

Terahertz (THz) waves radiated from two noncollinear femtosecond plasma filaments with a crossing angle of 25° are investigated. The irradiated THz waves from the crossing filaments show a small THz pulse after the main THz pulse, which was not observed in those from single-filament scheme. Since the position of the small THz pulse changes with the time-delay of two filaments, this phenomenon can be explained by a model in which the small THz pulse is from the second filament. The denser plasma in the overlap region of the filaments changes the movement of space charges in the plasma, thereby changing the angular distribution of THz radiation. As a result, this schematic induces some THz wave from the second filament to propagate along the path of the THz wave from the first filament. Thus, this schematic alters the direction of the THz radiation from the filamentation, which can be used in THz wave remote sensing.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

The interaction of polarized microwaves with planar arrays of femtosecond laser-produced plasma filaments in air

The interaction of polarized microwaves with subwavelength arrays of parallel plasma filaments, such as those produced by the propagation of high-power femtosecond laser pulses in ambient air, was investigated by calculating the reflection and transmission coefficients as a function of the incidence angles using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The time evolution of these coefficients was calculated and compared with experiments. It is found that the plasma filaments array becomes transparent when the polarization of the microwave radiation is perpendicular to the filaments axis, regardless the incidence angle of the microwave with respect to the filaments, except near grazing incidence. Increasing the filaments electron density or diameter, or decreasing the electron collision frequency or filaments spacing, decreases the transmission and increases the reflection. Transmission decreases when increasing the number of filament layers while reflection remains unchanged as the number of filament layers exceeds a given number ({approx}3 in our case). Transmission slightly increases when disorder is introduced in the filament arrays. The detailed calculation results are compared with those obtained from the simple birefringent slab model, which provides a convenient framework to calculate approximately the properties of filament arrays.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

The Origin of Solar Filament Plasma Inferred from In Situ Observations of Elemental Abundances

Solar filaments/prominences are one of the most common features in the corona, which may lead to energetic coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and flares when they erupt. Filaments are about 100 times cooler and denser than the coronal material, and physical understanding of their material origin remains controversial. Two types of scenarios have been proposed: one argues that the filament plasma is brought into the corona from photosphere or chromosphere through a siphon or evaporation/injection process, while the other suggests that the material condenses from the surrounding coronal plasma due to thermal instability. The elemental abundance analysis is a reasonable clue to constrain the models, as the siphon or evaporation/injection model would predict that the filament material abundances are close to the photospheric or chromospheric ones, while the condensation model should have coronal abundances. In this Letter, we analyze the elemental abundances of a magnetic cloud that contains the ejected filament material. The corresponding filament eruption occurred on 1998 April 29, accompanying an M6.8 class soft X-ray flare located at the heliographic coordinates S18E20 (NOAA 08210) and a fast halo CME with the linear velocity of 1374 km s{sup −1} near the Sun. We find that the abundance ratios of elements with low and high first ionization potential such as Fe/O, Mg/O, and Si/O are 0.150, 0.050, and 0.070, respectively, approaching their corresponding photospheric values 0.065, 0.081, and 0.066, which does not support the coronal origin of the filament plasma.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Plasma filaments in the scrape-off layer of Wendelstein 7-X

Plasma filaments have been observed by reciprocating electric probes in the Scrape-Off Layer (SOL) of the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator. Comparison with target probes indicates that a filament observed in the W7-X SOL extends to the sheath. Two-dimensional simulations of seeded filaments exhibit good quantitative agreement with experimental measurements in filament velocity scalings, despite an assumption of constant field line curvature. Both experiment and simulation show a slow radial propagation of filaments, indicating that filaments are essentially bound to their flux surface and do not perform ballistic radial motion. In contrast, the poloidal propagation along flux surfaces is much faster than the radial motion.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

Temporal evolution of femtosecond laser induced plasma filament in air and N{sub 2}

We present single shot, high resolution, time-resolved measurements of the relaxation of laser induced plasma filaments in air and in N{sub 2} gas. Based on the measurements of the time dependent electromagnetic signal in a waveguide, an accurate and simple derivation of the electron density in the filament is demonstrated. This experimental method does not require prior knowledge of filament dimensions or control over its exact spatial location. The experimental results are compared to numerical simulations of air plasma chemistry. Results reveal the role of various decay mechanisms including the importance of O{sub 4}{sup +} molecular levels.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Computational studies for plasma filamentation by magnetic field in atmospheric microwave discharge

Plasma filamentation is induced by an external magnetic field in an atmospheric discharge using intense microwaves. A discrete structure is obtained at low ambient pressure if a strong magnetic field of more than 1 T is applied, due to the suppression of electron diffusion, whereas a diffusive pattern is generated with no external field. Applying a magnetic field can slow the discharge front propagation due to magnetic confinement of the electron transport. If the resonance conditions are satisfied for electron cyclotron resonance and its higher harmonics, the propagation speed increases because the heated electrons easily ionize neutral particles. The streamer velocity and the pattern of the microwave plasma are positively controlled by adjusting two parameters—the electron diffusion coefficient and the ionization frequency—through the resonance process and magnetic confinement, and hot, dense filamentary plasma can be concentrated in a compact volume to reduce energy loss in a plasma device like a microwave rocket.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Single-shot local measurement of terahertz correlated second harmonic generation in laser air plasma filaments

We present a single-shot detection method of terahertz correlated second harmonic generation in plasma-based sources by directly mixing an optical probe into femtosecond laser-induced plasma filaments in air. Furthermore, the single-shot second harmonic trace is obtained by measuring a second harmonic generation on a conventional CCD with a spatiotemporally distorted probe beam. The system shows a spectrometer resolution of 22 fs/pixel on the CCD and a true resolution on the order of the probe pulse duration. With considerable THz peak electric field strength, this formalism can open the door to single-shot THz detection without bandwidth limitations.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2016

Plasma filamentation and shock wave enhancement in microwave rockets by combining low-frequency microwaves with external magnetic field

A filamentary plasma is reproduced based on a fully kinetic model of electron and ion transports coupled with electromagnetic wave propagation. The discharge plasma transits from discrete to diffusive patterns at a 110-GHz breakdown, with decrease in the ambient pressure, because of the rapid electron diffusion that occurs during an increase in the propagation speed of the ionization front. A discrete plasma is obtained at low pressures when a low-frequency microwave is irradiated because the ionization process becomes more dominant than the electron diffusion, when the electrons are effectively heated by the low-frequency microwave. The propagation speed of the plasma increases with decrease in the incident microwave frequency because of the higher ionization frequency and faster plasma diffusion resulting from the increase in the energy-absorption rate. An external magnetic field is applied to the breakdown volume, which induces plasma filamentation at lower pressures because the electron diffusion is suppressed by the magnetic field. The thrust performance of a microwave rocket is improved by the magnetic fields corresponding to the electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) and its higher-harmonic heating, because slower propagation of the ionization front and larger energy-absorption rates are obtained at lower pressures. It would be advantageous if the fundamental mode of ECR heating is coupled with a lower frequency microwave instead of combining the higher-harmonic ECR heating with the higher frequency microwave. This can improve the thrust performance with smaller magnetic fields even if the propagation speed increases because of the decrease in the incident microwave frequency.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Three dimensional simulations of plasma filaments in the scrape off layer: A comparison with models of reduced dimensionality

This paper presents simulations of isolated 3D filaments in a slab geometry obtained using a newly developed 3D reduced fluid code, written using the BOUT++ framework. First, systematic scans were performed to investigate how the dynamics of a filament are affected by its amplitude, perpendicular size, and parallel extent. The perpendicular size of the filament was found to have a strong influence on its motions, as it determined the relative importance of parallel currents to polarization and viscous currents, whilst drift-wave instabilities were observed if the initial amplitude of the blob was increased sufficiently. Next, the 3D simulations were compared to 2D simulations using different parallel closures; namely, the sheath dissipation closure, which neglects parallel gradients, and the vorticity advection closure, which neglects the influence of parallel currents. The vorticity advection closure was found to not replicate the 3D perpendicular dynamics and overestimated the initial radial acceleration of all the filaments studied. In contrast, a more satisfactory comparison with the sheath dissipation closure was obtained, even in the presence of significant parallel gradients, where the closure is no longer valid. Specifically, it captured the contrasting dynamics of filaments with different perpendicular sizes that were observed in the 3D simulations which the vorticity advection closure failed to replicate. However, neither closure successfully replicated the Boltzmann spinning effects nor the associated poloidal drift of the blob that was observed in the 3D simulations. Although the sheath dissipation closure was concluded to be more successful in replicating the 3D dynamics, it is emphasized that the vorticity advection closure may still be relevant for situations where the parallel current is inhibited from closing through the sheath due to effects such as strong magnetic shear around X points or increased resistivity near the targets.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Effect of chaos on plasma filament dynamics and turbulence in the scrape-off layer

Naturally occurring error fields as well as resonant magnetic perturbations applied for stability control are known to cause magnetic field-line chaos in the scrape-off layer (SOL) region of tokamaks. Here, 2D simulations with the BOUT++ simulation framework are used to investigate the effect of the field-line chaos on the SOL and in particular on its width and peak particle flux. The chaos enters the SOL dynamics only through the connection length, which is evaluated using a Poincaré map. The variation of experimentally relevant quantities, such as the SOL gradient length scale and the intermittency of the particle flux in the SOL, is described as a function of the strength of the magnetic perturbation. It is found that the effect of the chaos is to broaden the profile of the sheath-loss coefficient, which is proportional to the inverse connection length. That is, the SOL transport in a chaotic field is equivalent to that in a model where the sheath-loss coefficient is replaced by its average over the unperturbed flux surfaces. The model does not include the effects of chaotic features other than the parallel connection length.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Observation of the Rabi Splitting of Oxygen Atomic Levels in Filament Plasma Formed by a Femtosecond Ti:Sa Laser Pulse

Dynamics of the emission spectrum of a highly focused femtosecond laser pulse under filamentation in air have been investigated. A peak at 735 nm and a drop in the laser-beam intensity at the fundamental wavelength are observed in the spectrum of a laser pulse passed through the filamentation zone. It is shown that the peak is likely due to the Rabi splitting of the O I levels and breaking of the LS coupling for the 3p{sup 5}P level in a strong laser field.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Novel angular velocity estimation technique for plasma filaments

Magnetic field aligned filaments such as blobs and edge localized mode filaments carry significant amounts of heat and particles to the plasma facing components and they decrease their lifetime. The dynamics of these filaments determine at least a part of the heat and particle loads. These dynamics can be characterized by their translation and rotation. In this paper, we present an analysis method novel for fusion plasmas, which can estimate the angular velocity of the filaments on frame-by-frame time resolution. After pre-processing, the frames are two-dimensional (2D) Fourier-transformed, then the resulting 2D Fourier magnitude spectra are transformed to log-polar coordinates, and finally the 2D cross-correlation coefficient function (CCCF) is calculated between the consecutive frames. The displacement of the CCCF’s peak along the angular coordinate estimates the angle of rotation of the most intense structure in the frame. Further, the proposed angular velocity estimation method is tested and validated for its accuracy and robustness by applying it to rotating Gaussian-structures. The method is also applied to gas-puff imaging measurements of filaments in National Spherical Torus Experiment plasmas.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Expansion dynamics and chemistry evolution in ultrafast laser filament produced plasmas

Laser ablation in conjunction with optical emission spectroscopy is a potential non-contact, standoff detection method for all elements in the periodic table and certain isotopes such as radionuclides. Currently, significant development efforts are on-going to use ultrafast laser filaments for remote sensing. The application of filaments is of particular interest in extending the range of stand-off capability associated with elemental and isotopic detection via laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. In this study, we characterize the expansion dynamics and chemical evolution of filament-produced uranium (U) plasmas. Laser filaments are generated in the laboratory by loosely focusing 35 femtosecond (fs), 6 milli Joule (mJ) pulses in air. Two-dimensional spectrally-integrated and time-resolved imaging was performed to study hydrodynamics and evolution of U atomic and UO molecular emission in filament-produced U plasmas. Our results highlight that filament ablation of U plasmas gives a cylindrical plasma plume morphology with an appearance of plume splitting into slow and fast moving components at later times of its evolution. Emission from the slow-moving region shows no distinct spectral features (i.e. broadband-like) and is contributed in part by nanoparticles generated during ultrafast laser ablation. Additionally, we find U atoms and U oxide molecules (i.e. UO, UxOy) co-exist in the filament produced plasma, which can be attributed to the generation of low-temperature plasma conditions during filament ablation

(140.3440) Laser-induced breakdown, (280.5395) Pla↗