QUARTERLY STATUS REPORT OF THE LASL CONTROLLED THERMONUCLEAR RESEARCH PROGRAM FOR PERIOD ENDING MAY 20, 1961

Technical Report · Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1961

OSTI ID:4026721

The width of the He II 4686 A line was used to estimate the temperature of trapped helium ions injected into a simple picket fence magnetic field. With the assumption of a Maxwellian distribution, an average ion temperature of approximately 100 ev was measured under optimum conditions in the interval of 50 to 80 mu sec after the hydromagnetic gun is fired. The electron energy was measured by the ratio of the intensities of the He I 4921 A and 4713 A lines and found to be constant, approximately 20 ev, between 50 and 80 mu sec. The performance of the gun used in the bakeable picket fence experiment was investigated as a function of center electrode polarity and method of switching. Measurements of the neutron yield ( approximately 5 x 10/sup 4/ per discharge) produced by the deuterium jet interacting with deuteriurm surface layers on a 10- cm diameter glass plate 45 cm from the gun were consistant with plasma jet densities of approximately 10/sup 13/ deuterons/cm/sup 3/ and approximately 25 kev energy. A particle detecter was constructed which measures ion densities in plasma jets produced by fast hydromagnetic guns. Perturbations of the feedpoint ( approximately 3.7 cm thick) of the one-turn coil on the magnetic field with the Orthogonal Pinch experiment were studied by building a spedial symmetric coil fed by a parallel plate transmission line approximately 0.2 cm thick. The neutron yield with the symmetric coil gave one-half the neutron yield with the thick feedpoint. Metal fins approximating a second feedpoint were attached to both coils with a decrease in neutron yield of one-third with the thick feedpoint and an increase in the neutron yield by only approximately 10% for the symmetric coil. It was concluded that the mechanism of neutron production in this machine is influenced by the magnetic asymmetry introduced by the non-symmetric cross section of the driving coil geometry. In the resonant helix experiment the orbits of 2-kev electrons passing through the helix in the forward and backward directions were followed by a computer for a number of longitudinal velocities of the electron. It is found that in the forward direction there is in general a step increase in the longitudinal energy. Containment times were determined by measuring the diamagnetism produced by the trapped electrons and by the loss rate of electrons out the far mirror. The problem of the collisional relaxation of a fast test charge moving through a gas of field electrons and ions was described by the asymptotic form of the Fokker-Planck equation, and an analytic solution was obtained. The results are used to study the production of a second peak in the velocity distribution function. In the study of the scattering of microwaves by plasmas, work is continuing on the study of the incoherent scattering induced by external fields. In the colliding plasma experiment the fast components were observed to interact and produce plasma at temperatures of 3 kev at particle densities of approximately 10/sup 14/ per cm/sup 3/. The slow components interacted with considerable conversion of longitudinal to random energy producing kT/sub i/ approximately 100 ev and density approximately 10/sup 16/ per cm/sup 3/. The plasma from a coaxial gun was observed to penetrate a transverse magnetic field and to polarize as expected. In Scylla III the plasma was observed to develop an m = 2 flute instability with superimposed rotation of the plasma as a whole. The plasma tended to stabilize when the compression coil is lengthened. New spectral lines of F VIII and F IX were excited in Scylla I and classified. Line broadening measurements of the impurity lines in Scylla I give equivalent O, F, and Ne ion temperatures much larger than the deuteron temperature inferred from broadening of the d-d proton line. A new magnetic compression experiment is being designed to excite plasma in long coils. The low- inductance cabled shelf of Zeus generated interest in the use of the system as a power crowbar in a new Scylla experiment. It was found that, although Zeus has always been positive, parts should be charged negative. (auth)

• Research Organization: Los Alamos Scientific Lab., N. Mex.
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• NSA Number: NSA-15-024414
• OSTI ID: 4026721
• Report Number(s): LAMS-2570
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-61
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

PHYSICS
COILS
COMPUTERS
DENSITY
DETECTION
DEUTERIUM
DEUTERONS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
ELECTRIC CHARGES
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
ELECTRODES
ELECTRONS
EQUATIONS
FLUORINE
FOKKER-PLANCK EQUATION
GASES
GLASS
HELIUM
IMPURITIES
INJECTION
INTERACTIONS
IONS
JETS
LAYERS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETIC MIRRORS
MEASURED VALUES
MICROWAVES
NEON
NEUTRONS
ORBITS
OXYGEN
PERTURBATION THEORY
PLASMA
PLASMA GUNS
PLATES
POLARIZATION
PRODUCTION
PROTONS
RESONANCE
ROTATION
SCATTERING
SCYLLA 1
SCYLLA 3
SPECTRA
SPECTROSCOPY
STABILITY
SURFACES
TEMPERATURE
THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
USES
ZEUS