Scaling of Microcavity Plasmas Toward 1 µm. Science and Engineering of Spatially-Confined, Low Temperature Plasmas
- Univ. of Illinois, Champaign, IL (United States)
The DOE has provided, by means of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), $146,400 in funding for the purchase of scientific equipment. Specifically, these funds have enabled the purchase of two scientific cameras that have already been applied to the research in microcavity plasmas at the University of Illinois (Urbana). The first camera system that was purchased with these funds is a gated ICCD system that allows events as short as 5 ns in time to be captured. It is difficult to express the impact that this equipment has already had on our research. Despite having arrived just 6 - 7 months ago, this camera system has already been used by five graduate students and several undergraduates to capture phenomena that we simply could not see in the past. As an example, the low temperature plasma confined to a spiral structure we fabricate in the Al/Al₂O₃ materials system appears, on long time scales such as those we see with our eyes, to be spatially uniform. However, when captured with the new camera system, the plasma actually is formed initially at the center of the spiral and then moves radially (literally, "jumping" over channels as it goes) at a velocity of a few km/sec. This is an exciting result and I should add that the camera shows that plasma standing waves are produced in some of the structures as well. We do not currently understand all of the phenomena we are witnessing but it is obvious that this new system has quite literally opened new areas of plasma research and application. The second system purchased under this ARRA grant is an infrared system that is far more sensitive than anything our laboratory (or the University of Illinois, for that matter) has had previously. Although fewer experiments have been completed to date with this second camera, it is already clear that it is, indeed, extremely sensitive and it is slated for several experiments in the near future in which we will be measuring the infrared spectra of several arrays of microcavity plasmas. In summary, let me express my thanks to the DOE for granting these funds. We are most grateful for the extraordinary scientific capability that thee funds provide our students. We expect that the scientific data already acquired by this equipment will result in several publications in the next 2 - 3 months (two are being written now). Furthermore, the ability we now have to watch plasmas evolve on the nanosecond time scale has given us several ideas that are likely to result in patent applications. On behalf of our students and myself, I thank the DOE for this exceptional equipment.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE SC Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (SC-24)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0001540
- OSTI ID:
- 1035880
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/SC0001540-01
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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