Physics

In a recent paper (Krishan 2021), a two-fluid description of a partially ionized plasma was presented in which electron fluid and the neutral fluid were combined appropriately into one fluid, christened as ENe fluid, and treat the ions as the second fluid. Some of the electrostatic modes of this two-fluid system were studied. Here, I discuss another possibility in which the ion fluid and the neutral fluid are combined into one fluid, christened as INe fluid, and treat the electrons as the second fluid. There can be a huge variation between the relative masses of the neutrals and the ions. Thus both have to be treated as the inertia carrying species. After establishing the framework for the INe-electron fluids, some of the characteristic wave modes of this novel plasma are investigated.

Neutron production rates in fusion devices are determined not only by the kinetic profiles but also the fast ion slowing-down distributions. In this work, we investigate the effect of magnetic configuration on neutron production rates in future deuterium plasmas in the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator. The neutral beam injection, beam and triton slowing-down distributions, and the fusion reactivity are simulated with the ASCOT suite of codes. The results indicate that the magnetic configuration has only a small effect on the production of 2.45 MeV neutrons from thermonuclear and beam-target fusion. The 14.1 MeV neutron production rates were found to be between 1.49× 10 12 s −1 and 1.67× 10 12 s −1 , which is estimated to be sufficient for a time-resolved detection using a scintillating fiber detector, although only in high-performance discharges.

Warm dense matter (WDM) is an exotic state on the border between condensed matter and dense plasmas. Important occurrences of WDM include dense astrophysical objects, matter in the core of our Earth, as well as matter produced in strong compression experiments. As of late, x-ray Thomson scattering has become an advanced tool to diagnose WDM. The interpretation of the data requires model input for the dynamic structure factor S(q,ω) and the plasmon dispersion ω(q) . Recently the first \textit{ab initio} results for S(q,ω) of the homogeneous warm dense electron gas were obtained from path integral Monte Carlo simulations, [Dornheim \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{121}, 255001 (2018)]. Here, we analyse the effects of correlations and finite temperature on the dynamic dielectric function and the plasmon dispersion. Our results for the plasmon dispersion and damping differ significantly from the random phase approximation and from earlier models of the correlated electron gas. Moreover, we show when commonly used weak damping approximations break down and how the method of complex zeros of the dielectric function can solve this problem for WDM conditions.

It is shown that the turbulent flow of acoustic waves propagating outward from the inner edge of the disk causes the accretion of the matter onto the center. The exponential amplification of waves takes place in the resonance region, ω=(n±1)Ω . Here ω is the frequency of the acoustic wave, n is its azimuthal wave number, Ω(r) is the angular frequency of rotation of the disk. The effect is similar to the inverse Landau damping in a collisionless plasma. Energy comes from the energy of rotation of the disk. That leads to decrease of the disk angular momentum and to accretion of the matter. The value of the accretion rate dM/dt is M ˙ =πr c s Σ 0 ( c s / v ϕ0 ) 2 W . Here c s is the speed of sound of the disk gas, v ϕ0 is the Keplerian rotation velocity, Σ 0 is the surface density of the disk, W is total power of the acoustic turbulence, W≃ ∫ ∞ 0 dω ∑ n≥0 ∣ ∣ Σ ′ Σ 0 ∣ ∣ 2 (ω,n) , | Σ ′ | 2 (ω,n) is the spectral power of turbulence. The presented picture of accretion is consistent with the observed variations of X-ray and optical radiation from objects whose activity is associated with accretion of gas onto them.

Active Janus particles suspended in a plasma were studied experimentally. The Janus particles were micron-size plastic microspheres, one half of which was coated with a thin layer of platinum. They were suspended in the plasma sheath of a radio-frequency discharge in argon at low pressure. The Janus particles moved in characteristic looped trajectories suggesting a combination of spinning and circling motion; their interactions led to the emergence of rich dynamics characterized by non-Maxwellian velocity distribution. The particle propulsion mechanism is discussed, the main force driving the particle motion is identified as photophoretic force.

The design of a stellarator with acceptable confinement properties requires optimization of the magnetic field in the non-convex, high-dimensional spaces describing their geometry. Another major challenge facing the stellarator program is the sensitive dependence of confinement properties on electro-magnetic coil shapes, necessitating the construction of the coils under tight tolerances. In this Thesis, we address these challenges with the application of adjoint methods and shape sensitivity analysis. Adjoint methods enable the efficient computation of the gradient of a function that depends on the solution to a system of equations, such as linear or nonlinear PDEs. This enables gradient-based optimization in high-dimensional spaces and efficient sensitivity analysis. We present the first applications of adjoint methods for stellarator shape optimization. The first example we discuss is the optimization of coil shapes based on the generalization of a continuous current potential model. Understanding the sensitivity of coil metrics to perturbations of the winding surface allows us to understand features of configurations that enable simpler coils. We next consider solutions of the drift-kinetic equation. An adjoint drift-kinetic equation is derived based on the self-adjointness property of the Fokker-Planck collision operator, allowing us to compute the sensitivity of neoclassical quantities to perturbations of the magnetic field strength. Finally, we consider functions that depend on solutions of the MHD equilibrium equations. We generalize the self-adjointness property of the MHD force operator to include perturbations of the rotational transform and the currents outside the confinement region. This self-adjointness property is applied to develop an adjoint method for computing the derivatives of such functions with respect to perturbations of coil shapes or the plasma boundary.

We present space and time resolved measurements of the air hydrodynamics induced by ultrafast laser pulse excitation of the air gap between two electrodes at high potential difference. We explore both plasma-based and plasma-free gap excitation. The former uses the plasma left in the wake of femtosecond filamentation, while the latter exploits air heating by multiple-pulse resonant excitation of quantum molecular wavepackets. We find that the cumulative electrode-driven air density depression channel initiated by the laser plays the dominant role in the gap evolution leading to breakdown.

Injection of well-defined, high-quality electron populations into plasma waves is a key challenge of plasma wakefield accelerators. Here, we report on the first experimental demonstration of plasma density downramp injection in an electron-driven plasma wakefield accelerator, which can be controlled and tuned in all-optical fashion by mJ-level laser pulses. The laser pulse is directed across the path of the plasma wave before its arrival, where it generates a local plasma density spike in addition to the background plasma by tunnelling ionization of a high ionization threshold gas component. This density spike distorts the plasma wave during the density downramp, causing plasma electrons to be injected into the plasma wave. By tuning the laser pulse energy and shape, highly flexible plasma density spike profiles can be designed, enabling dark current free, versatile production of high-quality electron beams. This in turn permits creation of unique injected beam configurations such as counter-oscillating twin beamlets.

We report on a recently developed laser-probing diagnostic which allows direct measurements of ray-deflection angles in one axis, whilst retaining imaging capabilities in the other axis. This allows us to measure the spectrum of angular deflections from a laser beam which passes though a turbulent high-energy-density plasma. This spectrum contains information about the density fluctuations within the plasma, which deflect the probing laser over a range of angles. %The principle of this diagnostic is described, along with our specific experimental realisation. We create synthetic diagnostics using ray-tracing to compare this new diagnostic with standard shadowgraphy and schlieren imaging approaches, which demonstrates the enhanced sensitivity of this new diagnostic over standard techniques. We present experimental data from turbulence behind a reverse shock in a plasma and demonstrate that this technique can measure angular deflections between 0.06 and 34 mrad, corresponding to a dynamic range of over 500.

The essay gives an overview on researches in the field of laser ion acceleration, focusing on two types of targets. There are many types of targets while they can all be divided into targets that apply single ion or multiple ions. Mixed solid targets are proven efficient in accelerating heavy ions and generate high-quality ion beams with energy divergence lower than 5%. Traditional methods like TNSA are mainly used to accelerate protons or heavy ions and there are still many spaces for modification and improvement. Applications of laser-driven ion beams are wide in fields like detector technology, cancer therapy and so on, which is promising and necessary.