S. P. Kuo

Excitation of upper-hybrid waves by a thermal parametric instability

A purely growing instability characterized by a four-wave interaction has been analysed in a uniform, magnetized plasma. Up-shifted and down-shifted upper-hybrid waves and a non-oscillatory mode can be excited by a pump wave of ordinary rather than extraordinary polarization in the case of ionospheric heating. The differential Ohmic heating force dominates over the ponderomotive force as the wave–wave coupling mechanism. The beating current at zero frequency produces a significant stabilizing effect on the excitation of short-scale modes by counterbalancing the destabilizing effect of the differential Ohmic heating. The effect of ionospheric inhomogeneity is estimated, showing a tendency to raise the thresholds of the instability. When applied to ionospheric heating experiments, the present theory can explain the excitation of field-aligned plasma lines and ionospheric irregularities with a continuous spectrum ranging from metre-scale to hundreds of metre-scale. Further, the proposed mechanism may become a competitive process to the parametric decay instability and be responsible for the overshoot phenomena of the plasma line enhancement at Arecibo.

Plasma-Assisted Ignition in Scramjets

This study assesses the prospect of main-fuel ignition with plasma-generating devices in a supersonic flow. Progress from this study has established baseline conditions for operation, such as the required operational time of a device to initiate a combustion shock train as predicted by computational fluid dynamics computations. Two plasma torches were investigated: a direct current constricted-arc design and an alternating current unconstricted-arc design based on a modified spark plug. Both plasma torches are realistic in size and operate within the same current and voltage constraints, although differing substantially in orifice geometry. To compare the potential of each concept, the flow physics of each part of the igniter/fuel-injector/combustor system was studied. To understand the constraints involved with the ignition process of a hydrocarbon fuel jet, an experimental effort to study gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons was conducted, involving the testing of ethylene and JP-7 fuels with nitrogen and air plasmas. Results from individual igniter studies have shown plasma igniters to produce hot pockets of highly excited gas with peak temperatures up to 5000 K at only 2 kW total input power. In addition, ethylene and JP-7 flames with a significant level of the hydroxyl radical, as determined by planar laser-induced fluorescence, were also produced in a Mach 2 supersonic flow with a total temperature and pressure of 590 K and 5.4 atm. Information from these experiments is being applied to the generation of constraints and the development of a configuration with perceived high ignition potential in full scramjet combustor testing.

Characterization of an atmospheric pressure plasma generated by a plasma torch array

Based on a capacitively coupled electrical discharge scheme, it is demonstrated that an array of plasma torches can be lit up simultaneously to form a dense plasma layer in the open air by a single ac power source. The number of torches is only limited by the power handling capability of the source. The measured v–i characteristic of the discharge indicates that the torch is operating in the diffuse arc mode. Experiments have been performed to explore the effect of the plasma torches on the propagation of microwaves in an X-band rectangular waveguide by passing the plasma of the torches through holes in the top and bottom walls of the waveguide. The results show that the plasma torches can effectively attenuate microwaves. The wave–plasma interaction process is also analyzed numerically. The plasma parameters deduced from the theoretical model, by matching the numerical results with those of experiments, are shown to agree well with the experimental measurements.

CASCADING OF THE UPPER HYBRID/ELECTRON BERNSTEIN WAVE IN IONOSPHERIC HEATING EXPERIMENTS

Parametric decay of an upper hybrid/electron Bernstein pump wave into an upper hybrid/electron Bernstein sideband wave and a lower hybrid decay wave in the long‐wavelength regime is studied. It is found that the process associated with the electron Bernstein pump wave has a lower threshold field than that of a similar decay process of the upper hybrid pump wave when the instability is excited in the region away from the double resonance layer. Near the double resonance layer, where the upper hybrid resonance frequency equals a harmonic of the electron cyclotron frequency, the upper hybrid wave and the electron Bernstein wave become linearly coupled, and the threshold field of the parametric decay process changes back to a similar functional dependence as that of the upper hybrid decay process. Thus, their threshold fields approach each other. When incorporated with appropriate nonlinear scattering processes, this instability process along with its cascading is proposed to be the generation mechanism for t...

Plasma effect on shock waves in a supersonic flow

An experimental study of the plasma effect on the structure of an attached conical shock front appearing at the front end of a cone-shaped model has been carried out in a Mach 2.5 stream. The tip and the body of the model are designed as the cathode and anode, which are separated by a conical-shaped ceramic insulator providing a 5 mm gap for gaseous discharge. The electric field intensity near the cathode is enhanced by the sharpness of the tip. The experimental results show that the diffused discharge can produce plasma distributed symmetrically around the tip in the region in front of the shock wave. It is observed that such plasma can cause shock wave moving upstream with its shock front detached from the model. The shock front is also becoming more and more diffusive and having an increasing shock angle as seen in the shadow video graphs of the flow. A physical mechanism of the observed plasma effect on this type of shock wave is also presented.

Decontamination of biological warfare agents by a microwave plasma torch

A portable arc-seeded microwave plasma torch running stably with airflow is described and applied for the decontamination of biological warfare agents. Emission spectroscopy of the plasma torch indicated that this torch produced an abundance of reactive atomic oxygen that could effectively oxidize biological agents. Bacillus cereus was chosen as a simulant of Bacillus anthracis spores for biological agent in the decontamination experiments. Decontamination was performed with the airflow rate of 0.393l∕s, corresponding to a maximum concentration of atomic oxygen produced by the torch. The experimental results showed that all spores were killed in less than 8 s at 3 cm distance, 12 s at 4 cm distance, and 16 s at 5 cm distance away from the nozzle of the torch.

A theoretical model for the broad upshifted maximum in the stimulated electromagnetic emission spectrum

A second-order four-wave interaction process including two pump photons, an upper hybrid plasmon, and an electron Bernstein plasmon is studied. The pump is the second harmonic of the HF heater in the plasma. It is found that, when the heater wave frequency f0 is above a harmonic of the electron cyclotron frequency fc, frequency-upshifted upper hybrid waves and frequency-downshifted electron Bernstein waves can be excited above the upper hybrid resonance layer via the considered process. The process occurs in a local region where the heater wave frequency is about the mean of the upper hybrid wave frequency and the electron Bernstein wave frequency. Moreover, in this interaction process, a low-frequency electrostatic oscillation in the frequency range of the lower hybrid wave is generated through nonlinear coupling of the HF heater wave with the excited high-frequency electrostatic waves. However, this wave does not satisfy the linear dispersion relation of the lower hybrid wave and is thus a driven wave. The excited frequency-upshifted upper hybrid waves can then scatter off field-aligned density irregularities to generate O - mode emissions with frequencies around 2f0 − nfc This is consistent with observations of the broad upshifted maximum (BUM) feature in the stimulated electromagnetic emission (SEE) spectrum. The concomitantly excited frequency-downshifted electron Bernstein waves are found to have much smaller amplitudes; hence their scattering products are also relatively weak. This explains why only BUM lines are detected. Furthermore, the driven low-frequency fluctuations can also be the scatterers to convert the upper hybrid waves into emissions with frequencies aroundy fBUM + fLH and fBUM − fLH, where fLH is the lower hybrid wave frequency. This is suggested to be the generation mechanism of the second BUM feature which appears when the shoulder of the BUM feature is not very high.

Filamentation instability in magneto plasmas

It is shown that the filamentation of ordinary‐mode pumps propagating at an arbitrary angle with respect to the magnetic field has to be magnetic field‐aligned, but not for extraordinary‐mode pumps. A general dispersion relation is derived including the effects of magnetic field and collisions, and the nonlinear effects of ponderomotive force, thermal focusing force, and the beating currents. Threshold field and growth rates are obtained and compared to the results of the unmagnetized and collisionless case. Applications of these results to ionospheric modifications are discussed.

Contribution of a portable air plasma torch to rapid blood coagulation as a method of preventing bleeding

The effectiveness and mechanism of a low temperature air plasma torch in clotting blood are explored. Both blood droplets and smeared blood samples were used in the tests. The treated droplet samples reveal how blood clotting depends on the distance at which the torch operated, and for how long the droplets have been exposed to the torch. Microscopy and cell count of smeared blood samples shed light on dependencies of erythrocyte and platelet counts on torch distance and exposure time. With an increase of torch distance, the platelet count of treated blood samples increases but is less than that of the control. The flux of reactive atomic oxygen (RAO) and the degree of blood clotting decreased. With an increase of exposure time, platelet count of treated samples decreased, while the degree of clot increased. The correlation among these dependencies and published data support a blood clotting mechanism that RAO as well as other likely reactive oxygen species generated by the plasma torch activate erythrocyte-platelets interactions and induces blood coagulation.

Experimental study of wave propagation through a rapidly created plasma

Frequency upconversion and converting a CW source microwave into a frequency upshifted and chirped periodic pulse have been demonstrated by two experiments. In the first one, the CW source microwave propagates through a periodically microwave-discharged plasma. The CW source microwave is converted into a periodic pulse having upshifted carrier frequency. The second one uses a high-voltage ( approximately 100-kV) DC discharge to generate a dense plasma suddenly between two parallel plates. A frequency upshifted and chirped pulse ( approximately 2 ns) converting from the CW source microwave interacting with the suddenly created plasma is observed. The central frequency ( approximately 6.4 GHz) of the pulse is upshifted from the frequency ( approximately 4.7 GHz) of the source wave by about 40%. Moreover, frequency components which are upshifted as high as 80% are also observed. >