Vernon H. Chaplin

Spectroscopic measurements of temperature and plasma impurity concentration during magnetic reconnection at the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment

Electron temperature measurements during counterhelicity spheromak merging studies at the Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment (SSX) [M. R. Brown, Phys. Plasmas 6, 1717 (1999)] are presented. VUV monochromator measurements of impurity emission lines are compared with model spectra produced by the non-LTE excitation kinematics code PRISMSPECT [J. J. MacFarlane et al., in Proceedings of the Third Conference on Inertial Fusion Science and Applications (2004)] to yield the electron temperature in the plasma with 1 μs time resolution. Average Te is seen to increase from 12 to 19 eV during spheromak merging. Average C III ion temperature, measured with a new ion Doppler spectrometer (IDS) [C. D. Cothran et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 77, 063504 (2006)], likewise rises during spheromak merging, peaking at ∼22 eV, but a similar increase in Ti is seen during single spheromak discharges with no merging. The VUV emission line measurements are also used to constrain the concentrations of various impurities in the SSX plasma, ...

Fast Ignitron Trigger Circuit Using Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors

This paper describes a low cost, easy-to-implement circuit for triggering ignitrons in plasma physics experiments and other pulsed power applications. Using insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) for rapid switching, the circuit delivers >2 peak current from a 0.1-μF capacitor to the ignitron trigger pin with a rise time of ~ 0.6 μs. The trigger circuit is isolated from the ignitron by a pulse transformer. Details of the circuit design and practical considerations for working with IGBTs are discussed. Sources of inductance in the system are identified, and leakage inductance associated with the pulse transformer is shown to be the primary factor limiting the pulse rise time.

Battery-powered pulsed high density inductively coupled plasma source for pre-ionization in laboratory astrophysics experiments

An electrically floating radiofrequency (RF) pre-ionization plasma source has been developed to enable neutral gas breakdown at lower pressures and to access new experimental regimes in the Caltech laboratory astrophysics experiments. The source uses a customized 13.56 MHz class D RF power amplifier that is powered by AA batteries, allowing it to safely float at 3-6 kV with the electrodes of the high voltage pulsed power experiments. The amplifier, which is capable of 3 kW output power in pulsed (<1 ms) operation, couples electrical energy to the plasma through an antenna external to the 1.1 cm radius discharge tube. By comparing the predictions of a global equilibrium discharge model with the measured scalings of plasma density with RF power input and axial magnetic field strength, we demonstrate that inductive coupling (rather than capacitive coupling or wave damping) is the dominant energy transfer mechanism. Peak ion densities exceeding 5 × 10(19) m(-3) in argon gas at 30 mTorr have been achieved with and without a background field. Installation of the pre-ionization source on a magnetohydrodynamically driven jet experiment reduced the breakdown time and jitter and allowed for the creation of hotter, faster argon plasma jets than was previously possible.

One-dimensional time-dependent fluid model of a very high density low-pressure inductively coupled plasma

A time-dependent two-fluid model has been developed to understand axial variations in the plasma parameters in a very high density (peak n_e ≳5×10^(19)  m^(−3)) argon inductively coupled discharge in a long 1.1 cm radius tube. The model equations are written in 1D with radial losses to the tube walls accounted for by the inclusion of effective particle and energy sink terms. The ambipolar diffusion equation and electron energy equation are solved to find the electron density n_e (z,t) and temperature T_e (z,t), and the populations of the neutral argon 4s metastable, 4s resonant, and 4pexcited state manifolds are calculated to determine the stepwise ionization rate and calculate radiative energy losses. The model has been validated through comparisons with Langmuir probe ion saturation current measurements; close agreement between the simulated and measured axial plasma density profiles and the initial density rise rate at each location was obtained at pAr =30−60 mTorr. We present detailed results from calculations at 60 mTorr, including the time-dependent electron temperature, excited state populations, and energy budget within and downstream of the radiofrequency antenna.

3D Simulations of Ion Thruster Accelerator Grid Erosion Accounting for Charge Exchange Ion Space Charge

Accelerator (accel) grid sputtering by ions formed through charge-exchange (CEX) reactions between beam ions and residual neutral gas is a critical life-limiting mechanism for gridded ion thrusters. The three-dimensional ion optics code CEX3D is designed to simulate this grid erosion for a single beamlet, with a particular emphasis on non-axisymmetric features such as the “pits and grooves” erosion commonly observed on the accel grid downstream face in two-grid thrusters. The treatment of CEX ions in the code was recently upgraded with a new particle-in-cell (PIC) module to account for the influence of these ions’ space charge on the electrostatic potential downstream of the grids. In order to achieve reasonable computation times while resolving the Debye length near the grids and avoiding gross violations of the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) condition, macroparticle velocities in the PIC calculation are limited through a rescaling procedure that preserves ion trajectories and space charge density. The code accounts for beamdivergence, finitemomentum transfer in CEX collisions, and radial losses of CEX ions from the beam; these effects are important for determining the CEX ion flux to the accel grid because the calculated potential downstream of the grids can become very flat. The upgraded code has been used to simulate operation of NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) during the 51 kHr Long Duration Test—a selection of results is presented and compared with experimental data.

Center conductor diagnostic for multipactor detection in inaccessible geometries

Electron collecting current probes are the most reliable diagnostic of multipactor and radiofrequency (RF) ionization breakdown; however, stand-alone probes can only be used in test setups where the breakdown region is physically accessible. This paper describes techniques for measuring multipactor current directly on the center conductor of a coaxial RF device (or more generally, on the signal line in any two-conductor RF system) enabling global multipactor detection with improved sensitivity compared to other common diagnostics such as phase null, third harmonic, and reflected power. The center conductor diagnostic may be AC coupled for use in systems with a low DC impedance between the center conductor and ground. The effect of DC bias on the breakdown threshold was studied: in coaxial geometry, the change in threshold was <1 dB for positive biases satisfying VDC/VRF0<0.8, where VRF0 is the RF voltage amplitude at the unperturbed breakdown threshold. In parallel plate geometry, setting VDC/VRF0<0.2 was necessary to avoid altering the threshold by more than 1 dB. In most cases, the center conductor diagnostic functions effectively with no bias at all-this is the preferred implementation, but biases in the range VDC=0-10V may be applied if necessary. The polarity of the detected current signal may be positive or negative depending on whether there is net electron collection or emission globally.

Emission and afterglow properties of an expanding RF plasma with nonuniform neutral gas density

We describe some notable aspects of the light emission and afterglow properties in pulsed, high-density ( 1018–1020 m−3) argon inductively coupled discharges initiated following fast gas injection. The plasma was created in a long, narrow discharge tube and then expanded downstream of the radiofrequency (RF) antenna into a large chamber. Fast camera images of the expanding plasma revealed a multi-phase time-dependent emission pattern that did not follow the ion density distribution. Dramatic differences in visible brightness were observed between discharges with and without an externally applied magnetic field. These phenomena were studied by tracking excited state populations using passive emission spectroscopy and are discussed in terms of the distinction between ionizing and recombining phase plasmas. Additionally, a method is presented for inferring the unknown neutral gas pressure in the discharge tube from the time-dependent visible and infrared emission measured by a simple photodiode placed near t...