Plasma Physics
The physics basis for an electron-beam based Compton scattering (ECOS) x-ray source is investigated for single-shot experiments at major high energy density facilities such as the Omega Laser Facility, National Ignition Facility, and Z…
Strong magnetically dominated Alfv\'enic turbulence is an efficient engine of non-thermal particle acceleration in a relativistic collisionless plasma. We argue that in the limit of strong magnetization, the type of energy distribution…
The two-plasmon-decay instability (TPD) is a critical target preheating risk in direct-drive inertial confinement fusion. In this paper, TPD collectively driven by a normal-incidence laser beam (Beam-N) and a large-angle-incidence laser…
In recent years, interest in striation phenomena in radio-frequency (rf) discharges has risen due to the availability of new experimental data and implementation of new computational models. Depending on the conditions, different mechanisms…
A stellarator design is described with the purpose of achieving three goals: (1) Enhance the confinement time of tritium. (2) Have a sufficient density of high-Z impurities to radiate the thermal power escaping from the core while having an…
High-power lasers are at the forefront of science in many domains. While their fields are still far from reaching the Schwinger limit, they have been used in extreme regimes, to successfully accelerate particles at high energies, or to…
A compact helicon plasma thruster that features a cusp in its internal magnetic field is analyzed with experiments and simulations. A compensated Langmuir probe and a Faraday cup are used in the former, while a hybrid PIC/fluid transport…
An electrostatic, implicit particle-in-cell (PIC) model for collisionless, fully magnetized, paraxial plasma expansions in a magnetic nozzle is introduced with exact charge, energy, and magnetic moment conservation properties. The approach…
Polarized attosecond $\gamma-$rays may offer excitation and hyperfine tracking of reactions relevant to nuclear physics, astrophysics, high-energy physics, etc. However, unfortunately, generation of a feasible and easy-to-deploy source is…
Direct laser acceleration of electrons is considered in a strongly magnetized plasmoid with the magnetic field strength allowing for reaching the auto-resonance. The plasmoid may be optically created by irradiation of specially designed…
The latest molecular data - potential energy curves and Rydberg-valence interactions - characterising the super-excited electronic states of BF are reviewed in order to provide the input for the study of their fragmentation dynamics.…
Broad classes of plasma phenomena can be understood in terms of phase-space rearrangements. For example, the net effect of a wave-particle interaction may consist of moving populations of particles from one region of phase space to another.…
Fast rotation can improve the stability and confinement of fusion plasmas. However, to maintain a rapidly rotating fusion plasma in steady state, significant energy must be invested in spinning up each incoming fuel ion. We show here that,…
This study reports a low-frequency alternating current (AC) power supply as a novel approach for generating low-pressure capacitively coupled Ar-O2 plasma, offering advantages in cost, compactness, and operational simplicity, which are…
Spatio-temporal evolution of large amplitude upper hybrid oscillations in a cold homogeneous plasma in the presence of an inhomogeneous magnetic field is studied analytically and numerically using the Dawson sheet model. It is observed that…
The path of tokamak fusion and ITER is maintaining high-performance plasma to produce sufficient fusion power. This effort is hindered by the transient energy burst arising from the instabilities at the boundary of high-confinement plasmas.…
This work characterizes the core transport physics of SPARC early-campaign plasmas using the PORTALS-CGYRO framework. Empirical modeling of SPARC plasmas with L-mode confinement indicates an ample window of breakeven (Q>1) without the need…
Understanding the target dynamics during its interaction with a relativistic ultrashort laser pulse is a challenging fundamental multi-physics problem involving at least atomic and solid-state physics, plasma physics, and laser physics.…
Nonthermal velocity distributions with much greater tails than the Maxwellian have been observed for radical atoms in plasmas for a long time. Historically, such velocity distributions have been modeled by a two-temperature Maxwell…
Helical magnetohydrodynamic turbulence with Hall effects is ubiquitous in heliophysics and plasma physics, such as star formation and solar activities, and its intrinsic mechanisms are still not clearly explained. Direct numerical…