High Energy Density Plasmas in Ultrafast Micro-Capillary Discharges

重要的等离子体应用取决于产生高均匀性的热且致密的等离子体柱的能力。该项目研究了极热和致密均匀等离子体柱的有效产生，包括用超快（3 ns上升时间）电流脉冲快速激发微毛细管通道，电流密度超过0.5千兆安培cm-2。模型模拟表明，这种新的概念有可能加热致密均匀的等离子体柱非常高的电子温度（500-1000 eV），仅使用适度的电流。实验和模拟将结合起来，阐明这些高功率密度微毛细管等离子体的动力学的基本方面，并优化其生成的应用。对这些放电的物理学及其标度律的理解可能会影响热致密等离子体在众多应用中的产生方式。这些包括紧凑的X射线激光器的发展，非常高度电离的等离子体波导的高强度激光等离子体相互作用，从离子产生高谐波，和其他高密度等离子体应用。研究和教育活动旨在对处于从高中到博士后研究员等不同职业阶段的学生和青年科学家的培训产生广泛影响。我们将继续与少数民族服务学院和科罗拉多AGEP计划进行研究合作，以吸引不同群体的学生进入科学和工程领域。参与的研究生和本科生将参与实验和理论工作，其中包括放电物理学，先进放电技术，光谱学和等离子体先进建模等方面。更广泛的影响将通过高中学生和中学教师在夏季的参与得到加强。

Important plasma applications depend on the ability to generate hot and dense plasma columns of high homogeneity. This project studies the efficient generation of extremely hot and dense uniform plasma columns consisting in the rapid excitation of micro-capillary channels with ultrafast ( 3 ns risetime) current pulses with current densities exceeding 0.5 Giga-Amperes cm-2. Model simulations suggest this new concept has the potential to heat dense homogenous plasma columns to very high electron temperatures (500-1000 eV) using only modest currents. Experiments and simulations will be combined to elucidate the fundamental aspects of the dynamics of these high power density micro-capillary plasmas and optimize their generation for applications. The understanding of the physics of these discharges and their scaling laws can potentially impact the way in which hot dense plasmas are generated for numerous applications. These include the development of compact X-ray lasers, very highly ionized plasma waveguides for high intensity laser-plasma interactions, the generation of high harmonic from ions, and other high density plasma applications. The research and educational activities are designed to have a broad impact in the training of students and young scientists in different stages of their career, ranging from high school to post-doctoral fellows. Significant efforts will be conducted to attract a diverse group of students into science and engineering by continuing our research collaboration with minority serving Colleges and the Colorado AGEP program. The participating graduate and undergraduate students will be involved in an experimental and theoretical effort that will include aspects of discharge physics, advanced discharge technology, spectroscopy and advanced modeling of plasmas. The broader impact will be enhanced by the participation of high school students, and middle school and high school teachers during the summer.