A laboratory plasma is an ionized gas produced and confined under controlled experimental conditions to study fundamental plasma behavior and simulate space, astrophysical, or fusion-relevant environments. It is generated by applying electric fields, electromagnetic waves, lasers, or discharge currents to a neutral gas, creating a quasi-neutral mixture of ions, electrons, and neutrals characterized by collective interactions and long-range Coulomb forces. Laboratory plasmas span regimes from low-temperature, weakly ionized discharges to high-temperature, magnetically confined fusion plasmas, enabling investigation of transport, turbulence, wave–particle interactions, reconnection, and plasma–surface or plasma–material interactions under reproducible, diagnosable conditions.
Researchers Ni Guohua and Associate Researcher Sun Hongmei from the Institute of Plasma Physics, together with Associate Professor Wang Dong from Anhui Medical University, have developed a novel two-step plasma strategy to ...
Bio & Medicine
Nov 5, 2025
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25
An international team of scientists, led by the University of Oxford, has achieved a world-first by creating plasma "fireballs" using the Super Proton Synchrotron accelerator at CERN, Geneva, to study the stability of plasma ...
Astronomy
Nov 3, 2025
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69
Researchers at University of Tsukuba have developed a technology for real-time estimation of the valence state and growth rate of iron oxide thin films during their formation. This novel technology was realized by analyzing ...
Condensed Matter
Oct 28, 2025
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41
Imagine a cloud that shines like a neon sign, but instead of raindrops, it contains countless microscopic dust grains floating in midair. This is a dusty plasma, a bizarre state of matter found both in deep space and in the ...
Plasma Physics
Oct 21, 2025
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136
Tokamaks are machines that are meant to hold and harness the power of the sun. These fusion machines use powerful magnets to contain a plasma hotter than the sun's core and push the plasma's atoms to fuse and release energy. ...
Plasma Physics
Oct 7, 2025
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48
Zap Energy has advanced its Century fusion engineering test platform to operate for more than one hundred plasma shots at 0.2 Hz, or one shot every five seconds, with the resulting heat captured by surfaces coated with circulating ...
Plasma Physics
Sep 30, 2025
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495
In the universe, thermonuclear fusion is a common reaction: it is the source of energy for stars. On Earth, producing energy using this process is difficult due to problems with controlling the plasma emitting significant ...
Plasma Physics
Sep 11, 2025
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186
Temperatures of more than 10,000°C and a hail of charged particles from the fusion fuel (plasma): These are extreme conditions that the exhaust wall (divertor) of future fusion power plants will need to withstand. It makes ...
Plasma Physics
Sep 8, 2025
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102
Scientists pursuing magnetically-confined nuclear fusion as a clean energy source grapple with the "core-edge challenge," the need to integrate the core of the reactor, where plasma must be 10 times hotter than the sun, with ...
Plasma Physics
Aug 25, 2025
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148
Scientists at the University of California San Diego have uncovered how diamond—the material used to encase fuel for fusion experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory—can ...
Plasma Physics
Aug 20, 2025
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42
