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.
Inside the next generation of fusion vessels known as spherical tokamaks, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) envisioned a hot region with flowing liquid metal that is ...
Plasma Physics
Aug 21, 2024
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Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have retrospectively confirmed that implosion asymmetry was a major aspect of fusion experiments before achieving ignition for the first time at the Lab's National ...
Plasma Physics
Aug 7, 2024
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If net-positive fusion energy is to ever be achieved, density is key: the more atomic nuclei crashing into each other, the more efficient the reaction will be. Nearly 40 years ago, Martin Greenwald identified a density limit ...
Plasma Physics
Jul 30, 2024
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Experiments at European XFEL generate states of matter that are close to what occurs in the interior of planets or in the imploding capsule of an inertial fusion reactor. At the same time, they open up a way to measure ultra-short ...
Plasma Physics
Jul 29, 2024
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Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have reported advancements in understanding plasma pressure profiles within flow-stabilized Z-pinch fusion, a candidate for achieving net gain fusion energy in a ...
Plasma Physics
Jul 11, 2024
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Researchers led by Prof. Luo Guangnan from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have made an important discovery about how materials break down and mix on the surfaces inside the experimental ...
Plasma Physics
Jun 19, 2024
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Tokamaks are one of the most widely studied technologies in the global effort to achieve sustained nuclear fusion. Using intense magnetic fields, they confine superheated plasma within their doughnut-shaped interiors, allowing ...
Plasma Physics
Jun 17, 2024
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High-temperature fusion plasma experiments conducted in the Large Helical Device (LHD) of the National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS), have renewed the world record for an acquired data amount, 0.92 terabytes (TB) per ...
Plasma Physics
Jun 14, 2024
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An international team of scientists has developed a novel way to experimentally produce plasma 'fireballs' on Earth.
Plasma Physics
Jun 13, 2024
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The furious exhaust heat generated by a fusing plasma in a commercial-scale reactor may not be as damaging to the vessel's innards as once thought, according to researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton ...
Plasma Physics
Jun 11, 2024
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