https://phys.org/physics-news/plasma en-us Phys.org provides the latest news on physics of plasma Electric current is everywhere, from powering homes to controlling the plasma that fuels fusion reactions to possibly giving rise to vast cosmic magnetic fields. Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have found that electrical currents can form in ways not known before. The novel findings could give researchers greater ability to bring the fusion energy that drives the sun and stars to Earth. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-unexpected-electrical-current-stabilize-fusion.html Plasma Physics Fri, 04 Sep 2020 12:43:48 EDT news518442223 Low-temperature plasmas offer promise for applications in medicine, water purification, agriculture, pollutant removal, nanomaterial synthesis and more. Yet making these plasmas by conventional methods takes several thousand volts of electricity, says David Go, an aerospace and mechanical engineer at the University of Notre Dame. That limits their use outside high-voltage power settings. https://phys.org/news/2020-09-low-temperature-plasma-device-efficient.html Plasma Physics Fri, 04 Sep 2020 09:20:01 EDT news518429481 The inside of future nuclear fusion energy reactors will be among the harshest environments ever produced on Earth. What's strong enough to protect the inside of a fusion reactor from plasma-produced heat fluxes akin to space shuttles reentering Earth's atmosphere? https://phys.org/news/2020-08-tungsten-isotope-armor-future-fusion.html General Physics Plasma Physics Fri, 28 Aug 2020 14:37:26 EDT news517844241 A team of researchers at DESY has reached an important milestone on the road to the particle accelerator of the future. For the first time, a so-called laser plasma accelerator has run for more than a day while continuously producing electron beams. The LUX beamline, jointly developed and operated by DESY and the University of Hamburg, achieved a run time of 30 hours. "This brings us a big step closer to the steady operation of this innovative particle accelerator technology," says DESY's Andreas R. Maier, the leader of the group. The scientists are reporting on their record in the journal Physical Review X. "The time is ripe to move laser plasma acceleration from the laboratory to practical applications," adds the director of DESY's Accelerator Division, Wim Leemans. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-world-plasma-clock.html Plasma Physics Wed, 19 Aug 2020 11:03:23 EDT news517053800 Picture strong wind blowing against a tree until it's knocked down. Such action would mimic the process that causes damaging heat bursts called edge localized modes (ELMs) to flare up in fusion facilities called tokamaks, which scientists use to develop on Earth the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars. Such heat bursts normally occur when the pressure at the edge of the hot plasma gas that fuels fusion reactions reaches a peak, causing heat to erupt against the walls of the tokamak, much like a tree finally toppling in a growing wind. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-scientists-fusion-reactors.html Plasma Physics Tue, 18 Aug 2020 01:30:20 EDT news516933006 Picture an airplane that can only climb to one or two altitudes after taking off. That limitation would be similar to the plight facing scientists who seek to avoid instabilities that restrict the path to clean, safe and abundant fusion energy in doughnut-shaped tokamak facilities. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and General Atomics (GA) have now published a breakthrough explanation of this tokamak restriction and how it may be overcome. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-scientists-method-fusion-device.html Plasma Physics Wed, 12 Aug 2020 10:21:57 EDT news516446512 Scientists have found a novel way to prevent pesky magnetic bubbles in plasma from interfering with fusion reactions—delivering a potential way to improve the performance of fusion energy devices. And it comes from managing radio frequency (RF) waves to stabilize the magnetic bubbles, which can expand and create disruptions that can limit the performance of ITER, the international facility under construction in France to demonstrate the feasibility of fusion power. https://phys.org/news/2020-08-scientists-method-fusion-reactions.html Plasma Physics Tue, 04 Aug 2020 16:25:01 EDT news515777098 Fourteen years after receiving the official go-ahead, scientists on Tuesday began assembling a giant machine in southern France designed to demonstrate that nuclear fusion, the process which powers the sun, can be a safe and viable energy source on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-quest-advances-recreate-sun-energy.html General Physics Plasma Physics Tue, 28 Jul 2020 13:15:29 EDT news515160923 Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have furthered understanding of a barrier that can prevent doughnut-shaped fusion facilities known as tokamaks from operating at high efficiency by causing vital heat to be lost from them. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-birds-chirp-plasma-shouldnt-insight.html Plasma Physics Wed, 22 Jul 2020 03:35:17 EDT news514607702 A new spin on the magnetic compression of plasmas could improve materials science, nuclear fusion research, X-ray generation and laboratory astrophysics, research led by the University of Michigan suggests. https://phys.org/news/2020-07-magnetic-fields-extreme-plasma-compression.html Plasma Physics Wed, 15 Jul 2020 11:14:16 EDT news514030451 A challenge to creating fusion energy on Earth is trapping the charged gas known as plasma that fuels fusion reactions within a strong magnetic field and keeping the plasma as hot and dense as possible for as long as possible. Now, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have gained new insight into a common type of hiccup known as the sawtooth instability that cools the hot plasma in the center and interferes with the fusion reactions. These findings could help bring fusion energy closer to reality. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-mathematical-noodling-insights-fusion-problem.html Plasma Physics Tue, 30 Jun 2020 17:00:14 EDT news512755209 The magnetic structures resulting from a plasma instability predicted by the physicist Erich Weibel about 50 years ago have been evidenced at surprisingly large scales in a laser-driven plasma in the prestigious journal Nature Physics. This instability is also expected to operate in astrophysical settings where it is held responsible for the acceleration of cosmic rays and the emission of gamma photons in the famous "gamma-ray bursts." https://phys.org/news/2020-06-imaging-magnetic-instabilities-laser-protons.html Plasma Physics Wed, 24 Jun 2020 11:58:50 EDT news512218727 A team of scientists led by University of Nevada, Reno's Hiroshi Sawada, an associate professor of the Physics Department, demonstrated that numerical modeling accurately reproduces X-ray images using laser-produced X-rays. The images were obtained using the University's chirped pulse amplification-based 50-Terawatt Leopard laser at their Zebra Pulsed Power Lab. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-scientists-numerical-capability-laser-driven-x-ray.html Plasma Physics Tue, 23 Jun 2020 08:23:49 EDT news512119425 In a paper recently published by Physical Review Letters, a team of researchers including scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) detail the first quantitative measurements of the magnetic field structure of plasma filamentation driven by the Weibel instability, using a novel optical Thompson scattering technique. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-expose-powerful-magnetic-fields-aftermath.html General Physics Plasma Physics Wed, 17 Jun 2020 08:22:36 EDT news511600954 As the Earth orbits the sun, it plows through a stream of fast-moving particles that can interfere with satellites and global positioning systems. Now, a team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Princeton University has reproduced a process that occurs in space to deepen understanding of what happens when the Earth encounters this solar wind. https://phys.org/news/2020-06-deepens-earth-interaction-solar.html Plasma Physics Wed, 03 Jun 2020 03:27:51 EDT news510373668 Blobs can wreak havoc in plasma required for fusion reactions. This bubble-like turbulence swells up at the edge of fusion plasmas and drains heat from the edge, limiting the efficiency of fusion reactions in doughnut-shaped fusion facilities called "tokamaks." Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have now discovered a surprising correlation of the blobs with fluctuations of the magnetic field that confines the plasma fueling fusion reactions in the device core. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-blob-link-edge-turbulence-fusion.html Plasma Physics Wed, 27 May 2020 03:17:09 EDT news509768196 The subject of the 2018 Nobel Prize in physics, chirped pulse amplification is a technique that increases the strength of laser pulses in many of today's highest-powered research lasers. As next-generation laser facilities look to push beam power up to 10 petawatts, physicists expect a new era for studying plasmas, whose behavior is affected by features typically seen in black holes and the winds from pulsars. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-next-gen-laser-facilities-usher-era.html Plasma Physics Tue, 26 May 2020 11:00:05 EDT news509692176 A major roadblock to producing safe, clean and abundant fusion energy on Earth is the lack of detailed understanding of how the hot, charged plasma gas that fuels fusion reactions behaves at the edge of fusion facilities called "tokamaks." Recent breakthroughs by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have advanced understanding of the behavior of the highly complex plasma edge in doughnut-shaped tokamaks on the road to capturing the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars. Understanding this edge region will be particularly important for operating ITER, the international fusion experiment under construction in France to demonstrate the practicality of fusion energy. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-discovery-edge-fusion-plasma-power.html Plasma Physics Fri, 22 May 2020 10:25:39 EDT news509361936 Nearly 50 years ago, Brown University physicist Michael Kosterlitz and his colleagues used the mathematics of topology—the study of how objects can be deformed by stretching or twisting but not tearing or breaking—to explain puzzling phase changes in certain types of matter. The work won Kosterlitz a share of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics and has led to the discovery of topological phenomena in all kinds of systems, from thin films that conduct electricity only around their edges, to strange waves that propagate in the oceans and atmosphere at the Earth's equator. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-topological-plasma.html Plasma Physics Thu, 14 May 2020 14:43:32 EDT news508686203 Extreme ultraviolet light (EUV light) does not naturally occur on Earth, but it can be produced. In nanolithography machines, EUV light is generated using an immensely hot tin plasma. Researchers at ARCNL, in close collaboration with the American Los Alamos National Laboratory, have unraveled how such a plasma emits EUV light at the atomic level, and have made unexpected discoveries, reporting that all excited energy states of tin were found to have the right energy to emit EUV light. The researchers published their findings in Nature Communications on May 11. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-exceptional-euv-hot-tin-plasma.html Plasma Physics Quantum Physics Mon, 11 May 2020 11:00:07 EDT news508151051 As interest in the application of plasma medicine—the use of low-temperature plasma (LTP) created by an electrical discharge to address medical problems—continues to grow, so does the need for research advancements proving its capabilities and potential impacts on the health care industry. Across the world, many research groups are investigating plasma medicine for applications including cancer treatment and the accelerated healing of chronic wounds, among others. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-plasma-medicine-highlights-antibacterial-effects.html Plasma Physics Thu, 07 May 2020 08:43:20 EDT news508059794 Humans depend on fossil fuels as their primary energy source, especially in transportation. However, fossil fuels are both unsustainable and unsafe, serving as the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions and leading to adverse respiratory effects and devastation due to global warming. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-fossil-fuel-free-jet-propulsion-air.html Plasma Physics Tue, 05 May 2020 11:00:03 EDT news507882348 A key challenge to capturing and controlling fusion energy on Earth is maintaining the stability of plasma—the electrically charged gas that fuels fusion reactions—and keeping it millions of degrees hot to launch and maintain fusion reactions. This challenge requires controlling magnetic islands, bubble-like structures that form in the plasma in doughnut-shaped tokamak fusion facilities. These islands can grow, cool the plasma and trigger disruptions—the sudden release of energy stored in the plasma—that can halt fusion reactions and seriously damage the fusion facilities that house them. https://phys.org/news/2020-04-scientists-explore-power-radio-fusion.html Plasma Physics Tue, 28 Apr 2020 13:48:59 EDT news507300527 Atoms and molecules behave very differently at extreme temperatures and pressures. Although such extreme matter doesn't exist naturally on the earth, it exists in abundance in the universe, especially in the deep interiors of planets and stars. Understanding how atoms react under high-pressure conditions—a field known as high-energy-density physics (HEDP)—gives scientists valuable insights into the fields of planetary science, astrophysics, fusion energy, and national security. https://phys.org/news/2020-04-high-energy-density-physics-insights-universe.html General Physics Plasma Physics Fri, 24 Apr 2020 10:24:22 EDT news506942659 A key issue for scientists seeking to bring the fusion that powers the sun and stars to Earth is forecasting the performance of the volatile plasma that fuels fusion reactions. Making such predictions calls for considerable costly time on the world's fastest supercomputers. Now researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have borrowed a technique from applied mathematics to accelerate the process. https://phys.org/news/2020-04-mathematics-capturing-fusion-energy.html Plasma Physics Thu, 16 Apr 2020 03:31:55 EDT news506226710 Using plasma to control microwaves for beaming direct energy toward a specific point is explored for their durability in high-energy electric fields and their reconfigurable structure. High power microwave beams, similar to lasers, can transmit energy at high speeds over long distances, unaffected by wind, gravity, or other forces. Aerospace engineers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign simulated a metamaterial formed from plasma structures to demonstrate its potential to tune microwave frequencies. https://phys.org/news/2020-04-microwaves-frequencies-simulated-metamaterials.html Plasma Physics Tue, 07 Apr 2020 09:55:33 EDT news505472130 Scientists seeking to bring the fusion that powers the sun and stars to Earth must deal with sawtooth instabilities—up-and-down swings in the central pressure and temperature of the plasma that fuels fusion reactions, similar to the serrated blades of a saw. If these swings are large enough, they can lead to the sudden collapse of the entire discharge of the plasma. Such swings were first observed in 1974 and have so far eluded a widely accepted theory that explains experimental observations. https://phys.org/news/2020-03-explanation-sudden-collapses-plasmas-fusion.html Plasma Physics Tue, 31 Mar 2020 03:42:52 EDT news504844967 Permanent magnets akin to those used on refrigerators could speed the development of fusion energy—the same energy produced by the sun and stars. https://phys.org/news/2020-03-permanent-magnets-stronger-refrigerator-solution.html General Physics Plasma Physics Wed, 11 Mar 2020 17:22:45 EDT news503166160 A key hurdle facing fusion devices called stellarators—twisty facilities that seek to harness on Earth the fusion reactions that power the sun and stars—has been their limited ability to maintain the heat and performance of the plasma that fuels those reactions. Now collaborative research by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany, have found that the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) facility in Greifswald, the largest and most advanced stellarator ever built, has demonstrated a key step in overcoming this problem. https://phys.org/news/2020-02-w7-x-fusion-device-enables-obstacles.html Plasma Physics Tue, 25 Feb 2020 03:09:13 EDT news501822544 A team of researchers at Osaka University has investigated a new method for generating nuclear fusion power, showing that the relativistic effect of ultra-intense laser light improves upon current "fast ignition" methods in laser-fusion research to heat the fuel long enough to generate electrical power. These findings could provide a spark for laser fusion, ushering in a new era of carbonless energy production. https://phys.org/news/2020-01-relativistic-effects-laser-fusion-approach.html Plasma Physics Tue, 07 Jan 2020 08:34:20 EDT news497608457