Racemization of (S)-profen thioesters by strong neutral bases in nonpolar organic solvents: implication for ion-pair kinetic basicity.

PubMed

Chen, Chia-Yin; Chang, Yu-Shang; Lin, Shun-An; Wen, Hui-I; Cheng, Yu-Chi; Tsai, Shau-Wei

2002-05-17

The racemization of (S)-profen 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl thioesters in isooctane with trioctylamine as base was carried out, in which the Hammett equation log(k(int)) = 3.584sigma - 3.745 was successfully applied to describe the electron-withdrawing effect of the substituents to the alpha-phenyl moiety of the thioesters. A combination of neutral strong organic bases with different nonpolar solvents was employed to determine the second-order interconversion constants for the racemization of (S)-naproxen 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl thioester, in which solvent hydrophobicity was found to have less effect on the racemization. Implication for ion-pair kinetic basicity scale for the neutral strong bases in isooctane was further discussed.

Insight into acid-base nucleation experiments by comparison of the chemical composition of positive, negative, and neutral clusters.

PubMed

Bianchi, Federico; Praplan, Arnaud P; Sarnela, Nina; Dommen, Josef; Kürten, Andreas; Ortega, Ismael K; Schobesberger, Siegfried; Junninen, Heikki; Simon, Mario; Tröstl, Jasmin; Jokinen, Tuija; Sipilä, Mikko; Adamov, Alexey; Amorim, Antonio; Almeida, Joao; Breitenlechner, Martin; Duplissy, Jonathan; Ehrhart, Sebastian; Flagan, Richard C; Franchin, Alessandro; Hakala, Jani; Hansel, Armin; Heinritzi, Martin; Kangasluoma, Juha; Keskinen, Helmi; Kim, Jaeseok; Kirkby, Jasper; Laaksonen, Ari; Lawler, Michael J; Lehtipalo, Katrianne; Leiminger, Markus; Makhmutov, Vladimir; Mathot, Serge; Onnela, Antti; Petäjä, Tuukka; Riccobono, Francesco; Rissanen, Matti P; Rondo, Linda; Tomé, António; Virtanen, Annele; Viisanen, Yrjö; Williamson, Christina; Wimmer, Daniela; Winkler, Paul M; Ye, Penglin; Curtius, Joachim; Kulmala, Markku; Worsnop, Douglas R; Donahue, Neil M; Baltensperger, Urs

2014-12-02

We investigated the nucleation of sulfuric acid together with two bases (ammonia and dimethylamine), at the CLOUD chamber at CERN. The chemical composition of positive, negative, and neutral clusters was studied using three Atmospheric Pressure interface-Time Of Flight (APi-TOF) mass spectrometers: two were operated in positive and negative mode to detect the chamber ions, while the third was equipped with a nitrate ion chemical ionization source allowing detection of neutral clusters. Taking into account the possible fragmentation that can happen during the charging of the ions or within the first stage of the mass spectrometer, the cluster formation proceeded via essentially one-to-one acid-base addition for all of the clusters, independent of the type of the base. For the positive clusters, the charge is carried by one excess protonated base, while for the negative clusters it is carried by a deprotonated acid; the same is true for the neutral clusters after these have been ionized. During the experiments involving sulfuric acid and dimethylamine, it was possible to study the appearance time for all the clusters (positive, negative, and neutral). It appeared that, after the formation of the clusters containing three molecules of sulfuric acid, the clusters grow at a similar speed, independent of their charge. The growth rate is then probably limited by the arrival rate of sulfuric acid or cluster-cluster collision.

Neutral Na in comets tails: a chemical story

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ellinger, Y.; Pauzat, F.; Mousis, O.; Guilbert-Lepoutre, A.; Leblanc, F.; Ali-Dib, M.; Doronin, M.; Zicler, E.; Doressoundiram, A.

2015-10-01

The origin of the neutral sodium comet tail discovered in comet Hale-Bopp in 1997 is still a matter of discussion. Here we propose a scenario which is based on chemical grounds. The starting point is the chemical trapping of the Na+ ion in the refractory material during the condensation phase of the protosolar nebula, followed by its incorporation in the building blocks of the comets parent bodies. In the next step, the Na+ ions are washed out of the refractory material by the water formed by the melting of the ice due to the heat released in the radioactive decay of short period elements. When the water freezes again, the Na+ ion looses its positive charge to evolve progressively toward a neutral atom when approaching the surface of the ice. As shown by high-level numerical simulations based on first principle periodic density functional theory (DFT) to describe the solid structure of the ice, it is a neutral Na that is ejected with the sublimation of the ice top layer.

Ion acoustic waves at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Observations and computations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gunell, H.; Nilsson, H.; Hamrin, M.; Eriksson, A.; Odelstad, E.; Maggiolo, R.; Henri, P.; Vallieres, X.; Altwegg, K.; Tzou, C.-Y.; Rubin, M.; Glassmeier, K.-H.; Stenberg Wieser, G.; Simon Wedlund, C.; De Keyser, J.; Dhooghe, F.; Cessateur, G.; Gibbons, A.

2017-04-01

Context. On 20 January 2015 the Rosetta spacecraft was at a heliocentric distance of 2.5 AU, accompanying comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on its journey toward the Sun. The Ion Composition Analyser (RPC-ICA), other instruments of the Rosetta Plasma Consortium, and the ROSINA instrument made observations relevant to the generation of plasma waves in the cometary environment. Aims: Observations of plasma waves by the Rosetta Plasma Consortium Langmuir probe (RPC-LAP) can be explained by dispersion relations calculated based on measurements of ions by the Rosetta Plasma Consortium Ion Composition Analyser (RPC-ICA), and this gives insight into the relationship between plasma phenomena and the neutral coma, which is observed by the Comet Pressure Sensor of the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis instrument (ROSINA-COPS). Methods: We use the simple pole expansion technique to compute dispersion relations for waves on ion timescales based on the observed ion distribution functions. These dispersion relations are then compared to the waves that are observed. Data from the instruments RPC-LAP, RPC-ICA and the mutual impedance probe (RPC-MIP) are compared to find the best estimate of the plasma density. Results: We find that ion acoustic waves are present in the plasma at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where the major ion species is H2O+. The bulk of the ion distribution is cold, kBTI = 0.01 eV when the ion acoustic waves are observed. At times when the neutral density is high, ions are heated through acceleration by the solar wind electric field and scattered in collisions with the neutrals. This process heats the ions to about 1 eV, which leads to significant damping of the ion acoustic waves. Conclusions: In conclusion, we show that ion acoustic waves appear in the H2O+ plasmas at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and how the interaction between the neutral and ion populations affects the wave properties. Computer code for the dispersion analysis is only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/600/A3

Simultaneous and Sequential MS/MS Scan Combinations and Permutations in a Linear Quadrupole Ion Trap.

PubMed

Snyder, Dalton T; Szalwinski, Lucas J; Cooks, R Graham

2017-10-17

Methods of performing precursor ion scans as well as neutral loss scans in a single linear quadrupole ion trap have recently been described. In this paper we report methodology for performing permutations of MS/MS scan modes, that is, ordered combinations of precursor, product, and neutral loss scans following a single ion injection event. Only particular permutations are allowed; the sequences demonstrated here are (1) multiple precursor ion scans, (2) precursor ion scans followed by a single neutral loss scan, (3) precursor ion scans followed by product ion scans, and (4) segmented neutral loss scans. (5) The common product ion scan can be performed earlier in these sequences, under certain conditions. Simultaneous scans can also be performed. These include multiple precursor ion scans, precursor ion scans with an accompanying neutral loss scan, and multiple neutral loss scans. We argue that the new capability to perform complex simultaneous and sequential MS n operations on single ion populations represents a significant step in increasing the selectivity of mass spectrometry.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhao, Shu-Xia; Zhang, Yu-Ru; Research Group PLASMANT, Department of Chemistry, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Antwerp

A hybrid model is used to investigate the fragmentation of C{sub 4}F{sub 8} inductive discharges. Indeed, the resulting reactive species are crucial for the optimization of the Si-based etching process, since they determine the mechanisms of fluorination, polymerization, and sputtering. In this paper, we present the dissociation degree, the density ratio of F vs. C{sub x}F{sub y} (i.e., fluorocarbon (fc) neutrals), the neutral vs. positive ion density ratio, details on the neutral and ion components, and fractions of various fc neutrals (or ions) in the total fc neutral (or ion) density in a C{sub 4}F{sub 8} inductively coupled plasma source,more » as well as the effect of pressure and power on these results. To analyze the fragmentation behavior, the electron density and temperature and electron energy probability function (EEPF) are investigated. Moreover, the main electron-impact generation sources for all considered neutrals and ions are determined from the complicated C{sub 4}F{sub 8} reaction set used in the model. The C{sub 4}F{sub 8} plasma fragmentation is explained, taking into account many factors, such as the EEPF characteristics, the dominance of primary and secondary processes, and the thresholds of dissociation and ionization. The simulation results are compared with experiments from literature, and reasonable agreement is obtained. Some discrepancies are observed, which can probably be attributed to the simplified polymer surface kinetics assumed in the model.« less

Bulk plasma fragmentation in a C4F8 inductively coupled plasma: A hybrid modeling study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Shu-Xia; Zhang, Yu-Ru; Gao, Fei; Wang, You-Nian; Bogaerts, Annemie

2015-06-01

A hybrid model is used to investigate the fragmentation of C4F8 inductive discharges. Indeed, the resulting reactive species are crucial for the optimization of the Si-based etching process, since they determine the mechanisms of fluorination, polymerization, and sputtering. In this paper, we present the dissociation degree, the density ratio of F vs. CxFy (i.e., fluorocarbon (fc) neutrals), the neutral vs. positive ion density ratio, details on the neutral and ion components, and fractions of various fc neutrals (or ions) in the total fc neutral (or ion) density in a C4F8 inductively coupled plasma source, as well as the effect of pressure and power on these results. To analyze the fragmentation behavior, the electron density and temperature and electron energy probability function (EEPF) are investigated. Moreover, the main electron-impact generation sources for all considered neutrals and ions are determined from the complicated C4F8 reaction set used in the model. The C4F8 plasma fragmentation is explained, taking into account many factors, such as the EEPF characteristics, the dominance of primary and secondary processes, and the thresholds of dissociation and ionization. The simulation results are compared with experiments from literature, and reasonable agreement is obtained. Some discrepancies are observed, which can probably be attributed to the simplified polymer surface kinetics assumed in the model.

Subauroral Ion-neutral Coupling During the March 2015 Superstorm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, S.; Erickson, P. J.; Foster, J. C.; Holt, J. M.; Coster, A. J.; Makela, J. J.; Noto, J.; Meriwether, J. W.; Otsuka, Y.; Nicolls, M. J.; McCready, M. A.

2015-12-01

The arrival of solar Coronal Mass Ejection materials overlapping a high-speed solar wind stream originated from a nearby coronal hole caused huge magnetic disturbances during March 17-18, 2015. We have coordinated an international campaign to monitor their geospace effects using ground-based facilities, including incoherent scatter radars and Fabry-Perot Interferometers in the America sectors and other instruments in East Asia sectors, forming an observational network along approximately the 60W/120E meridional circle. The presentation will provide highlights of these observations, with a focus on the ion-neutral coupling processes at subauroral and mid-latitudes. One of the most stiking findings is the northward neutral wind surge, observed in multiple sites, accompanying strong westward winds developed at earlier times. We ascribe this unexpected wind disturbances to Subauroal Polarization Stream (SAPS) asscoated strong plasma flows driving ion-neutral coupling. SAPS and strong ion flow were observed by Millstone Hill ISR and DMSP in situ measurements. We will also report the Millstone Hill ISR observations of a significant enhancement in the storm-time molecular ion composition in the F1-region height. This enhancement appears to be caused by strong vertical ion drift due to penetration electric fields.

A Compact Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer for Measuring Atmospheric Composition with Preliminary Results from the Dellingr Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jones, S.; Paschalidis, N.; Rodriguez, M.; Sittler, E. C., Jr.; Chornay, D. J.; Uribe, P.; Cameron, T.

2017-12-01

A compact Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) has been developed for GSFC's Dellingr mission, using the 6U CubeSat platform. Dellingr is expected to deploy into ISS orbit in October 2017 to measure the dynamics of the ionosphere-thermosphere-mesosphere and to determine the steady state background atmospheric conditions at this altitude. The INMS makes in situ measurements of ionized and neutral H, He, N, O, N2, O2 densities with M/dM of approximately 10-12 for thermal particles. The INMS is based on particle acceleration, electronically gated time of flight (TOF), electrostatic analyzer, and CEM detectors. The compact instrument has a dual symmetric configuration with ion and neutral sensor heads on opposite sides of the shared electronics. The neutral front-end includes thermionic ionization and ion-blocking grids. The electronics include fast preamplifiers, electric gating, and TOF measurements and processing, C&DH digital electronics for commands, data storage and back-end I/O, and HVPS for detector and sensor biases. The data package includes 400 bins of mass spectra per ion and neutral sensor and key housekeeping and calibration data, in a single time tagged data frame of 14kbits uncompressed. The nominal data sampling is 1 sec corresponding to 7.5km spatial resolution in LEO orbits. This miniaturized instrument occupies a 1.1U volume, weighs only 570g and nominally operates at 1.2W. This presentation will include preliminary flight data of ions and neutrals from the Dellingr mission and outlines improvements incorporated into the design for the Dellingr (Oct 2017), ExoCube2 (Dec 2017) and petitSat (2020) CubeSat missions.

The terrestrial ring current - From in situ measurements to global images using energetic neutral atoms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roelof, Edmond C.; Williams, Donald J.

1988-01-01

Electrical currents flowing in the equatorial magnetosphere, first inferred from ground-based magnetic disturbances, are carried by trapped energetic ions. Spacecraft measurements have determined the spectrum and composition of those currents, and the newly developed technique of energetic-neutral-atom imaging allows the global dynamics of that entire ion population to be viewed from a single spacecraft.

Neutral particle beam intensity controller

DOEpatents

Dagenhart, William K.

1986-01-01

A neutral beam intensity controller is provided for a neutral beam generator in which a neutral beam is established by accelerating ions from an ion source into a gas neutralizer. An amplitude modulated, rotating magnetic field is applied to the accelerated ion beam in the gas neutralizer to defocus the resultant neutral beam in a controlled manner to achieve intensity control of the neutral beam along the beam axis at constant beam energy. The rotating magnetic field alters the orbits of ions in the gas neutralizer before they are neutralized, thereby controlling the fraction of neutral particles transmitted out of the neutralizer along the central beam axis to a fusion device or the like. The altered path or defocused neutral particles are sprayed onto an actively cooled beam dump disposed perpendicular to the neutral beam axis and having a central open for passage of the focused beam at the central axis of the beamline. Virtually zero therough 100% intensity control is achieved by varying the magnetic field strength without altering the ion source beam intensity or its species yield.

Neutral beamline with improved ion energy recovery

DOEpatents

Dagenhart, William K.; Haselton, Halsey H.; Stirling, William L.; Whealton, John H.

1984-01-01

A neutral beamline generator with unneutralized ion energy recovery is provided which enhances the energy recovery of the full energy ion component of the beam exiting the neutralizer cell of the beamline. The unneutralized full energy ions exiting the neutralizer are deflected from the beam path and the electrons in the cell are blocked by a magnetic field applied transverse to the beamline in the cell exit region. The ions, which are generated at essentially ground potential and accelerated through the neutralizer cell by a negative acceleration voltage, are collected at ground potential. A neutralizer cell exit end region is provided which allows the magnetic and electric fields acting on the exiting ions to be closely coupled. As a result, the fractional energy ions exiting the cell with the full energy ions are reflected back into the gas cell. Thus, the fractional energy ions do not detract from the energy recovery efficiency of full energy ions exiting the cell which can reach the ground potential interior surfaces of the beamline housing.

Comparison of fluid neutral models for one-dimensional plasma edge modeling with a finite volume solution of the Boltzmann equation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Horsten, N., E-mail: niels.horsten@kuleuven.be; Baelmans, M.; Dekeyser, W.

2016-01-15

We derive fluid neutral approximations for a simplified 1D edge plasma model, suitable to study the neutral behavior close to the target of a nuclear fusion divertor, and compare its solutions to the solution of the corresponding kinetic Boltzmann equation. The plasma is considered as a fixed background extracted from a detached 2D simulation. We show that the Maxwellian equilibrium distribution is already obtained very close to the target, justifying the use of a fluid approximation. We compare three fluid neutral models: (i) a diffusion model; (ii) a pressure-diffusion model (i.e., a combination of a continuity and momentum equation) assumingmore » equal neutral and ion temperatures; and (iii) the pressure-diffusion model coupled to a neutral energy equation taking into account temperature differences between neutrals and ions. Partial reflection of neutrals reaching the boundaries is included in both the kinetic and fluid models. We propose two methods to obtain an incident neutral flux boundary condition for the fluid models: one based on a diffusion approximation and the other assuming a truncated Chapman-Enskog distribution. The pressure-diffusion model predicts the plasma sources very well. The diffusion boundary condition gives slightly better results overall. Although including an energy equation still improves the results, the assumption of equal ion and neutral temperature already gives a very good approximation.« less

High-field neutral beam injection for improving the Q of a gas dynamic trap-based fusion neutron source

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeng, Qiusun; Chen, Dehong; Wang, Minghuang

2017-12-01

In order to improve the fusion energy gain (Q) of a gas dynamic trap (GDT)-based fusion neutron source, a method in which the neutral beam is obliquely injected at a higher magnetic field position rather than at the mid-plane of the GDT is proposed. This method is beneficial for confining a higher density of fast ions at the turning point in the zone with a higher magnetic field, as well as obtaining a higher mirror ratio by reducing the mid-plane field rather than increasing the mirror field. In this situation, collision scattering loss of fast ions with higher density will occur and change the confinement time, power balance and particle balance. Using an updated calculation model with high-field neutral beam injection for a GDT-based fusion neutron source conceptual design, we got four optimal design schemes for a GDT-based fusion neutron source in which Q was improved to two- to three-fold compared with a conventional design scheme and considering the limitation for avoiding plasma instabilities, especially the fire-hose instability. The distribution of fast ions could be optimized by building a proper magnetic field configuration with enough space for neutron shielding and by multi-beam neutral particle injection at different axial points.

Remote Sensing of Icy Galilean Moon Surface and Atmospheric Composition Using Low Energy (1 eV-4 keV) Neutral Atom Imaging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Collier, M. R.; Sittler, E.; Chornay, D.; Cooper, J. F.; Coplan, M.; Johnson, R. E.

2004-01-01

We describe a low energy neutral atom imager suitable for composition measurements Europa and other icy Galilean moons in the Jovian magnetosphere. This instrument employs conversion surface technology and is sensitive to either neutrals converted to negative ions, neutrals converted to positive ions and the positive ions themselves depending on the power supply. On a mission such as the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO), two back-to-back sensors would be flown with separate power supplies fitted to the neutral atom and iodneutral atom sides. This will allow both remote imaging of 1 eV < E < 4 keV neutrals from icy moon surfaces and atmospheres, and in situ measurements of ions at similar energies in the moon ionospheres and Jovian magnetospheric plasma. The instrument provides composition measurements of the neutrals and ions that enter the spectrometer with a mass resolution dependent on the time-of-flight subsystem and capable of resolving molecules. The lower energy neutrals, up to tens of eV, arise from atoms and molecules sputtered off the moon surfaces and out of the moon atmospheres by impacts of more energetic (keV to MeV) ions from the magnetosphere. Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) models are used to convert measured neutral abundances to compositional distributions of primary and trace species in the sputtered surfaces and atmospheres. The escaping neutrals can also be detected as ions after photo- or plasma-ionization and pickup. Higher energy, keV neutrals come from charge exchange of magnetospheric ions in the moon atmospheres and provide information on atmospheric structure. At the jovicentric orbits of the icy moons the presence of toroidal gas clouds, as detected at Europa's orbit, provide M e r opportunities to analyze both the composition of neutrals and ions originating from the moon surfaces, and the characteristics of magnetospheric ions interacting with neutral cloud material. Charge exchange of low energy ions near the moons, and directional distributions of the resultant neutrals, allow indirect global mapping of magnetic field structures around the moons. Temporal variation of the magnetic structures can be linked to induced magnetic fields associated with subsurface oceans.

MAVEN Pickup Ion Constraints on Mars Neutral Escape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rahmati, A.; Larson, D. E.; Cravens, T.; Lillis, R. J.; Dunn, P.; Halekas, J. S.; McFadden, J. P.; Mitchell, D. L.; Thiemann, E.; Connerney, J. E. P.; DiBraccio, G. A.; Espley, J. R.; Eparvier, F. G.

2017-12-01

Mars is currently losing its atmosphere mainly due to the escape of neutral hydrogen and oxygen. Directly measuring the rate of escaping neutrals is difficult, because the neutral density in the Mars exosphere is dominated, up to several Martian radii, by atoms that are gravitationally bound to the planet. Neutral atoms in the Martian exosphere, however, can get ionized, picked up, and accelerated by the solar wind motional electric field and energized to energies high enough for particle detectors to measure them. The MAVEN SEP instrument detects O+ pickup ions that are created at altitudes where the escaping part of the exosphere is dominant. Fluxes of these ions reflect neutral densities in the distant exosphere of Mars, allowing us to constrain neutral oxygen escape rates. The MAVEN SWIA and STATIC instruments measure pickup H+ and O+ created closer to Mars; comparisons of these data with models can be used to constrain exospheric hot O and thermal H densities and escape rates. In this work, pickup ion measurements from SEP, SWIA, and STATIC, taken during the first 3 Earth years of the MAVEN mission, are compared to the outputs of a pickup ion model to constrain the variability of neutral escape at Mars. The model is based on data from six MAVEN instruments, namely, MAG providing magnetic field used in calculating pickup ion trajectories, SWIA providing solar wind velocity as well as 3D pickup H+ and O+ spectra, SWEA providing solar wind electron spectrum used in electron impact ionization rate calculations, SEP providing pickup O+ spectra, STATIC providing mass resolved 3D pickup H+ and O+ spectra, and EUVM providing solar EUV spectra used in photoionization rate calculations. A variability of less than a factor of two is observed in hot oxygen escape rates, whereas thermal escape of hydrogen varies by an order of magnitude with Mars season. This hydrogen escape variability challenges our understanding of the H cycle at Mars, but is consistent with other recent measurements.

Spectroscopic investigations of beam-plasma interactions in an ion plume

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ruyten, W. M.; Friedly, V. J.; Peng, X.; Celenza, J. A.; Keefer, D.

1993-01-01

We report the results of spectroscopic investigations of beam-plasma interactions in the plume from a 3 cm ion source operated on argon. Ion-electron, ion-neutral, and electron-neutral scattering are identified by studying the dependence of neutral and ion emission intensities on chamber pressure and mass flow rate, and by analyzing the emission lineshapes at a non-orthogonal angle to the plume axis. Through the Doppler shift, we are able to separate contributions from fast beam ions and fast charge-exchange neutrals on the one hand, and of slow neutrals and slow ions on the other. We discuss the application of this new technique to the characterization of beam plasma interactions in the downstream region of ion thruster engines, and its potential for identifying the processes which lead to grid erosion.

High-flux source of low-energy neutral beams using reflection of ions from metals

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cuthbertson, John W.; Motley, Robert W.; Langer, William D.

1992-01-01

Reflection of low-energy ions from surfaces can be applied as a method of producing high-flux beams of low-energy neutral particles, and is an important effect in several areas of plasma technology, such as in the edge region of fusion devices. We have developed a beam source based on acceleration and reflection of ions from a magnetically confined coaxial RF plasma source. The beam provides a large enough flux to allow the energy distribution of the reflected neutrals to be measured despite the inefficiency of detection, by means of an electrostatic cylindrical mirror analyzer coupled with a quadrupole mass spectrometer. Energy distributions have been measured for oxygen, nitrogen, and inert gas ions incident with from 15 to 70 eV reflected from amorphous metal surfaces of several compositions. For ions of lighter atomic mass than the reflecting metal, reflected beams have peaked energy distributions; beams with the peak at 4-32 eV have been measured. The energy and mass dependences of the energy distributions as well as measurements of absolute flux, and angular distribution and divergence are reported. Applications of the neutral beams produced are described.

Development of a high current 60 keV neutral lithium beam injector for beam emission spectroscopy measurements on fusion experiments.

PubMed

Anda, G; Dunai, D; Lampert, M; Krizsanóczi, T; Németh, J; Bató, S; Nam, Y U; Hu, G H; Zoletnik, S

2018-01-01

A 60 keV neutral lithium beam system was designed and built up for beam emission spectroscopy measurement of edge plasma on the KSTAR and EAST tokamaks. The electron density profile and its fluctuation can be measured using the accelerated lithium beam-based emission spectroscopy system. A thermionic ion source was developed with a SiC heater to emit around 4-5 mA ion current from a 14 mm diameter surface. The ion optic is following the 2 step design used on other devices with small modifications to reach about 2-3 cm beam diameter in the plasma at about 4 m from the ion source. A newly developed recirculating sodium vapour neutralizer neutralizes the accelerated ion beam at around 260-280 °C even during long (<20 s) discharges. A set of new beam diagnostic and manipulation techniques are applied to allow optimization, aiming, cleaning, and beam modulation. The maximum 60 keV beam energy with 4 mA ion current was successfully reached at KSTAR and at EAST. Combined with an efficient observation system, the Li-beam diagnostic enables the measurement of the density profile and fluctuations on the plasma turbulence time scale.

Development of a high current 60 keV neutral lithium beam injector for beam emission spectroscopy measurements on fusion experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anda, G.; Dunai, D.; Lampert, M.; Krizsanóczi, T.; Németh, J.; Bató, S.; Nam, Y. U.; Hu, G. H.; Zoletnik, S.

2018-01-01

A 60 keV neutral lithium beam system was designed and built up for beam emission spectroscopy measurement of edge plasma on the KSTAR and EAST tokamaks. The electron density profile and its fluctuation can be measured using the accelerated lithium beam-based emission spectroscopy system. A thermionic ion source was developed with a SiC heater to emit around 4-5 mA ion current from a 14 mm diameter surface. The ion optic is following the 2 step design used on other devices with small modifications to reach about 2-3 cm beam diameter in the plasma at about 4 m from the ion source. A newly developed recirculating sodium vapour neutralizer neutralizes the accelerated ion beam at around 260-280 °C even during long (<20 s) discharges. A set of new beam diagnostic and manipulation techniques are applied to allow optimization, aiming, cleaning, and beam modulation. The maximum 60 keV beam energy with 4 mA ion current was successfully reached at KSTAR and at EAST. Combined with an efficient observation system, the Li-beam diagnostic enables the measurement of the density profile and fluctuations on the plasma turbulence time scale.

Characterization of xenon ion and neutral interactions in a well-characterized experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patino, Marlene I.; Wirz, Richard E.

2018-06-01

Interactions between fast ions and slow neutral atoms are commonly dominated by charge-exchange and momentum-exchange collisions, which are important to understanding and simulating the performance and behavior of many plasma devices. To investigate these interactions, this work developed a simple, well-characterized experiment that accurately measures the behavior of high energy xenon ions incident on a background of xenon neutral atoms. By using well-defined operating conditions and a simple geometry, these results serve as canonical data for the development and validation of plasma models and models of neutral beam sources that need to ensure accurate treatment of angular scattering distributions of charge-exchange and momentum-exchange ions and neutrals. The energies used in this study are relevant for electric propulsion devices ˜1.5 keV and can be used to improve models of ion-neutral interactions in the plume. By comparing these results to both analytical and computational models of ion-neutral interactions, we discovered the importance of (1) accurately treating the differential cross-sections for momentum-exchange and charge-exchange collisions over a large range of neutral background pressures and (2) properly considering commonly overlooked interactions, such as ion-induced electron emission from nearby surfaces and neutral-neutral ionization collisions.

Understanding Molecular Ion-Neutral Atom Collisions for the Production of Ultracold Molecular Ions

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-06

Understanding Molecular Ion-Neutral Atom Collisions for the Production of Utracold Molecular Ions In the last five years, the study of ultracold...U.S. Army Research Office P.O. Box 12211 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211 molecular ion, quantum chemistry, atom ion interaction...Molecular Ion-Neutral Atom Collisions for the Production of Utracold Molecular Ions Report Title In the last five years, the study of ultracold molecular

Overview of the negative ion based neutral beam injectors for ITER.

PubMed

Schunke, B; Boilson, D; Chareyre, J; Choi, C-H; Decamps, H; El-Ouazzani, A; Geli, F; Graceffa, J; Hemsworth, R; Kushwah, M; Roux, K; Shah, D; Singh, M; Svensson, L; Urbani, M

2016-02-01

The ITER baseline foresees 2 Heating Neutral Beams (HNB's) based on 1 MeV 40 A D(-) negative ion accelerators, each capable of delivering 16.7 MW of deuterium atoms to the DT plasma, with an optional 3rd HNB injector foreseen as a possible upgrade. In addition, a dedicated diagnostic neutral beam will be injecting ≈22 A of H(0) at 100 keV as the probe beam for charge exchange recombination spectroscopy. The integration of the injectors into the ITER plant is nearly finished necessitating only refinements. A large number of components have passed the final design stage, manufacturing has started, and the essential test beds-for the prototype route chosen-will soon be ready to start.

Operating characteristics of a new ion source for KSTAR neutral beam injection system.

PubMed

Kim, Tae-Seong; Jeong, Seung Ho; Chang, Doo-Hee; Lee, Kwang Won; In, Sang-Ryul

2014-02-01

A new positive ion source for the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research neutral beam injection (KSTAR NBI-1) system was designed, fabricated, and assembled in 2011. The characteristics of the arc discharge and beam extraction were investigated using hydrogen and helium gas to find the optimum operating parameters of the arc power, filament voltage, gas pressure, extracting voltage, accelerating voltage, and decelerating voltage at the neutral beam test stand at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute in 2012. Based on the optimum operating condition, the new ion source was then conditioned, and performance tests were primarily finished. The accelerator system with enlarged apertures can extract a maximum 65 A ion beam with a beam energy of 100 keV. The arc efficiency and optimum beam perveance, at which the beam divergence is at a minimum, are estimated to be 1.0 A/kW and 2.5 uP, respectively. The beam extraction tests show that the design goal of delivering a 2 MW deuterium neutral beam into the KSTAR Tokamak plasma is achievable.

ALCBEAM - Neutral beam formation and propagation code for beam-based plasma diagnostics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bespamyatnov, I. O.; Rowan, W. L.; Liao, K. T.

2012-03-01

ALCBEAM is a new three-dimensional neutral beam formation and propagation code. It was developed to support the beam-based diagnostics installed on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak. The purpose of the code is to provide reliable estimates of the local beam equilibrium parameters: such as beam energy fractions, density profiles and excitation populations. The code effectively unifies the ion beam formation, extraction and neutralization processes with beam attenuation and excitation in plasma and neutral gas and beam stopping by the beam apertures. This paper describes the physical processes interpreted and utilized by the code, along with exploited computational methods. The description is concluded by an example simulation of beam penetration into plasma of Alcator C-Mod. The code is successfully being used in Alcator C-Mod tokamak and expected to be valuable in the support of beam-based diagnostics in most other tokamak environments. Program summaryProgram title: ALCBEAM Catalogue identifier: AEKU_v1_0 Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEKU_v1_0.html Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.html No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 66 459 No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 7 841 051 Distribution format: tar.gz Programming language: IDL Computer: Workstation, PC Operating system: Linux RAM: 1 GB Classification: 19.2 Nature of problem: Neutral beams are commonly used to heat and/or diagnose high-temperature magnetically-confined laboratory plasmas. An accurate neutral beam characterization is required for beam-based measurements of plasma properties. Beam parameters such as density distribution, energy composition, and atomic excited populations of the beam atoms need to be known. Solution method: A neutral beam is initially formed as an ion beam which is extracted from the ion source by high voltage applied to the extraction and accelerating grids. The current distribution of a single beamlet emitted from a single pore of IOS depends on the shape of the plasma boundary in the emission region. Total beam extracted by IOS is calculated at every point of 3D mesh as sum of all contributions from each grid pore. The code effectively unifies the ion beam formation, extraction and neutralization processes with neutral beam attenuation and excitation in plasma and neutral gas and beam stopping by the beam apertures. Running time: 10 min for a standard run.

Planned Experiments on the Princeton Advanced Test Stand

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stepanov, A.; Gilson, E. P.; Grisham, L.; Kaganovich, I.; Davidson, R. C.

2010-11-01

The Princeton Advanced Test Stand (PATS) device is an experimental facility based on the STS-100 high voltage test stand transferred from LBNL. It consists of a multicusp RF ion source, a pulsed extraction system capable of forming high-perveance 100keV ion beams, and a large six-foot-long vacuum with convenient access for beam diagnostics. This results in a flexible system for studying high perveance ion beams relevant to NDCX-I/II, including experiments on beam neutralization by ferroelectric plasma sources (FEPS) being developed at PPPL. Research on PATS will concern the basic physics of beam-plasma interactions, such as the effects of volume neutralization on beam emittance, as well as optimizing technology of the FEPS. PATS combines the advantage of an ion beam source and a large-volume plasma source in a chamber with ample access for diagnostics, resulting in a robust setup for investigating and improving relevant aspects of neutralized drift. There are also plans for running the ion source with strongly electro-negative gases such as chlorine, making it possible to extract positive or negative ion beams.

Ion-to-Neutral Ratios and Thermal Proton Transfer in Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, I.-Chung; Chu, Kuan Yu; Lin, Chih-Yuan; Wu, Shang-Yun; Dyakov, Yuri A.; Chen, Jien-Lian; Gray-Weale, Angus; Lee, Yuan-Tseh; Ni, Chi-Kung

2015-07-01

The ion-to-neutral ratios of four commonly used solid matrices, α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHCA), 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (2,5-DHB), sinapinic acid (SA), and ferulic acid (FA) in matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) at 355 nm are reported. Ions are measured using a time-of-flight mass spectrometer combined with a time-sliced ion imaging detector. Neutrals are measured using a rotatable quadrupole mass spectrometer. The ion-to-neutral ratios of CHCA are three orders of magnitude larger than those of the other matrices at the same laser fluence. The ion-to-neutral ratios predicted using the thermal proton transfer model are similar to the experimental measurements, indicating that thermal proton transfer reactions play a major role in generating ions in ultraviolet-MALDI.

Measurements of Ion-Neutral Coupling in the Auroral F Region in Response to Increases in Particle Precipitation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kiene, A.; Bristow, W. A.; Conde, M. G.; Hampton, D. L.

2018-05-01

Neutral winds are a key factor in the dynamics of the ionosphere-thermosphere system. Previous observations have shown that neutral and ion flows are strongly coupled during periods of auroral activity when ion drag forcing can become the dominant force driving neutral wind flow. This is primarily due to increases in ion density due to enhanced particle precipitation as well as associated increases the strength of the electric fields that drive ion motions. Due to this strong coupling, numerical simulations of neutral dynamics have difficulty reproducing neutral wind observations when they are driven by modeled precipitation and modeled convection. It is therefore desirable whenever possible to have concurrent coincident measurements of auroral precipitation and ion convection. Recent advancements in high-resolution fitting of Super Dual Auroral Radar Network ion convection data have enabled the generation of steady maps of ion drifts over Alaska, coinciding with several optics sites. The Super Dual Auroral Radar Network measurements are compared with scanning Doppler imager neutral wind measurements at similar altitude, providing direct comparisons of ion and neutral velocities over a wide field and for long periods throughout the night. Also present are a digital all-sky imager and a meridian spectrograph, both of which provide measurements of auroral intensity on several wavelengths. In this study, we combine these data sets to present three case studies that show significant correlation between increases in F region precipitation and enhancements in ion-neutral coupling in the evening sector. We investigate the time scales over which the coupling takes place and compare our findings to previous measurements.

Analytical method for dissolved-organic carbon fractionation

USGS Publications Warehouse

Leenheer, Jerry A.; Huffman, Edward W. D.

1979-01-01

A standard procedure for analytical-scale dissolved organic carbon fractionation is presented, whereby dissolved organic carbon in water is first fractionated by a nonionic macroreticular resin into acid, base, and neutral hydrophobic organic solute fractions, and next fractionated by ion-exchange resins into acid, base, and neutral hydrophilic solute fractions. The hydrophobic solutes are defined as those sorbed on a nonionic, acrylic-ester macroreticular resin and are differentiated into acid, base, and nautral fractions by sorption/desorption controlled by pH adjustment. The hydrophilic bases are next sorbed on strong-acid ion-exchange resin, followed by sorption of hydrophilic acids on a strong-base ion-exchange resin. Hydrophilic neutrals are not sorbed and remain dissolved in the deionized water at the end of the fractionation procedure. The complete fractionation can be performed on a 200-milliliter filtered water sample, whose dissolved organic carbon content is 5-25 mg/L and whose specific conductance is less than 2,000 μmhos/cm at 25°C. The applications of dissolved organic carbon fractionation analysis range from field studies of changes of organic solute composition with synthetic fossil fuel production, to fundamental studies of the nature of sorption processes.

Correlated ion and neutral time of flight technique combined with velocity map imaging: Quantitative measurements for dissociation processes in excited molecular nano-systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berthias, F.; Feketeová, L.; Della Negra, R.; Dupasquier, T.; Fillol, R.; Abdoul-Carime, H.; Farizon, B.; Farizon, M.; Märk, T. D.

2018-01-01

The combination of the Dispositif d'Irradiation d'Agrégats Moléculaire with the correlated ion and neutral time of flight-velocity map imaging technique provides a new way to explore processes occurring subsequent to the excitation of charged nano-systems. The present contribution describes in detail the methods developed for the quantitative measurement of branching ratios and cross sections for collision-induced dissociation processes of water cluster nano-systems. These methods are based on measurements of the detection efficiency of neutral fragments produced in these dissociation reactions. Moreover, measured detection efficiencies are used here to extract the number of neutral fragments produced for a given charged fragment.

Closed cycle ion exchange method for regenerating acids, bases and salts

DOEpatents

Dreyfuss, Robert M.

1976-01-01

A method for conducting a chemical reaction in acidic, basic, or neutral solution as required and then regenerating the acid, base, or salt by means of ion exchange in a closed cycle reaction sequence which comprises contacting the spent acid, base, or salt with an ion exchanger, preferably a synthetic organic ion-exchange resin, so selected that the counter ions thereof are ions also produced as a by-product in the closed reaction cycle, and then regenerating the spent ion exchanger by contact with the by-product counter ions. The method is particularly applicable to closed cycle processes for the thermochemical production of hydrogen.

Neutral beam monitoring

DOEpatents

Fink, Joel H.

1981-08-18

Method and apparatus for monitoring characteristics of a high energy neutral beam. A neutral beam is generated by passing accelerated ions through a walled cell containing a low energy neutral gas, such that charge exchange neutralizes the high energy ion beam. The neutral beam is monitored by detecting the current flowing through the cell wall produced by low energy ions which drift to the wall after the charge exchange. By segmenting the wall into radial and longitudinal segments various beam conditions are further identified.

AUTOMATED DETERMINATION OF PRECURSOR ION, PRODUCT ION, AND NEUTRAL LOSS COMPOSITIONS AND DECONVOLUTION OF COMPOSITE MASS SPECTRA USING ION CORRELATION BASED ON EXACT MASSES AND RELATIVE ISOTOPIC ABUNDANCES

EPA Science Inventory

After a dispersive event, rapid determination of elemental compositions of ions in mass spectra is essential for tentatively identifying compounds. A Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART)® ion source interfaced to a JEOL AccuTOF® mass spectrometer provided exact masses accurate to ...

Sputtering erosion in ion and plasma thrusters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ray, Pradosh K.

1995-01-01

An experimental set-up to measure low-energy (below 1 keV) sputtering of materials is described. The materials to be bombarded represent ion thruster components as well as insulators used in the stationary plasma thruster. The sputtering takes place in a 9 inch diameter spherical vacuum chamber. Ions of argon, krypton and xenon are used to bombard the target materials. The sputtered neutral atoms are detected by a secondary neutral mass spectrometer (SNMS). Samples of copper, nickel, aluminum, silver and molybdenum are being sputtered initially to calibrate the spectrometer. The base pressure of the chamber is approximately 2 x 10(exp -9) Torr. the primary ion beam is generated by an ion gun which is capable of delivering ion currents in the range of 20 to 500 nA. The ion beam can be focused to a size approximately 1 mm in diameter. The mass spectrometer is positioned 10 mm from the target and at 90 deg angle to the primary ion beam direction. The ion beam impinges on the target at 45 deg. For sputtering of insulators, charge neutralization is performed by flooding the sample with electrons generated from an electron gun. Preliminary sputtering results, methods of calculating the instrument response function of the spectrometer and the relative sensitivity factors of the sputtered elements will be discussed.

Overview of the negative ion based neutral beam injectors for ITER

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schunke, B., E-mail: email@none.edu; Boilson, D.; Chareyre, J.

2016-02-15

The ITER baseline foresees 2 Heating Neutral Beams (HNB’s) based on 1 MeV 40 A D{sup −} negative ion accelerators, each capable of delivering 16.7 MW of deuterium atoms to the DT plasma, with an optional 3rd HNB injector foreseen as a possible upgrade. In addition, a dedicated diagnostic neutral beam will be injecting ≈22 A of H{sup 0} at 100 keV as the probe beam for charge exchange recombination spectroscopy. The integration of the injectors into the ITER plant is nearly finished necessitating only refinements. A large number of components have passed the final design stage, manufacturing has started,more » and the essential test beds—for the prototype route chosen—will soon be ready to start.« less

A comparative study on low-energy ion beam and neutralized beam modifications of naked DNA and biological effect on mutation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarapirom, S.; Thongkumkoon, P.; Prakrajang, K.; Anuntalabhochai, S.; Yu, L. D.

2012-02-01

DNA conformation change or damage induced by low-energy ion irradiation has been of great interest owing to research developments in ion beam biotechnology and ion beam application in biomedicine. Mechanisms involved in the induction of DNA damage may account for effect from implanting ion charge. In order to check this effect, we used both ion beam and neutralized beam at keV energy to bombard naked DNA. Argon or nitrogen ion beam was generated and extracted from a radiofrequency (RF) ion source and neutralized by microwave-driven plasma in the beam path. Plasmid DNA pGFP samples were irradiated with the ion or neutralized beam in vacuum, followed by gel electrophoresis to observe changes in the DNA conformations. It was revealed that the ion charge played a certain role in inducing DNA conformation change. The subsequent DNA transfer into bacteria Escherichia coli ( E. coli) for mutation analysis indicated that the charged ion beam induced DNA change had high potential in mutation induction while neutralized beam did not. The intrinsic reason was attributed to additional DNA deformation and contortion caused by ion charge exchange effect so that the ion beam induced DNA damage could hardly be completely repaired, whereas the neutralized beam induced DNA change could be more easily recoverable owing to absence of the additional DNA deformation and contortion.

Neutralization of an ion beam from the end-Hall ion source by a plasma electron source based on a discharge in crossed E × H fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dostanko, A. P.; Golosov, D. A.

2009-10-01

The possibility of using a plasma electron source (PES) with a discharge in crossed E × H field for compensating the ion beam from an end-Hall ion source (EHIS) is analyzed. The PES used as a neutralizer is mounted in the immediate vicinity of the EHIS ion generation and acceleration region at 90° to the source axis. The behavior of the discharge and emission parameters of the EHIS is determined for operation with a filament neutralizer and a plasma electron source. It is found that the maximal discharge current from the ion source attains a value of 3.8 A for operation with a PES and 4 A for operation with a filament compensator. It is established that the maximal discharge current for the ion source strongly depends on the working gas flow rate for low flow rates (up to 10 ml/min) in the EHIS; for higher flow rates, the maximum discharge current in the EHIS depends only on the emissivity of the PES. Analysis of the emission parameters of EHISs with filament and plasma neutralizers shows that the ion beam current and the ion current density distribution profile are independent of the type of the electron source and the ion current density can be as high as 0.2 mA/cm2 at a distance of 25 cm from the EHIS anode. The balance of currents in the ion source-electron source system is considered on the basis of analysis of operation of EHISs with various sources of electrons. It is concluded that the neutralization current required for operation of an ion source in the discharge compensation mode must be equal to or larger than the discharge current of the ion source. The use of PES for compensating the ion beam from an end-Hall ion source proved to be effective in processes of ion-assisted deposition of thin films using reactive gases like O2 or N2. The application of the PES technique makes it possible to increase the lifetime of the ion-assisted deposition system by an order of magnitude (the lifetime with a Ti cathode is at least 60 h and is limited by the replacement life of the deposited cathode insertion).

The ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility towards SPIDER operation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Toigo, V.; Dal Bello, S.; Gaio, E.; Luchetta, A.; Pasqualotto, R.; Zaccaria, P.; Bigi, M.; Chitarin, G.; Marcuzzi, D.; Pomaro, N.; Serianni, G.; Agostinetti, P.; Agostini, M.; Antoni, V.; Aprile, D.; Baltador, C.; Barbisan, M.; Battistella, M.; Boldrin, M.; Brombin, M.; Dalla Palma, M.; De Lorenzi, A.; Delogu, R.; De Muri, M.; Fellin, F.; Ferro, A.; Gambetta, G.; Grando, L.; Jain, P.; Maistrello, A.; Manduchi, G.; Marconato, N.; Pavei, M.; Peruzzo, S.; Pilan, N.; Pimazzoni, A.; Piovan, R.; Recchia, M.; Rizzolo, A.; Sartori, E.; Siragusa, M.; Spada, E.; Spagnolo, S.; Spolaore, M.; Taliercio, C.; Valente, M.; Veltri, P.; Zamengo, A.; Zaniol, B.; Zanotto, L.; Zaupa, M.; Boilson, D.; Graceffa, J.; Svensson, L.; Schunke, B.; Decamps, H.; Urbani, M.; Kushwah, M.; Chareyre, J.; Singh, M.; Bonicelli, T.; Agarici, G.; Garbuglia, A.; Masiello, A.; Paolucci, F.; Simon, M.; Bailly-Maitre, L.; Bragulat, E.; Gomez, G.; Gutierrez, D.; Mico, G.; Moreno, J.-F.; Pilard, V.; Chakraborty, A.; Baruah, U.; Rotti, C.; Patel, H.; Nagaraju, M. V.; Singh, N. P.; Patel, A.; Dhola, H.; Raval, B.; Fantz, U.; Fröschle, M.; Heinemann, B.; Kraus, W.; Nocentini, R.; Riedl, R.; Schiesko, L.; Wimmer, C.; Wünderlich, D.; Cavenago, M.; Croci, G.; Gorini, G.; Rebai, M.; Muraro, A.; Tardocchi, M.; Hemsworth, R.

2017-08-01

SPIDER is one of two projects of the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility under construction in Padova, Italy, at the Consorzio RFX premises. It will have a 100 keV beam source with a full-size prototype of the radiofrequency ion source for the ITER neutral beam injector (NBI) and also, similar to the ITER diagnostic neutral beam, it is designed to operate with a pulse length of up to 3600 s, featuring an ITER-like magnetic filter field configuration (for high extraction of negative ions) and caesium oven (for high production of negative ions) layout as well as a wide set of diagnostics. These features will allow a reproduction of the ion source operation in ITER, which cannot be done in any other existing test facility. SPIDER realization is well advanced and the first operation is expected at the beginning of 2018, with the mission of achieving the ITER heating and diagnostic NBI ion source requirements and of improving its performance in terms of reliability and availability. This paper mainly focuses on the preparation of the first SPIDER operations—integration and testing of SPIDER components, completion and implementation of diagnostics and control and formulation of operation and research plan, based on a staged strategy.

Prototyping Control and Data Acquisition for the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luchetta, Adriano; Manduchi, Gabriele; Taliercio, Cesare; Soppelsa, Anton; Paolucci, Francesco; Sartori, Filippo; Barbato, Paolo; Breda, Mauro; Capobianco, Roberto; Molon, Federico; Moressa, Modesto; Polato, Sandro; Simionato, Paola; Zampiva, Enrico

2013-10-01

The ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility will be the project's R&D facility for heating neutral beam injectors (HNB) for fusion research operating with H/D negative ions. Its mission is to develop technology to build the HNB prototype injector meeting the stringent HNB requirements (16.5 MW injection power, -1 MeV acceleration energy, 40 A ion current and one hour continuous operation). Two test-beds will be built in sequence in the facility: first SPIDER, the ion source test-bed, to optimize the negative ion source performance, second MITICA, the actual prototype injector, to optimize ion beam acceleration and neutralization. The SPIDER control and data acquisition system is under design. To validate the main architectural choices, a system prototype has been assembled and performance tests have been executed to assess the prototype's capability to meet the control and data acquisition system requirements. The prototype is based on open-source software frameworks running under Linux. EPICS is the slow control engine, MDSplus is the data handler and MARTe is the fast control manager. The prototype addresses low and high-frequency data acquisition, 10 kS/s and 10 MS/s respectively, camera image acquisition, data archiving, data streaming, data retrieval and visualization, real time fast control with 100 μs control cycle and supervisory control.

Analysis of the saturation phenomena of the neutralization rate of positively charged 218Po in water vapor.

PubMed

Tan, Yanliang; Xiao, Detao; Shan, Jian; Zhou, Qingzhi; Qu, Jingnian

2014-09-01

Generally, 88% of the freshly generated 218Po ions decayed from 222Rn are positively charged. These positive ions become neutralized by recombination with negative ions, and the main source of the negative ions is the OH- ions formed by radiolysis of water vapor. However, the neutralization rate of positively charged 218Po versus the square root of the concentration of H2O will be a constant when the concentration of H2O is sufficiently high. Since the electron affinity of the hydroxyl radical formed by water vapor is high, the authors propose that the hydroxyl radical can grab an electron to become OH-. Because the average period of collision with other positively charged ions and the average life of the OH- are much longer than those of the electron, the average concentration of negative ions will grow when the water vapor concentration increases. The authors obtained a model to describe the growth of OH- ions. From this model, it was found that the maximum value of the OH- ion concentration is limited by the square root of the radon concentration. If the radon concentration is invariant, the OH- ion concentration should be approximately a constant when the water vapor concentration is higher than a certain value. The phenomenon that the neutralization rate of positively charged 218Po versus the square root of the water vapor concentration will be saturated when the water vapor concentration is sufficiently high can be explained by this mechanism. This mechanism can be used also to explain the phenomenon that the detection efficiency of a radon monitor based on the electrostatic collection method seems to be constant when the water vapor concentration is high.

Medium-energy electrons and heavy ions in Jupiter's magnetosphere - Effects of lower hybrid wave-particle interactions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barbosa, D. D.

1986-01-01

A theory of medium-energy (about keV) electrons and heavy ions in Jupiter's magnetosphere is presented. Lower hybrid waves are generated by the combined effects of a ring instability of neutral wind pickup ions and the modified two-stream instability associated with transport of cool Iogenic plasma. The quasi-linear energy diffusion coefficient for lower hybrid wave-particle interactions is evaluated, and several solutions to the diffusion equation are given. Calculations based on measured wave properties show that the noise substantially modifies the particle distribution functions. The effects are to accelerate superthermal ions and electrons to keV energies and to thermalize the pickup ions on time scales comparable to the particle residence time. The S(2+)/S(+) ratio at medium energies is a measure of the relative contribution from Iogenic thermal plasma and neutral wind ions, and this important quantity should be determined from future measurements. The theory also predicts a preferential acceleration of heavy ions with an accleration time that scales inversely with the root of the ion mass. Electrons accelerated by the process contribute to further reionization of the neutral wind by electron impact, thus providing a possible confirmation of Alfven's critical velocity effect in the Jovian magnetosphere.

Measurement and simulation of passive fast-ion D-alpha emission from the DIII-D tokamak

DOE PAGES

Bolte, Nathan G.; Heidbrink, William W.; Pace, David; ...

2016-09-14

Spectra of passive fast-ion D-alpha (FIDA) light from beam ions that charge exchange with background neutrals are measured and simulated. The fast ions come from three sources: ions that pass through the diagnostic sightlines on their first full orbit, an axisymmetric confined population, and ions that are expelled into the edge region by instabilities. A passive FIDA simulation (P-FIDASIM) is developed as a forward model for the spectra of the first-orbit fast ions and consists of an experimentally-validated beam deposition model, an ion orbit-following code, a collisional-radiative model, and a synthetic spectrometer. Model validation consists of the simulation of 86more » experimental spectra that are obtained using 6 different neutral beam fast-ion sources and 13 different lines of sight. Calibrated spectra are used to estimate the neutral density throughout the cross-section of the tokamak. The resulting 2D neutral density shows the expected increase toward each X-point with average neutral densities of 8 X 10 9 cm -3 at the plasma boundary and 1 X 10 11 cm -3 near the wall. Here, fast ions that are on passing orbits are expelled by the sawtooth instability more readily than trapped ions. In a sample discharge, approximately 1% of the fast-ion population is ejected into the high neutral density region per sawtooth crash.« less

Integral Transport Analysis Results for Ions Flowing Through Neutral Gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Emmert, Gilbert; Santarius, John

2017-10-01

Results of a computational model for the flow of energetic ions and neutrals through a background neutral gas will be presented. The method models reactions as creating a new source of ions or neutrals if the energy or charge state of the resulting particle is changed. For a given source boundary condition, the creation and annihilation of the various species is formulated as a 1-D Volterra integral equation that can quickly be solved numerically by finite differences. The present work focuses on multiple-pass, 1-D ion flow through neutral gas and a nearly transparent, concentric anode and cathode pair in spherical, cylindrical, or linear geometry. This has been implemented as a computer code for atomic (3He, 3He +, 3He + +) and molecular (D, D2, D-, D +, D2 +, D3 +) ion and neutral species, and applied to modeling inertial-electrostatic connement (IEC) devices. The code yields detailed energy spectra of the various ions and energetic neutral species. Calculations for several University of Wisconsin IEC and ion implantation devices will be presented. Research supported by US Dept. of Homeland Security Grant 2015-DN-077-ARI095, Dept. of Energy Grant DE-FG02-04ER54745, and the Grainger Foundation.

Production of intense negative hydrogen beams with polarized nuclei by selective neutralization of negative ions

DOEpatents

Hershcovitch, Ady

1987-01-01

A process for selectively neutralizing H.sup.- ions in a magnetic field to produce an intense negative hydrogen ion beam with spin polarized protons. Characteristic features of the process include providing a multi-ampere beam of H.sup.- ions that are intersected by a beam of laser light. Photodetachment is effected in a uniform magnetic field that is provided around the beam of H.sup.- ions to spin polarize the H.sup.- ions and produce first and second populations or groups of ions, having their respective proton spin aligned either with the magnetic field or opposite to it. The intersecting beam of laser light is directed to selectively neutralize a majority of the ions in only one population, or given spin polarized group of H.sup.- ions, without neutralizing the ions in the other group thereby forming a population of H.sup.- ions each of which has its proton spin down, and a second group or population of H.sup.o atoms having proton spin up. Finally, the two groups of ions are separated from each other by magnetically bending the group of H.sup.- ions away from the group of neutralized ions, thereby to form an intense H.sup.- ion beam that is directed toward a predetermined objective.

Four-fluid MHD Simulations of the Plasma and Neutral Gas Environment of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko Near Perihelio

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Z.; Toth, G.; Gombosi, T. I.; Jia, X.; Rubin, M.; Hansen, K. C.; Fougere, N.; Bieler, A. M.; Shou, Y.; Altwegg, K.; Combi, M. R.; Tenishev, V.

2015-12-01

The neutral and plasma environment is critical in understanding the interaction of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (CG), the target of the Rosetta mission, and the solar wind. To serve this need and support the Rosetta mission, we develop a 3-D four fluid model, which is based on BATS-R-US within the SWMF (Space Weather Modeling Framework) that solves the governing multi-fluid MHD equations and the Euler equations for the neutral gas fluid. These equations describe the behavior and interactions of the cometary heavy ions, the solar wind protons, the electrons, and the neutrals. This model incorporates different mass loading processes, including photo and electron impact ionization, charge exchange, dissociative ion-electron recombination, and collisional interactions between different fluids. We simulate the near nucleus plasma and neutral gas environment near perihelion with a realistic shape model of CG and compare our simulation results with Rosetta observations.

A new technique for in situ measurement of the composition of neutral gas in interplanetary space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gruntman, Michael A.

1993-01-01

Neutral atoms in interplanetary space play an important role in many processes relevant to the formation and evolution of the Solar System. An experimental approach is proposed for in situ atom detection based on the conversion of neutral atoms to negative ions at a specially prepared sensitive surface. Negative ions are subsequently analyzed and detected in an essentially noise-free mode. The use of the technique for in situ study of the composition of neutral interstellar atoms is considered. It is shown that interstellar H, D, and O atoms and possibly H2 molecules can be measured by the proposed technique. The experiment can be performed from a high-apogee Earth-orbiting satellite or from a deep space probe. Possible applications of the technique are discussed.

Instrument Suite for Vertical Characterization of the Ionosphere-Thermosphere System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herrero, Federico; Jones, Hollis; Finne, Theodore; Nicholas, Andrew

2012-01-01

A document describes a suite that provides four simultaneous ion and neutral-atom measurements as a function of altitude, with variable sensitivity for neutral atmospheric species. The variable sensitivity makes it possible to extend the measurements over the altitude range of 100 to more than 700 km. The four instruments in the suite are (1) a neutral wind-temperature spectrometer (WTS), (2) an ion-drift ion-temperature spectrometer (IDTS), (3) a neutral mass spectrometer (NMS), and (4) an ion mass spectrometer (IMS).

Work function measurements during plasma exposition at conditions relevant in negative ion sources for the ITER neutral beam injection.

PubMed

Gutser, R; Wimmer, C; Fantz, U

2011-02-01

Cesium seeded sources for surface generated negative hydrogen ions are major components of neutral beam injection systems in future large-scale fusion experiments such as ITER. The stability and delivered current density depend highly on the work function during vacuum and plasma phases of the ion source. One of the most important quantities that affect the source performance is the work function. A modified photocurrent method was developed to measure the temporal behavior of the work function during and after cesium evaporation. The investigation of cesium exposed Mo and MoLa samples under ITER negative hydrogen ion based neutral beam injection relevant surface and plasma conditions showed the influence of impurities which result in a fast degradation when the plasma exposure or the cesium flux onto the sample is stopped. A minimum work function close to that of bulk cesium was obtained under the influence of the plasma exposition, while a significantly higher work function was observed under ITER-like vacuum conditions.

Miniature Electrostatic Ion Thruster With Magnet

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartley, Frank T.

2006-01-01

A miniature electrostatic ion thruster is proposed that, with one exception, would be based on the same principles as those of the device described in the previous article, "Miniature Bipolar Electrostatic Ion Thruster". The exceptional feature of this thruster would be that, in addition to using electric fields for linear acceleration of ions and electrons, it would use a magnetic field to rotationally accelerate slow electrons into the ion stream to neutralize the ions.

ION SOURCE WITH SPACE CHARGE NEUTRALIZATION

DOEpatents

Flowers, J.W.; Luce, J.S.; Stirling, W.L.

1963-01-22

This patent relates to a space charge neutralized ion source in which a refluxing gas-fed arc discharge is provided between a cathode and a gas-fed anode to provide ions. An electron gun directs a controlled, monoenergetic electron beam through the discharge. A space charge neutralization is effected in the ion source and accelerating gap by oscillating low energy electrons, and a space charge neutralization of the source exit beam is effected by the monoenergetic electron beam beyond the source exit end. The neutralized beam may be accelerated to any desired energy at densities well above the limitation imposed by Langmuir-Child' s law. (AEC)

Semiannual and solar activity variations of daytime plasma observed by DEMETER in the ionosphere-plasmasphere transition region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, L. Y.; Cao, J. B.; Yang, J. Y.; Berthelier, J. J.; Lebreton, J.-P.

2015-12-01

Using the plasma data of Detection of Electro-Magnetic Emissions Transmitted from Earthquake Regions (DEMETER) satellite and the NRLMSISE-00 atmospheric model, we examined the semiannual and solar activity variations of the daytime plasma and neutral composition densities in the ionosphere-plasmasphere transition region (~670-710 km). The results demonstrate that the semiannually latitudinal variation of the daytime oxygen ions (O+) is basically controlled by that of neutral atomic oxygen (O), whereas the latitude distributions of the helium and hydrogen ions (He+ and H+) do not fully depend on the neutral atomic helium (He) and hydrogen (H). The summer enhancement of the heavy oxygen ions is consistent with the neutral O enhancement in the summer hemisphere, and the oxygen ion density has significantly the summer-dense and winter-tenuous hemispheric asymmetry with respect to the dip equator. Although the winter enhancements of the lighter He+ and H+ ions are also associated with the neutral He and H enhancements in the winter hemisphere, the high-density light ions (He+ and H+) and electrons (e-) mainly appear at the low and middle magnetic latitudes (|λ| < 50°). The equatorial accumulations of the light plasma species indicate that the light charged particles (He+, H+, and e-) are easily transported by some equatorward forces (e.g., the magnetic mirror force and centrifugal force). The frequent Coulomb collisions between the charged particles probably lead to the particle trappings at different latitudes. Moreover, the neutral composition densities also influence their ion concentrations during different solar activities. From the low-F10.7 year (2007-2008) to the high-F10.7 year (2004-2005), the daytime oxygen ions and electrons increase with the increasing neutral atomic oxygen, whereas the daytime hydrogen ions tend to decrease with the decreasing neutral atomic hydrogen. The helium ion density has no obvious solar activity variation, suggesting that the generation (via the neutral He photoionization) and loss (via the charge exchange with neutral nitrogen N2 and/or the recombination with electrons) of the daytime He+ ions are comparable during different solar activities.

Active spacecraft potential control: An ion emitter experiment. [Cluster mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Riedler, W.; Goldstein, R.; Hamelin, M.; Maehlum, B. N.; Troim, J.; Olsen, R. C.; Pedersen, A.; Grard, R. J. L.; Schmidt, R.; Rudenauer, F.

1988-01-01

The cluster spacecraft are instrumented with ion emitters for charge neutralization. The emitters produce indium ions at 6 keV. The ion current is adjusted in a feedback loop with instruments measuring the spacecraft potential. The system is based on the evaporation of indium in the apex field of a needle. The design of the active spacecraft potential control instruments, and the ion emitters is presented.

Steady-State Ion Beam Modeling with MICHELLE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Petillo, John

2003-10-01

There is a need to efficiently model ion beam physics for ion implantation, chemical vapor deposition, and ion thrusters. Common to all is the need for three-dimensional (3D) simulation of volumetric ion sources, ion acceleration, and optics, with the ability to model charge exchange of the ion beam with a background neutral gas. The two pieces of physics stand out as significant are the modeling of the volumetric source and charge exchange. In the MICHELLE code, the method for modeling the plasma sheath in ion sources assumes that the electron distribution function is a Maxwellian function of electrostatic potential over electron temperature. Charge exchange is the process by which a neutral background gas with a "fast" charged particle streaming through exchanges its electron with the charged particle. An efficient method for capturing this is essential, and the model presented is based on semi-empirical collision cross section functions. This appears to be the first steady-state 3D algorithm of its type to contain multiple generations of charge exchange, work with multiple species and multiple charge state beam/source particles simultaneously, take into account the self-consistent space charge effects, and track the subsequent fast neutral particles. The solution used by MICHELLE is to combine finite element analysis with particle-in-cell (PIC) methods. The basic physics model is based on the equilibrium steady-state application of the electrostatic particle-in-cell (PIC) approximation employing a conformal computational mesh. The foundation stems from the same basic model introduced in codes such as EGUN. Here, Poisson's equation is used to self-consistently include the effects of space charge on the fields, and the relativistic Lorentz equation is used to integrate the particle trajectories through those fields. The presentation will consider the complexity of modeling ion thrusters.

Surface conversion techniques for low energy neutral atom imagers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Quinn, J. M.

1995-01-01

This investigation has focused on development of key technology elements for low energy neutral atom imaging. More specifically, we have investigated the conversion of low energy neutral atoms to negatively charged ions upon reflection from specially prepared surfaces. This 'surface conversion' technique appears to offer a unique capability of detecting, and thus imaging, neutral atoms at energies of 0.01 - 1 keV with high enough efficiencies to make practical its application to low energy neutral atom imaging in space. Such imaging offers the opportunity to obtain the first instantaneous global maps of macroscopic plasma features and their temporal variation. Through previous in situ plasma measurements, we have a statistical picture of large scale morphology and local measurements of dynamic processes. However, with in situ techniques it is impossible to characterize or understand many of the global plasma transport and energization processes. A series of global plasma images would greatly advance our understanding of these processes and would provide the context for interpreting previous and future in situ measurements. Fast neutral atoms, created from ions that are neutralized in collisions with exospheric neutrals, offer the means for remotely imaging plasma populations. Energy and mass analysis of these neutrals provides critical information about the source plasma distribution. The flux of neutral atoms available for imaging depends upon a convolution of the ambient plasma distribution with the charge exchange cross section for the background neutral population. Some of the highest signals are at relatively low energies (well below 1 keV). This energy range also includes some of the most important plasma populations to be imaged, for example the base of the cleft ion fountain.

Electric force on plasma ions and the momentum of the ion-neutrals flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Makrinich, G.; Fruchtman, A.; Zoler, D.; Boxman, R. L.

2018-05-01

The electric force on ions in plasma and the momentum flux carried by the mixed ion-neutral flow were measured and found to be equal. The experiment was performed in a direct-current gas discharge of cylindrical geometry with applied radial electric field and axial magnetic field. The unmagnetized plasma ions, neutralized by magnetized electrons, were accelerated radially outward transferring part of the gained momentum to neutrals. Measurements were taken for various argon gas flow rates between 13 and 100 Standard Cubic Centimeter per Minute, for a discharge current of 1.9 A and a magnetic field intensity of 136 G. The plasma density, electron temperature, and plasma potential were measured at various locations along the flow. These measurements were used to determine the local electric force on the ions. The total electric force on the plasma ions was then determined by integrating radially the local electric force. In parallel, the momentum flux of the mixed ion-neutral flow was determined by measuring the force exerted by the flow on a balance force meter (BFM). The maximal plasma density was between 6 × 1010 cm-3 and 5 × 1011 cm-3, the maximal electron temperature was between 8 eV and 25 eV, and the deduced maximal electric field was between 2200 V/m and 5800 V/m. The force exerted by the mixed ion-neutral flow on the BFM agreed with the total electric force on the plasma ions. This agreement showed that it is the electric force on the plasma ions that is the source of the momentum acquired by the mixed ion-neutral flow.

Study of the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko based on the ROSINA/RTOF instrument onboard Rosetta

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoang, M.; Garnier, P.; Rème, H.; Altwegg, K.; Balsiger, H.; Calmonte, U.; Fiethe, B.; Galli, A.; Gasc, S.; Jäckel, A.; Mall, U.; Le Roy, L.; Rubin, M.; Tzou, C.-Y.; Waite, J. H.; Wurz, P.

2015-10-01

The Rosetta ESA mission investigates the environment of the comet 67P / Churyumov- Gerasimenko since August 2014. Among the experiments onboard the satellite, the ROSINA experiment (Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis) includes two mass spectrometers (DFMS and RTOF) to analyze the composition of neutrals and ions, and an instrument (COPS) to monitor the density and velocity of neutrals in the coma [1]. We will here analyze and discuss the data of the ROSINA/RTOF instrument during the comet escort phase. A detailed description of the main volatiles (H2O, CO2, CO) dynamics and of the heterogeneities of the coma will be provided.

A new way to measure the composition of the interstellar gas surrounding the heliosphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gruntman, Michael A.

1993-01-01

The composition of neutral gas in the Local Interstellar Medium can be studied by direct, in situ measuring of interstellar neutral atoms penetrating into interplanetary space. A novel experimental approach for in situ atom detection, which has never been used earlier in space, is proposed. The technique is based on the conversion of neutral atoms to negative ions at a specially prepared sensitive surface. Negative ions are subsequently analyzed and detected in an essentially noise-free, multicoincidence mode. It is shown that interstellar hydrogen, deuterium, and oxygen atoms can be measured by the proposed technique. The experiment can be performed from a high-apogee Earth-orbiting satellite or from a deep space probe.

Study of negative hydrogen ion beam optics using the 3D3V PIC model

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Miyamoto, K., E-mail: kmiyamot@naruto-u.ac.jp; Nishioka, S.; Goto, I.

The mechanism of negative ion extraction under real conditions with the complex magnetic field is studied by using the 3D PIC simulation code. The extraction region of the negative ion source for the negative ion based neutral beam injection system in fusion reactors is modelled. It is shown that the E x B drift of electrons is caused by the magnetic filter and the electron suppression magnetic field, and the resultant asymmetry of the plasma meniscus. Furthermore, it is indicated that that the asymmetry of the plasma meniscus results in the asymmetry of negative ion beam profile including the beammore » halo. It could be demonstrated theoretically that the E x B drift is not significantly weakened by the elastic collisions of the electrons with neutral particles.« less

On the neutralization in low energy ion scattering spectroscopy (leiss): He + ions on clean and oxygen covered Ni(001) surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Preuss, E.

1981-10-01

A formula for the He + ion survival probability against neutralization is presented, which was derived from the fit of the azimuthal angular dependence of the Ni peak heights on clean and O covered Ni(001) surfaces observed in LEISS experiments and computer simulations. The formula contains a collision- and two Auger-type neutralization terms for the ion trajectories prolonged by multiple collisions above the "neutralization surface plane", which was assumed to be corrugated and shaped like muffin-tins.

Ion-Neutral Coupling in Solar Prominence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gilbert, H.; DeVore, C. R.; Karpen, J.; Kucera, T.; Antiochos, S.; Kawashima, R.

2011-01-01

Coupling between ions and neutrals in magnetized plasmas is fundamentally important to many aspects of heliophysics, including our ionosphere, the solar chromosphere, the solar wind interaction with planetary atmospheres, and the interface between the heliosphere and the interstellar medium. Ion-neutral coupling also plays a major role in the physics of solar prominences. By combining theory, modeling, and observations we are working toward a better understanding of the structure and dynamics of partially ionized prominence plasma. Two key questions are addressed in the present work: 1) what physical mechanism(s) sets the cross-field scale of prominence threads? 2) Are ion-neutral interactions responsible for the vertical flows and structure in prominences? We present initial results from a study investigating what role ion-neutral interactions play in prominence dynamics and structure. This research was supported by NASA.

Ions beams and ferroelectric plasma sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stepanov, Anton

Near-perfect space-charge neutralization is required for the transverse compression of high perveance ion beams for ion-beam-driven warm dense matter experiments, such as the Neutralized Drift Compression eXperiment (NDCX). Neutralization can be accomplished by introducing a plasma in the beam path, which provides free electrons that compensate the positive space charge of the ion beam. In this thesis, charge neutralization of a 40 keV, perveance-dominated Ar+ beam by a Ferroelectric Plasma Source (FEPS) is investigated. First, the parameters of the ion beam, such as divergence due to the extraction optics, charge neutralization fraction, and emittance were measured. The ion beam was propagated through the FEPS plasma, and the effects of charge neutralization were inferred from time-resolved measurements of the transverse beam profile. In addition, the dependence of FEPS plasma parameters on the configuration of the driving pulser circuit was studied to optimize pulser design. An ion accelerator was constructed that produced a 30-50 keV Ar + beam with pulse duration <300 mus and dimensionless perveance Q up to 8 x 10-4. Transverse profile measurements 33 cm downstream of the ion source showed that the dependence of beam radius on Q was consistent with space charge expansion. It was concluded that the beam was perveance-dominated with a charge neutralization fraction of approximately zero in the absence of neutralizing plasma. Since beam expansion occurred primarily due to space charge, the decrease in effective perveance due to neutralization by FEPS plasma can be inferred from the reduction in beam radius. Results on propagation of the ion beam through FEPS plasma demonstrate that after the FEPS is triggered, the beam radius decreases to its neutralized value in about 5 mus. The duration of neutralization was about 10 mus at a charging voltage VFEPS = 5.5 kV and 35 mus at VFEPS = 6.5 kV. With VFEPS = 6.5 kV, the transverse current density profile 33 cm downstream of the source had a Gaussian shape with xrms =5 mm, which corresponds to a half-angle divergence of 0.87°. The measurements show that near-perfect charge neutralization with FEPS can be attained. No loss of ion beam current was detected, indicating the absence of a neutral cloud in the region of beam propagation, which would cause beam loss to charge exchange collisions. This provides evidence in favor of using FEPS in a future Heavy Ion Fusion accelerator. The FEPS discharge was investigated based on current-voltage measurements in the pulser circuit. Different values of series resistance and storage capacitance in the pulser circuit were used. The charged particle current emitted by the FEPS into vacuum was measured from the difference in forward and return currents in the driving circuit. It was found that FEPS is an emitter of negative charge, and that electron current emission begins approximately 0.5 mus after the fast-rising high voltage pulse is applied and lasts for tens of mus. The value of the series resistance in the pulser circuit was varied to change the rise time of the voltage pulse; plasma density was expected to decrease with increasing values of resistance. However, the data showed that changing the resistance had no significant effect. The average charge emitted per shot depends strongly on the value of the storage capacitance. Lowering the capacitance from 141 nF to 47 nF resulted in a near-complete shut-off of charge emission, although the amplitude of the applied voltage pulse was as high, and rise time as short, as when high-density plasma was produced. Increasing the capacitance from 141 nF to 235 nF increased the average charge emitted per shot by a factor of 2.

Development of a 1-m plasma source for heavy ion beam charge neutralization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Efthimion, Philip C.; Gilson, Erik P.; Grisham, Larry; Davidson, Ronald C.; Yu, Simon; Waldron, William; Grant Logan, B.

2005-05-01

Highly ionized plasmas are being employed as a medium for charge neutralizing heavy ion beams in order to focus to a small spot size. Calculations suggest that plasma at a density of 1-100 times the ion beam density and at a length ˜0.1-1 m would be suitable for achieving a high level of charge neutralization. A radio frequency (RF) source was constructed at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) in support of the joint Neutralized Transport Experiment (NTX) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to study ion beam neutralization. Pulsing the source enabled operation at pressures ˜10 -6 Torr with plasma densities of 10 11 cm -3. Near 100% ionization was achieved. The plasma was 10 cm in length, but future experiments require a source 1 m long. The RF source does not easily scale to the length. Consequently, large-volume plasma sources based upon ferroelectric ceramics are being considered. These sources have the advantage of being able to increase the length of the plasma and operate at low neutral pressures. The source will utilize the ferroelectric ceramic BaTiO 3 to form metal plasma. A 1 m long section of the drift tube inner surface of NTX will be covered with ceramic. A high voltage (˜1-5 kV) is applied between the drift tube and the front surface of the ceramic by placing a wire grid on the front surface. Plasma densities of 10 12 cm -3 and neutral pressures ˜10 -6 Torr are expected. A test stand to produce 20 cm long plasma is being constructed and will be tested before a 1 m long source is developed.

Negative ion source development for a photoneutralization based neutral beam system for future fusion reactors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simonin, A.; Agnello, R.; Bechu, S.; Bernard, J. M.; Blondel, C.; Boeuf, J. P.; Bresteau, D.; Cartry, G.; Chaibi, W.; Drag, C.; Duval, B. P.; de Esch, H. P. L.; Fubiani, G.; Furno, I.; Grand, C.; Guittienne, Ph; Howling, A.; Jacquier, R.; Marini, C.; Morgal, I.

2016-12-01

In parallel to the developments dedicated to the ITER neutral beam (NB) system, CEA-IRFM with laboratories in France and Switzerland are studying the feasibility of a new generation of NB system able to provide heating and current drive for the future DEMOnstration fusion reactor. For the steady-state scenario, the NB system will have to provide a high NB power level with a high wall-plug efficiency (η ˜ 60%). Neutralization of the energetic negative ions by photodetachment (so called photoneutralization), if feasible, appears to be the ideal solution to meet these performances, in the sense that it could offer a high beam neutralization rate (>80%) and a wall-plug efficiency higher than 60%. The main challenge of this new injector concept is the achievement of a very high power photon flux which could be provided by 3 MW Fabry-Perot optical cavities implanted along the 1 MeV D- beam in the neutralizer stage. The beamline topology is tall and narrow to provide laminar ion beam sheets, which will be entirely illuminated by the intra-cavity photon beams propagating along the vertical axis. The paper describes the present R&D (experiments and modelling) addressing the development of a new ion source concept (Cybele source) which is based on a magnetized plasma column. Parametric studies of the source are performed using Langmuir probes in order to characterize and compare the plasma parameters in the source column with different plasma generators, such as filamented cathodes, radio-frequency driver and a helicon antenna specifically developed at SPC-EPFL satisfying the requirements for the Cybele (axial magnetic field of 10 mT, source operating pressure: 0.3 Pa in hydrogen or deuterium). The paper compares the performances of the three plasma generators. It is shown that the helicon plasma generator is a very promising candidate to provide an intense and uniform negative ion beam sheet.

Neutralized ion beam modification of cellulose membranes for study of ion charge effect on ion-beam-induced DNA transfer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prakrajang, K.; Sangwijit, K.; Anuntalabhochai, S.; Wanichapichart, P.; Yu, L. D.

2012-02-01

Low-energy ion beam biotechnology (IBBT) has recently been rapidly developed worldwide. Ion-beam-induced DNA transfer is one of the important applications of IBBT. However, mechanisms involved in this application are not yet well understood. In this study plasma-neutralized ion beam was applied to investigate ion charge effect on induction of DNA transfer. Argon ion beam at 7.5 keV was neutralized by RF-driven plasma in the beam path and then bombarded cellulose membranes which were used as the mimetic plant cell envelope. Electrical properties such as impedance and capacitance of the membranes were measured after the bombardment. An in vitro experiment on plasmid DNA transfer through the cellulose membrane was followed up. The results showed that the ion charge input played an important role in the impedance and capacitance changes which would affect DNA transfer. Generally speaking, neutral particle beam bombardment of biologic cells was more effective in inducing DNA transfer than charged ion beam bombardment.

Indian Test Facility (INTF) and its updates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bandyopadhyay, M.; Chakraborty, A.; Rotti, C.; Joshi, J.; Patel, H.; Yadav, A.; Shah, S.; Tyagi, H.; Parmar, D.; Sudhir, Dass; Gahlaut, A.; Bansal, G.; Soni, J.; Pandya, K.; Pandey, R.; Yadav, R.; Nagaraju, M. V.; Mahesh, V.; Pillai, S.; Sharma, D.; Singh, D.; Bhuyan, M.; Mistry, H.; Parmar, K.; Patel, M.; Patel, K.; Prajapati, B.; Shishangiya, H.; Vishnudev, M.; Bhagora, J.

2017-04-01

To characterize ITER Diagnostic Neutral Beam (DNB) system with full specification and to support IPR’s negative ion beam based neutral beam injector (NBI) system development program, a R&D facility, named INTF is under commissioning phase. Implementation of a successful DNB at ITER requires several challenges need to be overcome. These issues are related to the negative ion production, its neutralization and corresponding neutral beam transport over the path lengths of ∼ 20.67 m to reach ITER plasma. DNB is a procurement package for INDIA, as an in-kind contribution to ITER. Since ITER is considered as a nuclear facility, minimum diagnostic systems, linked with safe operation of the machine are planned to be incorporated in it and so there is difficulty to characterize DNB after onsite commissioning. Therefore, the delivery of DNB to ITER will be benefited if DNB is operated and characterized prior to onsite commissioning. INTF has been envisaged to be operational with the large size ion source activities in the similar timeline, as with the SPIDER (RFX, Padova) facility. This paper describes some of the development updates of the facility.

Multi-shell model of ion-induced nucleic acid condensation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tolokh, Igor S.; Drozdetski, Aleksander V.; Pollack, Lois; Baker, Nathan A.; Onufriev, Alexey V.

2016-04-01

We present a semi-quantitative model of condensation of short nucleic acid (NA) duplexes induced by trivalent cobalt(iii) hexammine (CoHex) ions. The model is based on partitioning of bound counterion distribution around single NA duplex into "external" and "internal" ion binding shells distinguished by the proximity to duplex helical axis. In the aggregated phase the shells overlap, which leads to significantly increased attraction of CoHex ions in these overlaps with the neighboring duplexes. The duplex aggregation free energy is decomposed into attractive and repulsive components in such a way that they can be represented by simple analytical expressions with parameters derived from molecular dynamic simulations and numerical solutions of Poisson equation. The attractive term depends on the fractions of bound ions in the overlapping shells and affinity of CoHex to the "external" shell of nearly neutralized duplex. The repulsive components of the free energy are duplex configurational entropy loss upon the aggregation and the electrostatic repulsion of the duplexes that remains after neutralization by bound CoHex ions. The estimates of the aggregation free energy are consistent with the experimental range of NA duplex condensation propensities, including the unusually poor condensation of RNA structures and subtle sequence effects upon DNA condensation. The model predicts that, in contrast to DNA, RNA duplexes may condense into tighter packed aggregates with a higher degree of duplex neutralization. An appreciable CoHex mediated RNA-RNA attraction requires closer inter-duplex separation to engage CoHex ions (bound mostly in the "internal" shell of RNA) into short-range attractive interactions. The model also predicts that longer NA fragments will condense more readily than shorter ones. The ability of this model to explain experimentally observed trends in NA condensation lends support to proposed NA condensation picture based on the multivalent "ion binding shells."

Measurements of neutral and ion velocity distribution functions in a Hall thruster

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Svarnas, Panagiotis; Romadanov, Iavn; Diallo, Ahmed; Raitses, Yevgeny

2015-11-01

Hall thruster is a plasma device for space propulsion. It utilizes a cross-field discharge to generate a partially ionized weakly collisional plasma with magnetized electrons and non-magnetized ions. The ions are accelerated by the electric field to produce the thrust. There is a relatively large number of studies devoted to characterization of accelerated ions, including measurements of ion velocity distribution function using laser-induced fluorescence diagnostic. Interactions of these accelerated ions with neutral atoms in the thruster and the thruster plume is a subject of on-going studies, which require combined monitoring of ion and neutral velocity distributions. Herein, laser-induced fluorescence technique has been employed to study neutral and single-charged ion velocity distribution functions in a 200 W cylindrical Hall thruster operating with xenon propellant. An optical system is installed in the vacuum chamber enabling spatially resolved axial velocity measurements. The fluorescence signals are well separated from the plasma background emission by modulating the laser beam and using lock-in detectors. Measured velocity distribution functions of neutral atoms and ions at different operating parameters of the thruster are reported and analyzed. This work was supported by DOE contract DE-AC02-09CH11466.

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRAPPING IONS IN A MAGNETIC FIELD

DOEpatents

Luce, J.S.

1962-04-17

A method and apparatus are described for trapping ions within an evacuated container and within a magnetic field utilizing dissociation and/or ionization of molecular ions to form atomic ions and energetic neutral particles. The atomic ions are magnetically trapped as a result of a change of charge-to- mass ratio. The molecular ions are injected into the container and into the path of an energetic carbon arc discharge which dissociates and/or ionizes a portion of the molecular ions into atomic ions and energetic neutrals. The resulting atomic ions are trapped by the magnetic field to form a circulating beam of atomic ions, and the energetic neutrals pass out of the system and may be utilized in a particle accelerator. (AEC)

Generation and acceleration of neutral atoms in intense laser plasma experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tata, Sheroy; Mondal, Angana; Sarkar, Shobhik; Ved, Yash; Lad, Amit D.; Pasley, John; Colgan, James; Krishnamurthy, M.

2017-10-01

The interaction of a high intensity (>=1018 W/cm2), high contrast (>=109), ultra-short (30fs) laser with solid targets generates a highly dense hot plasma. The quasi-static electric fields in such plasmas are well known for ion acceleration via the target normal sheath acceleration process. Under such conditions charge reduction to generate fast neutral atoms is almost inhibited. Improvised Thomson parabola spectrometry with improved signal to noise ratio has enabled us to measure the signals of fast neutral atoms and negative ions having energies in excess of tens of keV. A study on the neutralization of accelerated protons in plasma shows that the neutral atom to all particle ratio rises sharply from a few percent at the highest detectable energy to 50 % at 15 keV. Using usual charge transfer reactions the generation of neutral atoms can not be explained, thus we conjecture that the neutralization of the accelerated ions is not from the hot dense region of the plasma but neutral atom formation takes place by co-propagating ions with low energy electrons enhancing the effective neutral ratio.

Continuous wave cavity ring down spectroscopy measurements of velocity distribution functions of argon ions in a helicon plasma.

PubMed

Chakraborty Thakur, Saikat; McCarren, Dustin; Carr, Jerry; Scime, Earl E

2012-02-01

We report continuous wave cavity ring down spectroscopy (CW-CRDS) measurements of ion velocity distribution functions (VDFs) in low pressure argon helicon plasma (magnetic field strength of 600 G, T(e) ≈ 4 eV and n ≈ 5 × 10(11) cm(-3)). Laser induced fluorescence (LIF) is routinely used to measure VDFs of argon ions, argon neutrals, helium neutrals, and xenon ions in helicon sources. Here, we describe a CW-CRDS diagnostic based on a narrow line width, tunable diode laser as an alternative technique to measure VDFs in similar regimes but where LIF is inapplicable. Being an ultra-sensitive, cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopic technique; CW-CRDS can also provide a direct quantitative measurement of the absolute metastable state density. The proof of principle CW-CRDS measurements presented here are of the Doppler broadened absorption spectrum of Ar II at 668.6138 nm. Extrapolating from these initial measurements, it is expected that this diagnostic is suitable for neutrals and ions in plasmas ranging in density from 1 × 10(9) cm(-3) to 1 × 10(13) cm(-3) and target species temperatures less than 20 eV.

Continuous wave cavity ring down spectroscopy measurements of velocity distribution functions of argon ions in a helicon plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakraborty Thakur, Saikat; McCarren, Dustin; Carr, Jerry; Scime, Earl E.

2012-02-01

We report continuous wave cavity ring down spectroscopy (CW-CRDS) measurements of ion velocity distribution functions (VDFs) in low pressure argon helicon plasma (magnetic field strength of 600 G, Te ≈ 4 eV and n ≈ 5 × 1011 cm-3). Laser induced fluorescence (LIF) is routinely used to measure VDFs of argon ions, argon neutrals, helium neutrals, and xenon ions in helicon sources. Here, we describe a CW-CRDS diagnostic based on a narrow line width, tunable diode laser as an alternative technique to measure VDFs in similar regimes but where LIF is inapplicable. Being an ultra-sensitive, cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopic technique; CW-CRDS can also provide a direct quantitative measurement of the absolute metastable state density. The proof of principle CW-CRDS measurements presented here are of the Doppler broadened absorption spectrum of Ar II at 668.6138 nm. Extrapolating from these initial measurements, it is expected that this diagnostic is suitable for neutrals and ions in plasmas ranging in density from 1 × 109 cm-3 to 1 × 1013 cm-3 and target species temperatures less than 20 eV.

The role of highly oxygenated molecules (HOMs) in determining the composition of ambient ions in the boreal forest

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bianchi, Federico; Garmash, Olga; He, Xucheng; Yan, Chao; Iyer, Siddharth; Rosendahl, Ida; Xu, Zhengning; Rissanen, Matti P.; Riva, Matthieu; Taipale, Risto; Sarnela, Nina; Petäjä, Tuukka; Worsnop, Douglas R.; Kulmala, Markku; Ehn, Mikael; Junninen, Heikki

2017-11-01

In order to investigate the negative ions in the boreal forest we have performed measurements to chemically characterise the composition of negatively charged clusters containing highly oxygenated molecules (HOMs). Additionally, we compared this information with the chemical composition of the neutral gas-phase molecules detected in the ambient atmosphere during the same period. The chemical composition of the ions was retrieved using an atmospheric pressure interface time-of-flight mass spectrometer (APi-TOF-MS) while the gas-phase neutral molecules (mainly sulfuric acid and HOMs) were characterised using the same mass spectrometer coupled to a nitrate-based chemical ionisation unit (CI-APi-TOF). Overall, we divided the identified HOMs in two classes: HOMs containing only carbon, hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen-containing HOMs or organonitrates (ONs). During the day, among the ions, in addition to the well-known pure sulfuric acid clusters, we found a large number of HOMs clustered with nitrate (NO3-) or bisulfate (HSO4-), with the first one being more abundant. During the night, the distribution of ions, mainly composed of HOM clustered with NO3-, was very similar to the neutral compounds that are detected in the CI-APi-TOF as adducts with the artificially introduced primary ion (NO3-). For the first time, we identified several clusters containing up to 40 carbon atoms. These ions are formed by up to four oxidised α-pinene units clustered with NO3-. While we know that dimers (16-20 carbon atoms) are probably formed by a covalent bond between two α-pinene oxidised units, it is still unclear what bonding formed larger clusters. Finally, diurnal profiles of the negative ions were consistent with the neutral compounds revealing that ONs peak during the day while HOMs are more abundant at night-time. However, during the day, a large fraction of the negative charge is taken up by the pure sulfuric acid clusters causing differences between ambient ions and neutral compounds (i.e. less available charge for HOM and ON).

Analysis of the ion sources of the Martian dayside magnetosphere based on MAVEN measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ermakov, V.; Zelenyi, L. M.; Vaisberg, O. L.; Shuvalov, S. D.; Znobishchev, A.; Dubinin, E.

2017-12-01

The dayside Martian magnetosphere formed from the solar wind magnetic flux tubes is a thin region between ionosheath and Martian ionosphere. The Martian magnetosphere is originated as solar wind magnetic flux tubes decelerate in front of Mars due to mass-loading and pile-up forming in most cases magnetic barrier. Then magnetic flux tubes, mass-loaded by atmospheric photoions, convect around Mars and form magnetotail. This region is predominantly filled with heavy atmospheric ions with energies intermediate between solar wind protons and ionospheric ions energies. There are several possibilities for filling this region with atmospheric heavy ions. We made an attempt to identify the most important sources of ions in Martian magnetosphere analyzing a number of crossings of Martian magnetosphere at terminator region by MAVEN spacecraft. Ion measurements during MAVEN passage of Martian magnetosphere at terminator region were used in order to calculate neutrals altitude profiles for different ion species, using assumption that these flux tubes accumulate photoions during the drift within magnetosphere. Some of calculated neutral profiles are in a satisfactory agreement with neutral profiles measured by NGIMS. This supports the mass-loading by photoions as the main process responsible for filling Martian magnetosphere with heavy ions. We wish to thank J.McFadden and J.Conerney for the opportunity to use ion and magnetic field measurements data from STATIC and MAG instruments, respectively. This work was supported by Russian Science Foundation (grant #16-42-01103).

D-region ion-neutral coupled chemistry (Sodankylä Ion Chemistry, SIC) within the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM 4) - WACCM-SIC and WACCM-rSIC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kovács, Tamás; Plane, John M. C.; Feng, Wuhu; Nagy, Tibor; Chipperfield, Martyn P.; Verronen, Pekka T.; Andersson, Monika E.; Newnham, David A.; Clilverd, Mark A.; Marsh, Daniel R.

2016-09-01

This study presents a new ion-neutral chemical model coupled into the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM). The ionospheric D-region (altitudes ˜ 50-90 km) chemistry is based on the Sodankylä Ion Chemistry (SIC) model, a one-dimensional model containing 307 ion-neutral and ion recombination, 16 photodissociation and 7 photoionization reactions of neutral species, positive and negative ions, and electrons. The SIC mechanism was reduced using the simulation error minimization connectivity method (SEM-CM) to produce a reaction scheme of 181 ion-molecule reactions of 181 ion-molecule reactions of 27 positive and 18 negative ions. This scheme describes the concentration profiles at altitudes between 20 km and 120 km of a set of major neutral species (HNO3, O3, H2O2, NO, NO2, HO2, OH, N2O5) and ions (O2+, O4+, NO+, NO+(H2O), O2+(H2O), H+(H2O), H+(H2O)2, H+(H2O)3, H+(H2O)4, O3-, NO2-, O-, O2, OH-, O2-(H2O), O2-(H2O)2, O4-, CO3-, CO3-(H2O), CO4-, HCO3-, NO2-, NO3-, NO3-(H2O), NO3-(H2O)2, NO3-(HNO3), NO3-(HNO3)2, Cl-, ClO-), which agree with the full SIC mechanism within a 5 % tolerance. Four 3-D model simulations were then performed, using the impact of the January 2005 solar proton event (SPE) on D-region HOx and NOx chemistry as a test case of four different model versions: the standard WACCM (no negative ions and a very limited set of positive ions); WACCM-SIC (standard WACCM with the full SIC chemistry of positive and negative ions); WACCM-D (standard WACCM with a heuristic reduction of the SIC chemistry, recently used to examine HNO3 formation following an SPE); and WACCM-rSIC (standard WACCM with a reduction of SIC chemistry using the SEM-CM method). The standard WACCM misses the HNO3 enhancement during the SPE, while the full and reduced model versions predict significant NOx, HOx and HNO3 enhancements in the mesosphere during solar proton events. The SEM-CM reduction also identifies the important ion-molecule reactions that affect the partitioning of odd nitrogen (NOx), odd hydrogen (HOx) and O3 in the stratosphere and mesosphere.

Status of the Negative Ion Based Heating and Diagnostic Neutral Beams for ITER

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schunke, B.; Bora, D.; Hemsworth, R.; Tanga, A.

2009-03-01

The current baseline of ITER foresees 2 Heating Neutral Beam (HNB's) systems based on negative ion technology, each accelerating to 1 MeV 40 A of D- and capable of delivering 16.5 MW of D0 to the ITER plasma, with a 3rd HNB injector foreseen as an upgrade option [1]. In addition a dedicated Diagnostic Neutral Beam (DNB) accelerating 60 A of H- to 100 keV will inject ≈15 A equivalent of H0 for charge exchange recombination spectroscopy and other diagnostics. Recently the RF driven negative ion source developed by IPP Garching has replaced the filamented ion source as the reference ITER design. The RF source developed at IPP, which is approximately a quarter scale of the source needed for ITER, is expected to have reduced caesium consumption compared to the filamented arc driven ion source. The RF driven source has demonstrated adequate accelerated D- and H- current densities as well as long-pulse operation [2, 3]. It is foreseen that the HNB's and the DNB will use the same negative ion source. Experiments with a half ITER-size ion source are on-going at IPP and the operation of a full-scale ion source will be demonstrated, at full power and pulse length, in the dedicated Ion Source Test Bed (ISTF), which will be part of the Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF), in Padua, Italy. This facility will carry out the necessary R&D for the HNB's for ITER and demonstrate operation of the full-scale HNB beamline. An overview of the current status of the neutral beam (NB) systems and the chosen configuration will be given and the ongoing integration effort into the ITER plant will be highlighted. It will be demonstrated how installation and maintenance logistics have influenced the design, notably the top access scheme facilitating access for maintenance and installation. The impact of the ITER Design Review and recent design change requests (DCRs) will be briefly discussed, including start-up and commissioning issues. The low current hydrogen phase now envisaged for start-up imposed specific requirements for operating the HNB's at full beam power. It has been decided to address the shinethrough issue by installing wall armour protection, which increases the operational space in all scenarios. Other NB related issues identified by the Design Review process will be discussed and the possible changes to the ITER baseline indicated.

Status of the Negative Ion Based Heating and Diagnostic Neutral Beams for ITER

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schunke, B.; Bora, D.; Hemsworth, R.

2009-03-12

The current baseline of ITER foresees 2 Heating Neutral Beam (HNB's) systems based on negative ion technology, each accelerating to 1 MeV 40 A of D{sup -} and capable of delivering 16.5 MW of D{sup 0} to the ITER plasma, with a 3rd HNB injector foreseen as an upgrade option. In addition a dedicated Diagnostic Neutral Beam (DNB) accelerating 60 A of H{sup -} to 100 keV will inject {approx_equal}15 A equivalent of H{sup 0} for charge exchange recombination spectroscopy and other diagnostics. Recently the RF driven negative ion source developed by IPP Garching has replaced the filamented ion sourcemore » as the reference ITER design. The RF source developed at IPP, which is approximately a quarter scale of the source needed for ITER, is expected to have reduced caesium consumption compared to the filamented arc driven ion source. The RF driven source has demonstrated adequate accelerated D{sup -} and H{sup -} current densities as well as long-pulse operation. It is foreseen that the HNB's and the DNB will use the same negative ion source. Experiments with a half ITER-size ion source are on-going at IPP and the operation of a full-scale ion source will be demonstrated, at full power and pulse length, in the dedicated Ion Source Test Bed (ISTF), which will be part of the Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF), in Padua, Italy. This facility will carry out the necessary R and D for the HNB's for ITER and demonstrate operation of the full-scale HNB beamline. An overview of the current status of the neutral beam (NB) systems and the chosen configuration will be given and the ongoing integration effort into the ITER plant will be highlighted. It will be demonstrated how installation and maintenance logistics have influenced the design, notably the top access scheme facilitating access for maintenance and installation. The impact of the ITER Design Review and recent design change requests (DCRs) will be briefly discussed, including start-up and commissioning issues. The low current hydrogen phase now envisaged for start-up imposed specific requirements for operating the HNB's at full beam power. It has been decided to address the shinethrough issue by installing wall armour protection, which increases the operational space in all scenarios. Other NB related issues identified by the Design Review process will be discussed and the possible changes to the ITER baseline indicated.« less

Oxygen ions observed near Saturn's A ring.

PubMed

Waite, J H; Cravens, T E; Ip, W-H; Kasprzak, W T; Luhmann, J G; McNutt, R L; Niemann, H B; Yelle, R V; Mueller-Wodarg, I; Ledvina, S A; Scherer, S

2005-02-25

Ions were detected in the vicinity of Saturn's A ring by the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) instrument onboard the Cassini Orbiter during the spacecraft's passage over the rings. The INMS saw signatures of molecular and atomic oxygen ions and of protons, thus demonstrating the existence of an ionosphere associated with the A ring. A likely explanation for these ions is photoionization by solar ultraviolet radiation of neutral O2 molecules associated with a tenuous ring atmosphere. INMS neutral measurements made during the ring encounter are dominated by a background signal.

Four-fluid MHD Simulations of the Plasma and Neutral Gas Environment of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko Near Perihelion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Z.; Toth, G.; Gombosi, T.; Jia, X.; Rubin, M.; Fougere, N.; Tenishev, V.; Combi, M.; Bieler, A.; Hansen, K.; Shou, Y.; Altwegg, K.

2015-10-01

We develop a 3-D four fluid model to study the plasma environment of comet Churyumov- Gerasimenko (CG), which is the target of the Rosetta mission. Our model is based on BATS-R-US within the SWMF (Space Weather Modeling Framework) that solves the governing multifluid MHD equations and and the Euler equations for the neutral gas fluid. These equations describe the behavior and interactions of the cometary heavy ions, the solar wind protons, the electrons, and the neutrals. This model incorporates mass loading processes, including photo and electron impact ionization, furthermore taken into account are charge exchange, dissociative ion-electron recombination, as well as collisional interactions between different fluids. We simulate the near nucleus plasma and neutral gas environment with a realistic shape model of CG near perihelion and compare our simulation results with Rosetta observations.

Design and Control of Small Neutral Beam Arc Chamber for Investigations of DIII-D Neutral Beam Failure During Helium Operation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fremlin, Carl; Beckers, Jasper; Crowley, Brendan; Rauch, Joseph; Scoville, Jim

2017-10-01

The Neutral Beam system on the DIII-D tokamak consists of eight ion sources using the Common Long Pulse Source (CLPS) design. During helium operation, desired for research regarding the ITER pre-nuclear phase, it has been observed that the ion source arc chamber performance steadily deteriorates, eventually failing due to electrical breakdown of the insulation. A significant investment of manpower and time is required for repairs. To study the cause of failure a small analogue of the DIII-D neutral beam arc chamber has been constructed. This poster presents the design and analysis of the arc chamber including the PLC based operational control system for the experiment, analysis of the magnetic confinement and details of the diagnostic suite. Work supported in part by US DoE under the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) program and under DE-FC02-04ER54698.

Design of a retarding potential grid system for a neutral particle analyzer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Titus, J. B., E-mail: jtitus@wisc.edu; Mezonlin, E. D.; Anderson, J. K.

2014-11-15

The ion energy distribution in a magnetically confined plasma can be inferred from charge exchange neutral particles. On the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST), deuterium neutrals are measured by the Florida A and M University compact neutral particle analyzer (CNPA) and the advanced neutral particle analyzer (ANPA). The CNPA energy range covers the bulk deuterium ions to the beginning of the fast ion tail (0.34–5.2 keV) with high-energy resolution (25 channels) while the ANPA covers the vast majority of the fast ion tail distribution (∼10–45 keV) with low energy resolution (10 channels). Though the ANPA has provided insight into fast ionmore » energization in MST plasma, more can be gained by increasing the energy resolution in that energy range. To utilize the energy resolution of the CNPA, fast ions can be retarded by an electric potential well, enabling their detection by the diagnostic. The ion energy distribution can be measured with arbitrary resolution by combining data from many similar MST discharges with different energy ranges on the CNPA, providing further insight into ion energization and fast ion dynamics on MST.« less

Expansion of a cold non-neutral plasma slab

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Karimov, A. R.; Department of Electrophysical Facilities, National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Kashirskoye shosse 31, Moscow 115409; Yu, M. Y., E-mail: myyu@zju.edu.cn

2014-12-15

Expansion of the ion and electron fronts of a cold non-neutral plasma slab with a quasi-neutral core bounded by layers containing only ions is investigated analytically and exact solutions are obtained. It is found that on average, the plasma expansion time scales linearly with the initial inverse ion plasma frequency as well as the degree of charge imbalance, and no expansion occurs if the cold plasma slab is stationary and overall neutral. However, in both cases, there can exist prominent oscillations on the electron front.

Efficient acceleration of neutral atoms in laser produced plasma

DOE PAGES

Dalui, M.; Trivikram, T. M.; Colgan, James Patrick; ...

2017-06-20

Recent advances in high-intensity laser-produced plasmas have demonstrated their potential as compact charge particle accelerators. Unlike conventional accelerators, transient quasi-static charge separation acceleration fields in laser produced plasmas are highly localized and orders of magnitude larger. Manipulating these ion accelerators, to convert the fast ions to neutral atoms with little change in momentum, transform these to a bright source of MeV atoms. The emittance of the neutral atom beam would be similar to that expected for an ion beam. Since intense laser-produced plasmas have been demonstrated to produce high-brightness-low-emittance beams, it is possible to envisage generation of high-flux, low-emittance, highmore » energy neutral atom beams in length scales of less than a millimeter. Here, we show a scheme where more than 80% of the fast ions are reduced to energetic neutral atoms and demonstrate the feasibility of a high energy neutral atom accelerator that could significantly impact applications in neutral atom lithography and diagnostics.« less

Modulation of dayside on and neutral distributions at Venus Evidence of direct and indirect solar energy inputs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taylor, H. A., Jr.; Mayr, H. G.; Grebowsky, J. M.; Niemann, H. B.; Hartle, R. E.; Cloutier, P. A.; Barnes, A.; Daniell, R. E., Jr.

1982-01-01

The details of solar variability and its coupled effects on the Venusian dayside are examined for evidence of short-term perturbations and associated energy inputs. Ion and neutral measurements obtained from the Orbiter Ion Mass Spectrometer and Orbital Neutral mass Spectrometer are used to show that the dayside concentrations of CO2(+) and the neutral gas temperature are smoothly modulated with a 28-day cycle reasonably matching that of the solar F(10.7) and EUV fluxes. Earlier measurements show less pronounced and more irregular modulations and more conspicuous short-term day-to-day fluctuations in the ions and neutrals, as well as relatively large enhancements in the solar wind, which appear consistent with differences in solar coronal behavior during the two periods. It is suggested that the solar wind variations cause fluctuations in joule heating, producing the observed short-term ion and neutral variations.

Synergism between low-energy neutral particles and energetic ions in the pulsed glow discharge deposition of diamond-like carbon films

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Afanasyev-Charkin, I. V.; Nastasi, M.

2004-08-01

Diamond-like carbon films were deposited using pulsed glow discharge deposition at 4kV. The duty factor was varied and all other parameters were kept constant. It was shown that the contribution of neutral particles to the total number of deposition atoms is much larger than that of energetic ions. At the same time, there is a relationship between the deposition of neutral particles and ion bombardment. The sticking coefficient of the neutral particles in proportional to the flux of energetic ions and does not exceed 5×10-4 for the deposition parameters used in our experiment.

VISIONS: Remote Observations of a Spatially-Structured Filamentary Source of Energetic Neutral Atoms near the Polar Cap Boundary During an Auroral Substorm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Collier, Michael R.; Chornay, D.; Clemmons, J.; Keller, J. W.; Klenzing, J.; Kujawski, J.; McLain, J.; Pfaff, R.; Rowland, D.; Zettergren, M.

2015-01-01

We report initial results from the VISualizing Ion Outflow via Neutral atom imaging during a Substorm (VISIONS) rocket that flew through and near several regions of enhanced auroral activity and also sensed regions of ion outflow both remotely and directly. The observed neutral atom fluxes were largest at the lower energies and generally higher in the auroral zone than in the polar cap. In this paper, we focus on data from the latter half of the VISIONS trajectory when the rocket traversed the polar cap region. During this period, many of the energetic neutral atom spectra show a peak at 100 electronvolts. Spectra with peaks around 100 electronvolts are also observed in the Electrostatic Ion Analyzer (EIA) data consistent with these ions comprising the source population for the energetic neutral atoms. The EIA observations of this low energy population extend only over a few tens of kilometers. Furthermore, the directionality of the arriving energetic neutral atoms is consistent with either this spatially localized source of energetic ions extending from as low as about 300 kilometers up to above 600 kilometers or a larger source of energetic ions to the southwest.

Charge exchange, ENAs and the loss of planetary ions at Mars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kallio, E.; Janhunen, P.; Säles, T.

Neither Mars nor Venus has a strong global intrinsic magnetic field and therefore the solar wind can flow close to the planets in high neutral density regions. Because of the formed direct interaction between the atmosphere/exosphere and the solar wind, the ionized atmospheric neutrals can be picked up by the solar wind. Charge exchange between solar wind protons and planetary neutrals, instead, produce energetic neutral hydrogen atoms (H-ENA) which are the manifestation of the direct interaction between the solar wind and planetary neutrals. Picked-up planetary O+ ions in turn form energetic neutral oxygen atoms (O-ENA) via charge exchange process. The ion escape, H-ENAs, O-ENAs and electrons will be investigated at Mars and Venus by two identical instruments: ASPERA-3 on MarsExpress (measurements started in Jan. 2004) and ASPERA-4 on VenusExpress (2006). We present a self-consistent, three-dimensional quasi-neutral hybrid (ions are particles, electrons a fluid) simulation to study Mars/Venus-solar wind interaction in general and ASPERA-3/4 measurements in particular. Our model includes three ion species (H+, O+, O2+), and contains charge exchange, ion-neutral and chemical reactions. We show results of quasi-neutral hybrid model runs that we have used to study the escape of planetary ions, the effects of planetary ions on the Martian plasma environment and the production and properties of fast hydrogen(H) and oxygen(O) ENAs near Mars. We also compare these hydrogen ENA images with the hydrogen ENA images that has been derived from an empirical flow model by line-of-sight integration. The advantage of the analytical gas dynamic like flow model is that it is computationally so fast that it provides a possibility to perform an ENA inversion, that is, to derive global plasma parameters from the measured ENA image.

Ion related problems for the XLS ring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bozoki, Eva S.; Halama, Henry

1991-10-01

The electron beam in a storage ring collides with the residual gas in the vacuum chamber. As a consequence, low velocity positive ions are produced and trapped in the potential well of the electron beam. They perform stable or unstable oscillations around the beam under the repetitive Coulomb force of the bunches. If not cleared, the captured ions can lead to partial or total neutralization of the beam, causing both a decrease of lifetime and a change in the vertical tunes as well as an increase in the tune spread. It can also cause coherent and incoherent transverse instabilities. An electrostatic clearing electrodes system was designed to keep the neutralization below a desired limit. The location and the geometry of the clearing electrodes as well as the applied clearing voltage is based on the study of the ion production rate, longitudinal velocity of ions in field-free regions and in the dipoles, beam self-electric field, beam potential, critical mass for ion capture in the bunched beam and the bounce frequencies of the ions, tune shift and pressure rise due to trapped ions.

Electron Stimulated Desorption Yields at the Mercury's Surface Based On Hybrid Simulation Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Travnicek, P. M.; Schriver, D.; Orlando, T. M.; Hellinger, P.

2016-12-01

In terms of previous research concerning the solar wind sputtering process, most of the focus has been on ion sputtering by precipitating solar wind protons, however, precipitating electrons can also result in the desorption of neutrals and ions from Mercury's surface and represents a potentially significant source of exospheric and heavy ion components. Electron stimulated desorption (ESD) is not bound by optical selection rules and electron impact energies can vary over a much wider range, including core-level excitations that easily lead to multi-electron shake up events that can cascade into localized multiple charged states that Coulomb explode with extreme kinetic energy release (up to 8 eV = 186,000 K). While considered for the lunar exosphere, ESD has not been adequately studied or quantified as a producer of neutrals and ions. ESD is a well known process which involves the excitation (often ionization) of a surface target followed by charge ejection, bond breaking and ion expulsion due to the resultant Coulomb repulsion. Though the role of ESD processes has not been discussed much with respect to Mercury, the impinging energetic electrons that are transported through the magnetosphere and precipitate can induce significant material removal. Given the energetics and the wide band-gap nature of the minerals, the departing material may also be primarily ionic. The possible role of 5 eV - 1 keV electron stimulated desorption and dissociation in "weathering" the regolith can be significant. ESD yields will be calculated based on the ion and electron precipitation profiles for the already carried out hybrid and electron simulations. Neutral and ion cloud profiles around Mercury will be calculated and combined with those profiles expected from PSD and MIV.

Hot electrons and radial transport in Saturn's inner magetosphere: Modeling the effects on ion chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fleshman, Bobby L.

The E-ring of Saturn, located just beyond the main rings at four Saturn radii, was known to be made mostly of water and its by-products before the Cassini spacecraft arrived at Saturn in 2005. Since then, Cassini has observed water geysers on the tiny moon of Enceladus ejecting ≈ 100 kg of water per second into orbit around Saturn, which most agree is the chief contributor to neutrals in the E-ring. Following several key reactions, many of these neutrals go on to populate large, tenuous structures, known as neutral clouds, extending 10s of Saturn radii. The other side of the story are the ions, which are largely created by the ionization of same neutrals sourced from Enceladus. A key distinction between the neutrals and ions is that ions are carried along by Saturn's magnetic field, and revolve around Saturn at the rotation rate of the planet, while neutrals generally have much slower Keplerian speeds. It is the study of the chemical interaction of these separate, but related populations that is the subject of this thesis. We have developed a series of models to study how the coupling of these systems affect details of the other, such as composition. The first step (Chapter 2) was the development of a water-group physical chemistry model, which includes suprathermal electrons and the effect of radial ion transport. With this "one-box" model, we are able to reproduce observed water and hydrogen ion densities in Enceladus's orbit, but only when the hot electron density is ≈ 0.5% of the total plasma density. Radial transport is found to be slow, requiring 26 days to remove ions from the orbit of Enceladus. Moving toward the development of a radial model of ion chemistry, in Chapter 4 we present a model of Saturn's neutral clouds, which are made of material outgassing from Enceladus. The effects of dissociation and charge exchange are considered, where the details of the latter prove to be of great consequence on neutral cloud morphology. The oxygen cloud is found to the most extended, followed by H2O, and finally OH. The above efforts are combined in Chapter 5, where a neutral cloud model is used to construct a radial model of ion chemistry. It is shown that neutral H2O requires more spreading than yet modeled in order to recover observed water and hydrogen ion abundances near Enceladus. The relative abundance of water-group ion species presented will be useful for analyses of CAPS-IMS data, while loss rates derived from the model can be used to improve neutral cloud models. The case is made that ion chemistry models and neutral cloud models must be developed alongside one another in order to improve understanding of these interrelated populations at Saturn.

Apparatus for neutralization of accelerated ions

DOEpatents

Fink, Joel H.; Frank, Alan M.

1979-01-01

Apparatus for neutralization of a beam of accelerated ions, such as hydrogen negative ions (H.sup.-), using relatively efficient strip diode lasers which emit monochromatically at an appropriate wavelength (.lambda. = 8000 A for H.sup.- ions) to strip the excess electrons by photodetachment. A cavity, formed by two or more reflectors spaced apart, causes the laser beams to undergo multiple reflections within the cavity, thus increasing the efficiency and reducing the illumination required to obtain an acceptable percentage (.about. 85%) of neutralization.

Neutral gas sympathetic cooling of an ion in a Paul trap.

PubMed

Chen, Kuang; Sullivan, Scott T; Hudson, Eric R

2014-04-11

A single ion immersed in a neutral buffer gas is studied. An analytical model is developed that gives a complete description of the dynamics and steady-state properties of the ions. An extension of this model, using techniques employed in the mathematics of economics and finance, is used to explain the recent observation of non-Maxwellian statistics for these systems. Taken together, these results offer an explanation of the long-standing issues associated with sympathetic cooling of an ion by a neutral buffer gas.

Neutral Gas Sympathetic Cooling of an Ion in a Paul Trap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Kuang; Sullivan, Scott T.; Hudson, Eric R.

2014-04-01

A single ion immersed in a neutral buffer gas is studied. An analytical model is developed that gives a complete description of the dynamics and steady-state properties of the ions. An extension of this model, using techniques employed in the mathematics of economics and finance, is used to explain the recent observation of non-Maxwellian statistics for these systems. Taken together, these results offer an explanation of the long-standing issues associated with sympathetic cooling of an ion by a neutral buffer gas.

Transport coefficients of gaseous ions in an electric field

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whealton, J. H.; Mason, E. A.

1974-01-01

A general theory of ion mobility formulated by Kihara (1953) is extended to ion diffusion and to mixtures of neutral gases. The theory assumes that only binary collisions between ions and neutral particles need to be taken into account and that the velocity distribution function of the neutral particles is Maxwellian. These assumptions make it possible to use a linearized Boltzmann equation. Questions of mobility are considered along with aspects of diffusion and deviations from Fick's law of diffusion.

The effect of neutral wind on Subauroral Polarization Streams (SAPS) during March 17, 2013 geomagnetic storm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferdousi, B.; Nishimura, Y.; Maruyama, N.; Lyons, L. R.

2017-12-01

Subauroral Polarization Streams (SAPS), which can be identified as intense northward electric field driving sunward plasma convection, are mostly observed at the dusk-premidnight subauroral region. Their existence is associated with the closure of region 2 field-aligned current (R2 FAC) through the low conductivity region equatorward of the electron equatorward boundary. Observations suggest that SAPS flow speed increases with geomagnetic activity. So far, most studies have focused on the magnetosphere-ionosphere (M-I) coupling process of SAPS. However, recent observation of subauroral neutral wind suggest that there is a strong interaction between SAPS and the thermosphere (T). In this study, we focus on the effect of thermospheric wind on the ionosphere plasma drift associated with SAPS during the March 17, 2013 "St. Patrick's day" geomagnetic storm. We use both observations and the self-consistent magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere (M-I-T) numerical "RCM-CTIPe" model to study such a relation. Observation results from DMSP-18 and GOCE satellites show that as the storm progresses, sunward ion flows intensify and move equatorward, and are accompanied by strengthening of subauroral neutral winds with a 2-hour delay. Our model successfully reproduces time evolution of the sunward ion drift and neutral wind. However, the simulated ion drift spreads considerably wider in latitude than the observations. To seek for better agreement between the observation and simulation results, we adopt a conductance distribution more consistent with input from the magnetosphere based on RCM aurora precipitation. We also perform a force term analysis to investigate the rate of momentum transfer from the neutral wind to ion flow. We then compare simulation runs with and without thermosphere coupling to study the effect of the feedback from neutral winds to SAPS.

Ion energy distributions and densities in the plume of Enceladus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakai, Shotaro; Cravens, Thomas E.; Omidi, Nojan; Perry, Mark E.; Waite, J. Hunter

2016-10-01

Enceladus has a dynamic plume that is emitting gas, including water vapor, and dust. The gas is ionized by solar EUV radiation, charge exchange, and electron impact and extends throughout the inner magnetosphere of Saturn. The charge exchange collisions alter the plasma composition. Ice grains (dust) escape from the vicinity of Enceladus and form the E ring, including a portion that is negatively charged by the local plasma. The inner magnetosphere within 10 RS (Saturn radii) contains a complex mixture of plasma, neutral gas, and dust that links back to Enceladus. In this paper we investigate the energy distributions, ion species and densities of water group ions in the plume of Enceladus using test particle and Monte Carlo methods that include collisional processes such as charge exchange and ion-neutral chemical reactions. Ion observations from the Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) for E07 are presented for the first time. We use the modeling results to interpret observations made by the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) and the INMS. The low energy ions, as observed by CAPS, appear to be affected by a vertical electric field (EZ=-10 μV/m) in the plume. The EZ field may be associated with the charged dust and/or the pressure gradient of plasma. The model results, along with the results of earlier models, show that H3O+ ions created by chemistry are predominant in the plume, which agrees with INMS and CAPS data, but the INMS count rate in the plume for the model is several times greater than the data, which we do not fully understand. This composition and the total ion count found in the plume agree with INMS and CAPS data. On the other hand, the Cassini Langmuir Probe measured a maximum plume ion density more than 30,000 cm-3, which is far larger than the maximum ion density from our model, 900 cm-3. The model results also demonstrate that most of the ions in the plume are from the external magnetospheric flow and are not generated by local ionization. The origin of the ions in the plume was investigated using two different velocity models. Most ions were created by the interaction with background magnetospheric plasma and by photoionization. INMS and CAPS also detected water cluster ions. We will interpret these observations as a result of ion collisions with neutral water clusters, (H2O)n, originating in the tiger stripe vents as suggested by Tokar et al. (2009). We also estimated the process of generating cluster ions based on the INMS observations. We suggest that the most likely source is reaction of H3O+ with neutral water clusters or dimers such as (H2O)2 formed in the plume vents.

Vertical lifting of ionization during geomagnetic storms from satellite measurements of ion composition

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goel, M. K.; Rao, B. C. N.; Chandra, S.; Maier, E. J.

1977-01-01

Magnetic-storm phenomena at low latitudes are discussed based on ion-composition /O(+), H(+), He(+)/ and electron- and ion-temperature measurements from the OGO-4 and Isis-2 satellites. For the moderately severe storms considered, the effects of changes in the neutral composition and in the neutral and plasma temperatures are discussed, and it is shown that these changes would not produce the observed O(+) increase during storms at low latitudes. It is suggested that the observed increase in O(+) in the topside region is a manifestation of the vertical lifting of ionization of the F-layer. The argument in favor of vertical lifting is further substantiated by the observed changes in the F-region critical frequency and the height parameters.

Communication: Classical threshold law for ion-neutral-neutral three-body recombination

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pérez-Ríos, Jesús; Greene, Chris H.

2015-07-28

A very recently method for classical trajectory calculations for three-body collision [Pérez-Ríos et al., J. Chem. Phys. 140, 044307 (2014)] has been applied to describe ion-neutral-neutral ternary processes for low energy collisions: 0.1 mK–10 mK. As a result, a threshold law for the three-body recombination cross section is obtained and corroborated numerically. The derived threshold law predicts the formation of weakly bound dimers, with binding energies comparable to the collision energy of the collisional partners. In this low energy range, this analysis predicts that molecular ions should dominate over molecular neutrals as the most products formed.

Discharge Characterization of 40 cm-Microwave ECR Ion Source and Neutralizer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Foster, John E.; Patterson, Michael J.; Britton, Melissa

2003-01-01

Discharge characteristics of a 40 cm, 2.45 GHz Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) ion thruster discharge chamber and neutralizer were acquired. Thruster bulk discharge plasma characteristics were assessed using a single Langmuir probe. Total extractable ion current was measured as a function of input microwave power and flow rate. Additionally, radial ion current density profiles at the thruster.s exit plane were characterized using five equally spaced Faraday probes. Distinct low and high density operating modes were observed as discharge input power was varied from 0 to 200 W. In the high mode, extractable ion currents as high as 0.82 A were measured. Neutralizer emission current was characterized as a function of flow rate and microwave power. Neutralizer extraction currents as high as 0.6 A were measured.

Resin catalysts and method of preparation

DOEpatents

Smith, Jr., Lawrence A.

1986-01-01

Heat stabilized catalyst compositions are prepared from nuclear sulfonic acid, for example, macroporous crosslinked polyvinyl aromatic compounds containing sulfonic acid groups are neutralized with a metal of Al, Fe, Zn, Cu, Ni, ions or mixtures and alkali, alkaline earth metals or ammonium ions by contacting the resin containing the sulfonic acid with aqueous solutions of the metals salts and alkali, alkaline earth metal or ammonium salts. The catalysts have at least 50% of the sulfonic acid groups neutralized with metal ions and the balance of the sulfonic acid groups neutralized with alkali, alkaline earth ions or ammonium ions.

Resin catalysts and method of preparation

DOEpatents

Smith, L.A. Jr.

1986-12-16

Heat stabilized catalyst compositions are prepared from nuclear sulfonic acid, for example, macroporous crosslinked polyvinyl aromatic compounds containing sulfonic acid groups are neutralized with a metal of Al, Fe, Zn, Cu, Ni, ions or mixtures and alkali, alkaline earth metals or ammonium ions by contacting the resin containing the sulfonic acid with aqueous solutions of the metals salts and alkali, alkaline earth metal or ammonium salts. The catalysts have at least 50% of the sulfonic acid groups neutralized with metal ions and the balance of the sulfonic acid groups neutralized with alkali, alkaline earth ions or ammonium ions.

Direct Identification of Tyrosine Sulfation by using Ultraviolet Photodissociation Mass Spectrometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robinson, Michelle R.; Moore, Kevin L.; Brodbelt, Jennifer S.

2014-08-01

Sulfation is a common post-translational modification of tyrosine residues in eukaryotes; however, detection using traditional liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) methods is challenging based on poor ionization efficiency in the positive ion mode and facile neutral loss upon collisional activation. In the present study, 193 nm ultraviolet photodissociation (UVPD) is applied to sulfopeptide anions to generate diagnostic sequence ions, which do not undergo appreciable neutral loss of sulfate even using higher energy photoirradiation parameters. At the same time, neutral loss of SO3 is observed from the precursor and charge-reduced precursor ions, a spectral feature that is useful for differentiating tyrosine sulfation from the nominally isobaric tyrosine phosphorylation. LC-MS detection limits for UVPD analysis in the negative mode were determined to be around 100 fmol for three sulfated peptides, caerulein, cionin, and leu-enkephalin. The LC-UVPD-MS method was applied for analysis of bovine fibrinogen, and its key sulfated peptide was confidently identified.

Direct Identification of Tyrosine Sulfation by using Ultraviolet Photodissociation Mass Spectrometry

PubMed Central

Robinson, Michelle R.; Moore, Kevin L.; Brodbelt, Brodbelt

2014-01-01

Sulfation is a common post-translational modification of tyrosine residues in eukaryotes; however, detection using traditional liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) methods is challenging based on poor ionization efficiency in the positive ion mode and facile neutral loss upon collisional activation. In the present study, 193 nm ultraviolet photodissociation (UVPD) is applied to sulfopeptide anions to generate diagnostic sequence ions which do not undergo appreciable neutral loss of sulfate even using higher energy photoirradiation parameters. At the same time, neutral loss of sulfate is observed from the precursor and charge reduced precursor ions, a spectral feature that is useful for differentiating tyrosine sulfation from the nominally isobaric tyrosine phosphorylation. LC-MS detection limits for UVPD analysis in the negative mode were determined to be around 100 fmol for three sulfated peptides, caerulein, cionin, and leu-enkephalin. The LC-UVPD-MS method was applied for analysis of bovine fibrinogen, and its key sulfated peptide was confidently identified. PMID:24845354

Production of intense negative hydrogen beams with polarized nuclei by selective neutralization of cold negative ions

DOEpatents

Hershcovitch, A.

1984-02-13

A process for selectively neutralizing H/sup -/ ions in a magnetic field to produce an intense negative hydrogen ion beam with spin polarized protons. Characteristic features of the process include providing a multi-ampere beam of H/sup -/ ions that are

Inductively generated streaming plasma ion source

DOEpatents

Glidden, Steven C.; Sanders, Howard D.; Greenly, John B.

2006-07-25

A novel pulsed, neutralized ion beam source is provided. The source uses pulsed inductive breakdown of neutral gas, and magnetic acceleration and control of the resulting plasma, to form a beam. The beam supplies ions for applications requiring excellent control of ion species, low remittance, high current density, and spatial uniformity.

Ion guiding accompanied by formation of neutrals in polyethylene terephthalate polymer nanocapillaries: Further insight into a self-organizing process

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Juhasz, Z.; Sulik, B.; Racz, R.

2010-12-15

A relatively large yield of neutralized atoms was observed when 3 keV Ar{sup 7+} ions were guided trough polyethylene terephthalate nanocapillaries. Time and deposited-charge dependence of the angular distribution of both the guided ions and the neutrals was measured simultaneously using a two-dimensional multichannel plate detector. The yield of neutrals increased significantly faster than that of guided ions and saturated typically at a few percent level. In accordance with earlier observations, both the yield and the mean emission angle of the guided ions exhibited strong oscillations. For the atoms, the equilibrium was achieved not only faster, but also without significantmore » oscillations in yield and angular position. A phase analysis of these time dependencies provides insight into the dynamic features of the self-organizing mechanisms, which leads to ion guiding in insulating nanocapillaries.« less

A feasibility study of a NBI photoneutralizer based on nonlinear gating laser recirculation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fassina, A.; Pretato, F.; Barbisan, M.; Giudicotti, L.; Pasqualotto, R.

2016-02-01

The neutralization efficiency of negative ion neutral beam injectors is a major issue for future fusion reactors. Photon neutralization might be a valid alternative to present gas neutralizers, but still with several challenges for a valid implementation. Some concepts have been presented so far but none has been validated yet. A novel photoneutralization concept is discussed here, based on an annular cavity and a duplicated frequency laser beam (recirculation injection by nonlinear gating). The choice of lithium triborate as the material for the second harmonic extractor is discussed and a possible cooling method via crystal slicing is presented; laser intensity enhancement within the cavity is evaluated in order to quantify the achievable neutralization rate. Mockups of the critical components are proposed as intermediate steps toward system realization.

Modeling the adsorption of hydrogen, sodium, chloride and phthalate on goethite using a strict charge-neutral ion-exchange theory.

PubMed

Schulthess, Cristian P; Ndu, Udonna

2017-01-01

Simultaneous adsorption modeling of four ions was predicted with a strict net charge-neutral ion-exchange theory and its corresponding equilibrium and mass balance equations. An important key to the success of this approach was the proper collection of all the data, particularly the proton adsorption data, and the inclusion of variable concentrations of conjugate ions from the experimental pH adjustments. Using IExFit software, the ion-exchange model used here predicted the competitive retention of several ions on goethite by assuming that the co-adsorption or desorption of all ions occurred in the correct stoichiometries needed to maintain electroneutrality. This approach also revealed that the retention strength of Cl- ions on goethite increases in the presence of phthalate ions. That is, an anion-anion enhancement effect was observed. The retention of Cl- ions was much weaker than phthalate ions, and this also resulted in a higher sensitivity of the Cl- ions toward minor variations in the surface reactivity. The proposed model uses four goethite surface sites. The drop in retention of phthalate ions at low pH was fully described here as resulting from competitive Cl- reactions, which were introduced in increasing concentrations into the matrix as the conjugate base to the acid added to lower the pH.

Measurements of Ion and Neutral Fluctuation Changes with Pressure in a Large-Scale Helicon Plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dwyer, R. H.; Fisher, D. M.; Kelly, R. F.; Hatch, M. W.; Gilmore, M.

2017-10-01

Neutral particle dynamics may play an important role both in laboratory plasmas and in the edge of magnetic fusion devices. However, studies of neutral dynamics in these plasmas have been limited to date. Here we report on a basic study of ion and neutral fluctuations as a function of background neutral gas pressure. These experiments have been conducted in helicon discharges in the HelCat (Helicon-Cathode) dual-source plasma device at the University of New Mexico. The goal is to measure changes in ion and neutral density fluctuations with pressure and to gain an improved understanding of plasma-neutral interactions. Langmuir probe, Ar-I LIF, and high-speed imaging measurements of the fluctuations will be presented. Supported by U.S. National Science Foundation Award 1500423 and The University of New Mexico School of Engineering.

Telescope-based cavity for negative ion beam neutralization in future fusion reactors.

PubMed

Fiorucci, Donatella; Hreibi, Ali; Chaibi, Walid

2018-03-01

In future fusion reactors, heating system efficiency is of the utmost importance. Photo-neutralization substantially increases the neutral beam injector (NBI) efficiency with respect to the foreseen system in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) based on a gaseous target. In this paper, we propose a telescope-based configuration to be used in the NBI photo-neutralizer cavity of the demonstration power plant (DEMO) project. This configuration greatly reduces the total length of the cavity, which likely solves overcrowding issues in a fusion reactor environment. Brought to a tabletop experiment, this cavity configuration is tested: a 4 mm beam width is obtained within a ≃1.5  m length cavity. The equivalent cavity g factor is measured to be 0.038(3), thus confirming the cavity stability.

Synthetic NPA diagnostic for energetic particles in JET plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Varje, J.; Sirén, P.; Weisen, H.; Kurki-Suonio, T.; Äkäslompolo, S.; contributors, JET

2017-11-01

Neutral particle analysis (NPA) is one of the few methods for diagnosing fast ions inside a plasma by measuring neutral atom fluxes emitted due to charge exchange reactions. The JET tokamak features an NPA diagnostic which measures neutral atom fluxes and energy spectra simultaneously for hydrogen, deuterium and tritium species. A synthetic NPA diagnostic has been developed and used to interpret these measurements to diagnose energetic particles in JET plasmas with neutral beam injection (NBI) heating. The synthetic NPA diagnostic performs a Monte Carlo calculation of the neutral atom fluxes in a realistic geometry. The 4D fast ion distributions, representing NBI ions, were simulated using the Monte Carlo orbit-following code ASCOT. Neutral atom density profiles were calculated using the FRANTIC neutral code in the JINTRAC modelling suite. Additionally, for rapid analysis, a scan of neutral profiles was precalculated with FRANTIC for a range of typical plasma parameters. These were taken from the JETPEAK database, which includes a comprehensive set of data from the flat-top phases of nearly all discharges in recent JET campaigns. The synthetic diagnostic was applied to various JET plasmas in the recent hydrogen campaign where different hydrogen/deuterium mixtures and NBI configurations were used. The simulated neutral fluxes from the fast ion distributions were found to agree with the measured fluxes, reproducing the slowing-down profiles for different beam isotopes and energies and quantitatively estimating the fraction of hydrogen and deuterium fast ions.

Short-pulse, compressed ion beams at the Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment

DOE PAGES

Seidl, P. A.; Barnard, J. J.; Davidson, R. C.; ...

2016-05-01

We have commenced experiments with intense short pulses of ion beams on the Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment (NDCX-II) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, with 1-mm beam spot size within 2.5 ns full-width at half maximum. The ion kinetic energy is 1.2 MeV. To enable the short pulse duration and mm-scale focal spot radius, the beam is neutralized in a 1.5-meter-long drift compression section following the last accelerator cell. A short-focal-length solenoid focuses the beam in the presence of the volumetric plasma that is near the target. In the accelerator, the line-charge density increases due to the velocity ramp imparted onmore » the beam bunch. The scientific topics to be explored are warm dense matter, the dynamics of radiation damage in materials, and intense beam and beam-plasma physics including select topics of relevance to the development of heavy-ion drivers for inertial fusion energy. Below the transition to melting, the short beam pulses offer an opportunity to study the multi-scale dynamics of radiation-induced damage in materials with pump-probe experiments, and to stabilize novel metastable phases of materials when short-pulse heating is followed by rapid quenching. First experiments used a lithium ion source; a new plasma-based helium ion source shows much greater charge delivered to the target.« less

Direct measurement of the concentration of metastable ions produced from neutral gas particles using laser-induced fluorescence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chu, Feng; Skiff, Fred; Berumen, Jorge; Mattingly, Sean; Hood, Ryan

2017-10-01

Extensive information can be obtained on wave-particle interactions and wave fields by direct measurement of perturbed ion distribution functions using laser-induced fluorescence (LIF). For practical purposes, LIF is frequently performed on metastables that are produced from neutral gas particles and existing ions in other electronic states. We numerically simulate the ion velocity distribution measurement and wave-detection process using a Lagrangian model for the LIF signal. The results show that under circumstances where the metastable ion population is coming directly from the ionization of neutrals (as opposed to the excitation of ground-state ions), the velocity distribution will only faithfully represent processes which act on the ion dynamics in a time shorter than the metastable lifetime. Therefore, it is important to know the ratio of metastable population coming from neutrals to that from existing ions to correct the LIF measurements of plasma ion temperature and electrostatic waves. In this paper, we experimentally investigate the ratio of these two populations by externally launching an ion acoustic wave and comparing the wave amplitudes that are measured with LIF and a Langmuir probe using a lock-in amplifier. DE-FG02-99ER54543.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, A. L.; Chen, J. E.; State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, Institute of Heavy Ion Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871

Negative hydrogen ion beam can be compensated by the trapping of ions into the beam potential. When the beam propagates through a neutral gas, these ions arise due to gas ionization by the beam ions. However, the high neutral gas pressure may cause serious negative hydrogen ion beam loss, while low neutral gas pressure may lead to ion-ion instability and decompensation. To better understand the space charge compensation processes within a negative hydrogen beam, experimental study and numerical simulation were carried out at Peking University (PKU). The simulation code for negative hydrogen ion beam is improved from a 2D particle-in-cell-Montemore » Carlo collision code which has been successfully applied to H{sup +} beam compensated with Ar gas. Impacts among ions, electrons, and neutral gases in negative hydrogen beam compensation processes are carefully treated. The results of the beam simulations were compared with current and emittance measurements of an H{sup −} beam from a 2.45 GHz microwave driven H{sup −} ion source in PKU. Compensation gas was injected directly into the beam transport region to modify the space charge compensation degree. The experimental results were in good agreement with the simulation results.« less

Ion composition variety and variability around perihelion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beth, Arnaud; Altwegg, Kathrin; Behar, Étienne; Broiles, Tom; Burch, Jim; Carr, Christopher; Eriksson, Anders; Galand, Marina; Goetz, Charlotte; Henri, Pierre; Heritier, Kévin; Nilsson, Hans; Odelstad, Elias; Richter, Ingo; Rubin, Martin; Vallieres, Xavier

2017-04-01

For two years, the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS), one of the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) onboard Rosetta probed the neutral gas and the plasma composition of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's coma (67P). Major ion species detected include water ions (e.g, H2O+, H3O+, HO+) observed throughout the escorting phase. The analysis of DFMS data revealed a large zoo of ion species near perihelion (summer 2015). In particular, protonated versions of high proton affinity neutrals (e.g., NH4+) were detected, but also hydrocarbon and organic ion species. Near perihelion, ion composition was also highly variable and showed interesting variations in the complexity of the observed ion species. We will first present an overview of the rich variety of ion species observed during perihelion. This study will be supported by ionospheric modeling of ion composition below the ion exobase. We will then show an intercomparison between DFMS data and Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC) plasma and particle data to interpret the DFMS ion composition variability. Our primary goal is to highlight any correlation between observations from these different instruments (i.e. ion composition, ion and electron number density, energy distribution, magnetic field) and to find relevant signatures of physical processes which can affect the chemistry and dynamics (e.g., acceleration and deflection) of the involved neutral and ion species.

Charge Exchange Recombination Spectroscopy Based on Diagnostic Neutral Beam in HT-7 Tokamak

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Yuejiang; Fu, Jia; Li, Yingying; William, Rowan; Huang, He; Wang, Fudi; Gao, Huixian; Huang, Juann; Zhou, Qian; Liu, Sheng; Zhang, Jian; Li, Jun; Xie, Yuanlai; Liu, Zhimin; Huang, Yiyun; Hu, Chundong; Wan, Baonian

2010-02-01

Charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS) based on a diagnostic neutral beam (DNB) installed in the HT-7 tokamak is introduced. DNB can provide a 6 A extracted current at 50 kV for 0.1 s in hydrogen. It can penetrate into the core plasma in HT-7. The CXRS system is designed to observe charge exchange (CX) transitions in the visible spectrum. CX light from the beam is focused onto 10 optical fibers, which view the plasma from -5 cm to 20 cm. The CXRS system can measure the ion temperature as low as 0.1 keV. With CXRS, the local ion temperature profile in HT-7 was obtained for the first time.

Neutral Loss Scan - Based Strategy for Integrated Identification of Amorfrutin Derivatives, New Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma Agonists, from Amorpha Fruticosa by UPLC-QqQ-MS/MS and UPLC-Q-TOF-MS.

PubMed

Chen, Chu; Xue, Ying; Li, Qing-Miao; Wu, Yan; Liang, Jian; Qing, Lin-Sen

2018-04-01

Amorfrutins with a 2-hydroxybenzoic acid core structure are promising natural PPARγ agonists with potent antidiabetic activity. Owing to the complex matrix and low concentration in botanical material, the identification of unknown amorfrutins remains a challenge. In the present study, a combined application of UPLC-Q-TOF-MS and UPLC-QqQ-MS was developed to discover unknown amorfrutins from fruits of Amorpha fruticosa. First, reference compounds of amorfrutin A (AA), amorfrutin B (AB), and 2-carboxy-3,5-dihydroxy-4-geranylbibenzyl (AC) were analyzed using UPLC-Q-TOF-MS to reveal the characteristic fragment ions and the possible neutral loss. Second, the extract of A. fruticosa was separated and screened by UPLC-QqQ-MS using neutral loss scan to find out suspect compounds associated with the specified neutral fragment Δm/z 44. Third, the extract was re-analyzed by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS to obtain the exact mass of quasi-molecular ion and fragment ions of each suspect compound, and to subsequently calculate their corresponding molecular formulas. Finally, according to the molecular formula of suspect compound and its fragment ions and comparing with literature data, structure elucidation of four unidentified amorfrutins was achieved. The results indicated that the combination of QqQ-MS neutral loss scan and Q-TOF-MS molecular formula calculation was proven to be a powerful tool for unknown natural product identification, and this strategy provides an effective solution to discover natural products or metabolites of trace content. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

Neutral Loss Scan - Based Strategy for Integrated Identification of Amorfrutin Derivatives, New Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Gamma Agonists, from Amorpha Fruticosa by UPLC-QqQ-MS/MS and UPLC-Q-TOF-MS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Chu; Xue, Ying; Li, Qing-Miao; Wu, Yan; Liang, Jian; Qing, Lin-Sen

2018-02-01

Amorfrutins with a 2-hydroxybenzoic acid core structure are promising natural PPARγ agonists with potent antidiabetic activity. Owing to the complex matrix and low concentration in botanical material, the identification of unknown amorfrutins remains a challenge. In the present study, a combined application of UPLC-Q-TOF-MS and UPLC-QqQ-MS was developed to discover unknown amorfrutins from fruits of Amorpha fruticosa. First, reference compounds of amorfrutin A (AA), amorfrutin B (AB), and 2-carboxy-3,5-dihydroxy-4-geranylbibenzyl (AC) were analyzed using UPLC-Q-TOF-MS to reveal the characteristic fragment ions and the possible neutral loss. Second, the extract of A. fruticosa was separated and screened by UPLC-QqQ-MS using neutral loss scan to find out suspect compounds associated with the specified neutral fragment Δm/z 44. Third, the extract was re-analyzed by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS to obtain the exact mass of quasi-molecular ion and fragment ions of each suspect compound, and to subsequently calculate their corresponding molecular formulas. Finally, according to the molecular formula of suspect compound and its fragment ions and comparing with literature data, structure elucidation of four unidentified amorfrutins was achieved. The results indicated that the combination of QqQ-MS neutral loss scan and Q-TOF-MS molecular formula calculation was proven to be a powerful tool for unknown natural product identification, and this strategy provides an effective solution to discover natural products or metabolites of trace content.

Unusual subauroral neutral wind disturbances during geomagnetic storms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, S.; Erickson, P. J.; Holt, J. M.

2016-12-01

Under the influence of geomagnetic storms, general circulation of the global thermosphere undergoes substantial changes that vary with latitudes. High latitude heating processes establish pressure gradients both vertically and horizontally. The equatorward wind surge and the associated westward wind enhancement are a typical disturbance wind characteristic that affacts ionosphere and thermosphere dynamics at mid-, low, and equatorial latitudes. At subauroral latitudes, however, new observations of neutral wind disturbances show some "abnormal" (unusual) behaviors in responding to complicated ion-neutral coupling processes. During the 2015 St. Patrick's Day great geomagnetic storm, incoherent scatter radar measurements at Millstone Hill show the following salient variations: (1) oscillating meridional wind disturbances with the Traveling Atmosphere Disturbance (TAD) feature; (2) vertical wind signature; (3) pre-mindnight poleward wind surges. The latter two variations appear to be associated with strong ion-neutral interaction developed during the subauroral polarization streams (SAPS) presence. Strong frictional heating caused by the relative velocity between the ions with SAPS speed and the neutrals leads to appreciable thermospheric upperwelling. Strong westward ion drifts shown as SAPS also enhance the wseward neutral flow, which subsequently causes a poleward component of the meridional wind due to the Coriolis force. This paper will present these observations of the wind and discuss ion-neutral coupling effects associated with SAPS.

Differences between Doppler velocities of ions and neutral atoms in a solar prominence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anan, T.; Ichimoto, K.; Hillier, A.

2017-05-01

Context. In astrophysical systems with partially ionized plasma, the motion of ions is governed by the magnetic field while the neutral particles can only feel the magnetic field's Lorentz force indirectly through collisions with ions. The drift in the velocity between ionized and neutral species plays a key role in modifying important physical processes such as magnetic reconnection, damping of magnetohydrodynamic waves, transport of angular momentum in plasma through the magnetic field, and heating. Aims: This paper aims to investigate the differences between Doppler velocities of calcium ions and neutral hydrogen in a solar prominence to look for velocity differences between the neutral and ionized species. Methods: We simultaneously observed spectra of a prominence over an active region in H I 397 nm, H I 434 nm, Ca II 397 nm, and Ca II 854 nm using a high dispersion spectrograph of the Domeless Solar Telescope at Hida observatory. We compared the Doppler velocities, derived from the shift of the peak of the spectral lines presumably emitted from optically-thin plasma. Results: There are instances when the difference in velocities between neutral atoms and ions is significant, for example 1433 events ( 3% of sets of compared profiles) with a difference in velocity between neutral hydrogen atoms and calcium ions greater than 3σ of the measurement error. However, we also found significant differences between the Doppler velocities of two spectral lines emitted from the same species, and the probability density functions of velocity difference between the same species is not significantly different from those between neutral atoms and ions. Conclusions: We interpreted the difference of Doppler velocities as being a result of the motions of different components in the prominence along the line of sight, rather than the decoupling of neutral atoms from plasma. The movie attached to Fig. 1 is available at http://www.aanda.org

A comparative study of capacitively coupled HBr/He, HBr/Ar plasmas for etching applications: Numerical investigation by fluid model

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gul, Banat, E-mail: banatgul@gmail.com; Research Group PLASMANT, Department of Chemistry, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 Antwerp; Aman-ur-Rehman, E-mail: amansadiq@gmail.com

Fluid model has been applied to perform a comparative study of hydrogen bromide (HBr)/He and HBr/Ar capacitively coupled plasma discharges that are being used for anisotropic etching process. This model has been used to identify the most dominant species in HBr based plasmas. Our simulation results show that the neutral species like H and Br, which are the key player in chemical etching, have bell shape distribution, while ions like HBr{sup +}, Br{sup +}, which play a dominant rule in the physical etching, have double humped distribution and show peaks near electrodes. It was found that the dilution of HBrmore » by Ar and/or He results in an increase in electron density and electron temperature, which results in more ionization and dissociation and hence higher densities of neutral and charged species can be achieved. The ratio of positive ion flux to the neutral flux increases with an increase in additive gas fraction. Compare to HBr/He plasma, the HBr/Ar plasma shows a maximum change in the ion density and flux and hence the etching rate can be considered in the ion-assisted and in the ion-flux etch regime in HBr/Ar discharge. The densities of electron and other dominant species in HBr/Ar plasma are higher than those of HBr/He plasma. The densities and fluxes of the active neutrals and positive ions for etching and subsequently chemical etching versus physical sputtering in HBr/Ar and HBr/He plasmas discharge can be controlled by tuning gas mixture ratio and the desire etching can be achieved.« less

Characterizing Peptide Neutral Losses Induced by Negative Electron-Transfer Dissociation (NETD)

PubMed Central

Rumachik, Neil G.; McAlister, Graeme C.; Russell, Jason D.; Bailey, Derek J.; Wenger, Craig D.; Coon, Joshua J.

2012-01-01

We implemented negative electron-transfer dissociation (NETD) on a hybrid ion trap/Orbitrap mass spectrometer to conduct ion/ion reactions using peptide anions and radical reagent cations. In addition to sequence-informative ladders of a•- and x-type fragment ions, NETD generated intense neutral loss peaks corresponding to the entire or partial side-chain cleavage from amino acids constituting a given peptide. Thus, a critical step towards the characterization of this recently introduced fragmentation technique is a systematic study of synthetic peptides to identify common neutral losses and preferential fragmentation pathways. Examining 46 synthetic peptides with high mass accuracy and high resolution analysis permitted facile determination of the chemical composition of each neutral loss. We identified 19 unique neutral losses from 14 amino acids and three modified amino acids, and assessed the specificity and sensitivity of each neutral loss using a database of 1542 confidently identified peptides generated from NETD shotgun experiments employing high-pH separations and negative electrospray ionization. As residue-specific neutral losses indicate the presence of certain amino acids, we determined that many neutral losses have potential diagnostic utility. We envision this catalogue of neutral losses being incorporated into database search algorithms to improve peptide identification specificity and to further advance characterization of the acidic proteome. PMID:22290482

Ion-Neutral Coupling in Solar Prominences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gilbert, Holly

2011-01-01

Interactions between ions and neutrals in a partially ionized plasma are important throughout heliophysics, including near the solar surface in prominences. Understanding how ion-neutral coupling affects formation, support, structure, and dynamics of prominences will advance our physical understanding of magnetized systems involving a transition from a weakly ionized dense gas to a fully ionized tenuous plasma. We address the fundamental physics of prominence support, which is normally described in terms of a magnetic force on the prominence plasma that balances the solar gravitational force, and the implications for observations. Because the prominence plasma is only partially ionized, it is necessary to consider the support of the both the ionized and neutral components. Support of the neutrals is accomplished through a frictional interaction between the neutral and ionized components of the plasma, and its efficacy depends strongly on the degree of ionization of the plasma. More specifically, the frictional force is proportional to the relative flow of neutral and ion species, and for a sufficiently weakly ionized plasma, this flow must be relatively large to produce a frictional force that balances gravity. A large relative flow, of course, implies significant draining of neutral particles from the prominence. We evaluate the importance of this draining effect for a hydrogen-helium plasma, and consider the observational evidence for cross-field diffusion of neutral prominence material.

Overview of the design of the ITER heating neutral beam injectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hemsworth, R. S.; Boilson, D.; Blatchford, P.; Dalla Palma, M.; Chitarin, G.; de Esch, H. P. L.; Geli, F.; Dremel, M.; Graceffa, J.; Marcuzzi, D.; Serianni, G.; Shah, D.; Singh, M.; Urbani, M.; Zaccaria, P.

2017-02-01

The heating neutral beam injectors (HNBs) of ITER are designed to deliver 16.7 MW of 1 MeV D0 or 0.87 MeV H0 to the ITER plasma for up to 3600 s. They will be the most powerful neutral beam (NB) injectors ever, delivering higher energy NBs to the plasma in a tokamak for longer than any previous systems have done. The design of the HNBs is based on the acceleration and neutralisation of negative ions as the efficiency of conversion of accelerated positive ions is so low at the required energy that a realistic design is not possible, whereas the neutralisation of H- and D- remains acceptable (≈56%). The design of a long pulse negative ion based injector is inherently more complicated than that of short pulse positive ion based injectors because: • negative ions are harder to create so that they can be extracted and accelerated from the ion source; • electrons can be co-extracted from the ion source along with the negative ions, and their acceleration must be minimised to maintain an acceptable overall accelerator efficiency; • negative ions are easily lost by collisions with the background gas in the accelerator; • electrons created in the extractor and accelerator can impinge on the extraction and acceleration grids, leading to high power loads on the grids; • positive ions are created in the accelerator by ionisation of the background gas by the accelerated negative ions and the positive ions are back-accelerated into the ion source creating a massive power load to the ion source; • electrons that are co-accelerated with the negative ions can exit the accelerator and deposit power on various downstream beamline components. The design of the ITER HNBs is further complicated because ITER is a nuclear installation which will generate very large fluxes of neutrons and gamma rays. Consequently all the injector components have to survive in that harsh environment. Additionally the beamline components and the NB cell, where the beams are housed, will be activated and all maintenance will have to be performed remotely. This paper describes the design of the HNB injectors, but not the associated power supplies, cooling system, cryogenic system etc, or the high voltage bushing which separates the vacuum of the beamline from the high pressure SF6 of the high voltage (1 MV) transmission line, through which the power, gas and cooling water are supplied to the beam source. Also the magnetic field reduction system is not described.

Deetherification process

DOEpatents

Smith, Jr., Lawrence A.

1985-01-01

Ethers such as isobutyl tertiary butyl ether are dissociated into their component alcohols and isolefins by heat stabilized catalyst compositions prepared from nuclear sulfonic acid, for example, macroporous crosslinked polyvinyl aromatic compounds containing sulfonic acid groups are neutralized with a metal of Al, Fe, Zn, Cu, Ni, ions or mixtures and alkali, alkaline earth metals or ammonium ions by contacting the resin containing the sulfonic acid with aqueous solutions of the metals salts and alkali, alkaline earth metal or ammonium salts. The catalysts have at least 50% of the sulfonic acid groups neutralized with metal ions and the balance of the sulfonic acid groups neutralized with alkali, alkaline earth ions or ammonium ions.

Deetherification process

DOEpatents

Smith, L.A. Jr.

1985-11-05

Ethers such as isobutyl tertiary butyl ether are dissociated into their component alcohols and isoolefins by heat stabilized catalyst compositions prepared from nuclear sulfonic acid, for example, macroporous crosslinked polyvinyl aromatic compounds containing sulfonic acid groups are neutralized with a metal of Al, Fe, Zn, Cu, Ni, ions or mixtures and alkali, alkaline earth metals or ammonium ions by contacting the resin containing the sulfonic acid with aqueous solutions of the metals salts and alkali, alkaline earth metal or ammonium salts. The catalysts have at least 50% of the sulfonic acid groups neutralized with metal ions and the balance of the sulfonic acid groups neutralized with alkali, alkaline earth ions or ammonium ions.

Syntheses and structural characterization of mercury (II) coordination polymers with neutral bidentate flexible pyrazole-based ligands

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lalegani, Arash; Khaledi Sardashti, Mohammad; Salavati, Hossein; Asadi, Amin; Gajda, Roman; Woźniak, Krzysztof

2016-03-01

Mercury(II) coordination compounds [Hg(μ-bbd)(μ-SCN)4]n(1) and [Hg(bpp)(SCN)2] (2) were synthesized by using the neutral flexible bidentate N-donor ligands 1,4-bis(3,5-dimethypyrazol-1-yl)butane (bbd) and 1,3-bis(3,5-dimethylpyrazolyl)propane (bpp), NCS- ligand and appropriate mercury(II) salts. Compound 1 forms a polymeric network with moieties which are connected by SCN groups and the mercury ions present as HgN3S2 trigonal bipyramides. The crystal structure of 2 is build of monomers and the mercury(II) ion adopts an HgN2S2 tetrahedral geometry. In the complex 1, each bbd acts as bridging ligand connecting Hg(μ-SCN)4 ions, while in the complex 2, the bpp ligand is coordinated to an mercury(II) ion in a cyclic-bidentate fashion forming an eight-membered metallocyclic ring. Moreover, in the tetrahedral structure of 2, the neutral molecules form a 1D chain structure through the C-H···N hydrogen bonds, whereas in 1 no hydrogen bonds are observed. Coordination compounds 1 and 2 have been characterized by infrared spectroscopy, elemental analyses and single-crystal X-ray diffraction.

Multi-shell model of ion-induced nucleic acid condensation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tolokh, Igor S.; Drozdetski, Aleksander V.; Pollack, Lois

2016-04-21

We present a semi-quantitative model of condensation of short nucleic acid (NA) duplexes in- duced by tri-valent cobalt hexammine (CoHex) ions. The model is based on partitioning of bound counterion distribution around single NA duplex into “external” and “internal” ion binding shells distinguished by the proximity to duplex helical axis. The duplex aggregation free energy is de- composed into attraction and repulsion components represented by simple analytic expressions. The source of the short-range attraction between NA duplexes in the aggregated phase is the in- teraction of CoHex ions in the overlapping regions of the “external” shells with the oppositely chargedmore » duplexes. The attraction depends on CoHex binding affinity to the “external” shell of nearly neutralized duplex and the number of ions in the shell overlapping volume. For a given NA duplex sequence and structure, these parameters are estimated from molecular dynamics simula- tion. The attraction is opposed by the residual repulsion of nearly neutralized duplexes as well as duplex configurational entropy loss upon aggregation. The estimates of the aggregation free energy are consistent with the experimental range of NA duplex condensation propensities, including the unusually poor condensation of RNA structures and subtle sequence effects upon DNA conden- sation. The model predicts that, in contrast to DNA, RNA duplexes may condense into tighter packed aggregates with a higher degree of duplex neutralization. The model also predicts that longer NA fragments will condense easier than shorter ones. The ability of this model to explain experimentally observed trends in NA condensation, lends support to proposed NA condensation picture based on the multivalent “ion binding shells”.« less

Magnetically operated beam dump for dumping high power beams in a neutral beamline

DOEpatents

Dagenhart, W.K.

1984-01-27

It is an object of this invention to provide a beam dump system for a neutral beam generator which lowers the time-averaged power density of the beam dump impingement surface. Another object of this invention is to provide a beam dump system for a neutral particle beam based on reionization and subsequent magnetic beam position modulation of the beam onto a beam dump surface to lower the time-averaged power density of the beam dump ion impingement surface.

Development of a sensitive setup for laser spectroscopy studies of very exotic calcium isotopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garcia Ruiz, R. F.; Gorges, C.; Bissell, M.; Blaum, K.; Gins, W.; Heylen, H.; Koenig, K.; Kaufmann, S.; Kowalska, M.; Krämer, J.; Lievens, P.; Malbrunot-Ettenauer, S.; Neugart, R.; Neyens, G.; Nörtershäuser, W.; Yordanov, D. T.; Yang, X. F.

2017-04-01

An experimental setup for sensitive high-resolution measurements of hyperfine structure spectra of exotic calcium isotopes has been developed and commissioned at the COLLAPS beam line at ISOLDE, CERN. The technique is based on the radioactive detection of decaying isotopes after optical pumping and state selective neutralization (ROC) (Vermeeren et al 1992 Phys. Rev. Lett. 68 1679). The improvements and developments necessary to extend the applicability of the experimental technique to calcium isotopes produced at rates as low as few ions s-1 are discussed. Numerical calculations of laser-ion interaction and ion-beam simulations were explored to obtain the optimum performance of the experimental setup. Among the implemented features are a multi-step optical pumping region for sensitive measurements of isotopes with hyperfine splitting, a high-voltage platform for adequate control of low-energy ion beams and simultaneous β-detection of neutralized and remaining ions. The commissioning of the experimental setup, and the first online results on neutron-rich calcium isotopes are presented.

Fast neutral beam ion source coupled to a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hill, Nicholas C.; Limbach, Patrick A.; Shomo, Ronald E., II; Marshall, Alan G.; Appelhans, Anthony D.; Delmore, James E.

1991-11-01

The coupling of an autoneutralizing SF-6 fast ion-beam gun to a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT/ICR) mass spectrometer is described. The fast neutral beam provides for secondary-ion-type FT/ICR mass analysis [e.g., production of abundant pseudomolecular (M+H)+ ions] of involatile samples without the need for external ion injection, since ions are formed at the entrance to the ICR ion trap. The design, construction, and testing of the hybrid instrument are described. The feasibility of the experiment (for both broadband and high-resolution FT/ICR positive-ion mass spectra) is demonstrated with tetra-butylammonium bromide and a Tylenol■ sample. The ability to analyze high molecular weight polymers with high mass resolution is demonstrated for Teflon■. All of the advantages of the fast neutral beam ion source previously demonstrated with quadrupole mass analysis are preserved, and the additional advantages of FT/ICR mass analysis (e.g., high mass resolving power, ion trapping) are retained.

Fast-ion transport in low density L-mode plasmas at TCV using FIDA spectroscopy and the TRANSP code

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geiger, B.; Karpushov, A. N.; Duval, B. P.; Marini, C.; Sauter, O.; Andrebe, Y.; Testa, D.; Marascheck, M.; Salewski, M.; Schneider, P. A.; the TCV Team; the EUROfusion MST1 Team

2017-11-01

Experiments with the new neutral beam injection source of TCV have been performed with high fast-ion fractions (>20%) that exhibit a clear reduction of the loop voltage and a clear increase of the plasma pressure in on- and off-axis heating configurations. However, good quantitative agreement between the experimental data and TRANSP predictions is only found when including strong additional fast-ion losses. These losses could in part be caused by turbulence or MHD activity as, e.g. high frequency modes near the frequency of toroidicity induced Alfvén eignmodes are observed. In addition, a newly installed fast-ion D-alpha (FIDA) spectroscopy system measures strong passive radiation and, hence, indicates the presence of high background neutral densities such that charge-exchange losses are substantial. Also the active radiation measured with the FIDA diagnostic, as well as data from a neutral particle analyzer, suggest strong fast-ion losses and large neutral densities. The large neutral densities can be justified since high electron temperatures (3-4 keV), combined with low electron densities (about 2× {10}19 m-3) yield long mean free paths of the neutrals which are penetrating from the walls.

Neutral dynamics and ion energy transport in MST plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xing, Zichuan; Nornberg, Mark; den Hartog, Daniel; Kumar, Santosh; Anderson, Jay

2015-11-01

Neutral dynamics can have a significant effect on ion energy transport through charge exchange collisions. Whereas previously charge exchange was considered a direct loss mechanism in MST plasmas, new analysis indicates that significant thermal charge exchange neutrals are reionized. Further, the temperatures of the neutral species in the core of the plasma are suspected to be much higher than room temperature, which has a large effect on ion energy losses due to charge exchange. The DEGAS2 Monte Carlo simulation code is applied to the MST reversed field pinch experiment to estimate the density and temperature profile of the neutral species. The result is then used to further examine the effect of the neutral species on ion energy transport in improved confinement plasmas. This enables the development of a model that accounts for collisional equilibration between species, classical convective and conductive energy transport, and energy loss due to charge exchange collisions. The goal is to quantify classical, stochastic, and anomalous ion heating and transport in RFP plasmas. Work supported by the US DOE. DEGAS2 is provided by PPPL and STRAHL is provided by Ralph Dux of the Max-Planck-Institut fur Plasmaphysik.

Method for the elucidation of the elemental composition of low molecular mass chemicals using exact masses of product ions and neutral losses: application to environmental chemicals measured by liquid chromatography with hybrid quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Suzuki, Shigeru; Ishii, Tetsuko; Yasuhara, Akio; Sakai, Shinichi

2005-01-01

A method for elucidating the elemental compositions of low molecular weight chemicals, based primarily on mass measurements made using liquid chromatography (LC) with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) and quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC/QTOFMS), was developed and tested for 113 chemicals of environmental interest with molecular masses up to approximately 400 Da. As the algorithm incorporating the method is not affected by differences in the instrument used, or by the ionization method and other ionization conditions, the method is useful not only for LC/TOFMS, but also for all kinds of mass spectra measured with higher accuracy and precision (uncertainties of a few mDa) employing all ionization methods and on-line separation techniques. The method involves calculating candidate compositions for intact ionized molecules (ionized forms of the sample molecule that have lost or gained no more than a proton, i.e., [M+H](+) or [M-H](-)) as well as for fragment ions and corresponding neutral losses, and eliminating those atomic compositions for the molecules that are inconsistent with the corresponding candidate compositions of fragment ions and neutral losses. Candidate compositions were calculated for the measured masses of the intact ionized molecules and of the fragment ions and corresponding neutral losses, using mass uncertainties of 2 and 5 mDa, respectively. Compositions proposed for the ionized molecule that did not correspond to the sum of the compositions of a candidate fragment ion and its corresponding neutral loss were discarded. One, 2-5, 6-10, 11-20, and >20 candidate compositions were found for 65%, 39%, 1%, 1%, and 0%, respectively, for the 124 ionized molecules formed from the 113 chemicals tested (both positive and negative ions were obtained from 11 of the chemicals). However, no candidate composition was found for 2% of the test cases (i.e., 3 chemicals), for each of which the measured mass of one of the product ions was in error by 5-6.7 mDa.

Non-Lorentzian ion cyclotron resonance line shapes arising from velocity-dependent ion-neutral collision frequencies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whealton, J. H.; Mason, E. A.

1973-01-01

An asymptotic solution of the Boltzmann equation is developed for ICR absorption, without restrictions on the ion-neutral collision frequency or mass ratio. Velocity dependence of the collision frequency causes deviations from Lorentzian line shape.

Multi-shell model of ion-induced nucleic acid condensation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tolokh, Igor S.; Drozdetski, Aleksander V.; Pollack, Lois

We present a semi-quantitative model of condensation of short nucleic acid (NA) duplexes induced by trivalent cobalt(III) hexammine (CoHex) ions. The model is based on partitioning of bound counterion distribution around single NA duplex into “external” and “internal” ion binding shells distinguished by the proximity to duplex helical axis. In the aggregated phase the shells overlap, which leads to significantly increased attraction of CoHex ions in these overlaps with the neighboring duplexes. The duplex aggregation free energy is decomposed into attractive and repulsive components in such a way that they can be represented by simple analytical expressions with parameters derivedmore » from molecular dynamic simulations and numerical solutions of Poisson equation. The attractive term depends on the fractions of bound ions in the overlapping shells and affinity of CoHex to the “external” shell of nearly neutralized duplex. The repulsive components of the free energy are duplex configurational entropy loss upon the aggregation and the electrostatic repulsion of the duplexes that remains after neutralization by bound CoHex ions. The estimates of the aggregation free energy are consistent with the experimental range of NA duplex condensation propensities, including the unusually poor condensation of RNA structures and subtle sequence effects upon DNA condensation. The model predicts that, in contrast to DNA, RNA duplexes may condense into tighter packed aggregates with a higher degree of duplex neutralization. An appreciable CoHex mediated RNA-RNA attraction requires closer inter-duplex separation to engage CoHex ions (bound mostly in the “internal” shell of RNA) into short-range attractive interactions. The model also predicts that longer NA fragments will condense more readily than shorter ones. The ability of this model to explain experimentally observed trends in NA condensation lends support to proposed NA condensation picture based on the multivalent “ion binding shells.”.« less

Multi-shell model of ion-induced nucleic acid condensation

PubMed Central

Tolokh, Igor S.; Drozdetski, Aleksander V.; Pollack, Lois; Onufriev, Alexey V.

2016-01-01

We present a semi-quantitative model of condensation of short nucleic acid (NA) duplexes induced by trivalent cobalt(iii) hexammine (CoHex) ions. The model is based on partitioning of bound counterion distribution around single NA duplex into “external” and “internal” ion binding shells distinguished by the proximity to duplex helical axis. In the aggregated phase the shells overlap, which leads to significantly increased attraction of CoHex ions in these overlaps with the neighboring duplexes. The duplex aggregation free energy is decomposed into attractive and repulsive components in such a way that they can be represented by simple analytical expressions with parameters derived from molecular dynamic simulations and numerical solutions of Poisson equation. The attractive term depends on the fractions of bound ions in the overlapping shells and affinity of CoHex to the “external” shell of nearly neutralized duplex. The repulsive components of the free energy are duplex configurational entropy loss upon the aggregation and the electrostatic repulsion of the duplexes that remains after neutralization by bound CoHex ions. The estimates of the aggregation free energy are consistent with the experimental range of NA duplex condensation propensities, including the unusually poor condensation of RNA structures and subtle sequence effects upon DNA condensation. The model predicts that, in contrast to DNA, RNA duplexes may condense into tighter packed aggregates with a higher degree of duplex neutralization. An appreciable CoHex mediated RNA-RNA attraction requires closer inter-duplex separation to engage CoHex ions (bound mostly in the “internal” shell of RNA) into short-range attractive interactions. The model also predicts that longer NA fragments will condense more readily than shorter ones. The ability of this model to explain experimentally observed trends in NA condensation lends support to proposed NA condensation picture based on the multivalent “ion binding shells.” PMID:27389241

Modeling the near-Earth interaction between ring current ions and exospheric neutrals: escape through energetic neutral atoms (ENAs)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

LLera, K.; Goldstein, J.; McComas, D. J.; Valek, P. W.

2016-12-01

The two major loss processes for ring current decay are precipitation and energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). Since the exospheric neutral density increases with decreasing altitudes, precipitating ring current ions (reaching down to 200 - 800 km in altitude) also produce low-altitude ENA signatures that can be stronger than the ring current emission at equatorial distances ( 2 - 9 Re). The higher density results in multiple collisions between the ring current ions and exospheric oxygen. The affect on hydrogen ions is the focus of this study. Since the H particle sustains energy loss ( 36 eV) at each neutralizing or re-ionizing interaction, the escaped ENAs do not directly reflect the ring current properties. We model the energy loss due to multiple charge exchange and electron stripping interactions of 1 - 100 keV precipitating ring current ions undergo before emerging as low-altitude ENAs. The H particle is either an ion or an ENA throughout the simulation. Their lifetime is analytically determined by the length of one mean free path. We track the ion state with Lorentz motion while the ENA travels ballistically across the geomagnetic field. Our simulations show the energy loss is greater than 20% for hydrogen ring current ions below 30 keV (60 keV for the simulations that wander equatorward). This is the first quantification of the energy loss associated with the creation of low-altitude ENAs. Our model (currently constrained in the meridional plane) has revealed characteristics on how precipitation is affected by the near-Earth neutral exosphere. This ion-neutral interaction removes particles from the loss cone but promotes loss through ENA generation. These findings should be implemented in models predicting the ring current decay and used as an analysis tool to reconstruct the ring current population from observed low-altitude ENAs.

[Effects of different neutralizing agents on succinate production by Actinobacillus succinogenes NJ113].

PubMed

Yang, Zhuona; Jiang, Min; Li, Jian; Fang, Xiaojiang; Ye, Guizi; Bai, Xuefei; Zheng, Xiaoyu; Wei, Ping

2010-11-01

Different neutralizing agents were used as pH controller to investigate their effects on the growth and succinic acid production of Actinobacillus succinogenes NJ113. The fermentation results showed that Ca(OH)2, CaCO3 and NH4OH were not suitable for succinic acid production by A. succinogenes NJ113 because of their negative effects on cell growth. When Na-base was used, cells would flocculate and lump, and due to the sodium ion concentration reaching to a high level, OD660 dropped sharply after 12 h of fermentation. Mg-base was better because there was no significant inhibition by magnesium ion. Two combined neutralizing agents were used to maintain pH level, one with NaOH and Mg(OH)2 while the other with Na2CO3 and Mg(OH)2. The optimum ratios of the combined neutralizing agents were both 1:1 (g:g) when using 100 g/L glucose. When NaOH and Mg(OH)2 were chosen with the ratio of 1:1(g:g), 69.8 g/L of the succinic acid and 74.5% of the yield was obtained.

Scalable Loading of a Two-Dimensional Trapped-Ion Array

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-11-25

ion -trap array based on two crossed photo-ionization laser beams . With the use of a continuous flux of pre-cooled neutral...push laser Atomic beam Dierential pumping tube Push laser 2D-MOT 50 K Shield 4 K Shield 4 K stage Trap chip MOT laser Ion To ion pump 5s2 1S0 461...conducted a series of Ramsey experiments on a single trapped ion in the presence and absence of neu- tral atom flux as well as each of the PI laser

Spatial Distribution of Io's Neutral Oxygen Cloud Observed by Hisaki

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koga, Ryoichi; Tsuchiya, Fuminori; Kagitani, Masato; Sakanoi, Takeshi; Yoneda, Mizuki; Yoshioka, Kazuo; Yoshikawa, Ichiro; Kimura, Tomoki; Murakami, Go; Yamazaki, Atsushi; Smith, H. Todd; Bagenal, Fran

2018-05-01

We report on the spatial distribution of a neutral oxygen cloud surrounding Jupiter's moon Io and along Io's orbit observed by the Hisaki satellite. Atomic oxygen and sulfur in Io's atmosphere escape from the exosphere mainly through atmospheric sputtering. Some of the neutral atoms escape from Io's gravitational sphere and form neutral clouds around Jupiter. The extreme ultraviolet spectrograph called EXCEED (Extreme Ultraviolet Spectroscope for Exospheric Dynamics) installed on the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Hisaki satellite observed the Io plasma torus continuously in 2014-2015, and we derived the spatial distribution of atomic oxygen emissions at 130.4 nm. The results show that Io's oxygen cloud is composed of two regions, namely, a dense region near Io and a diffuse region with a longitudinally homogeneous distribution along Io's orbit. The dense region mainly extends on the leading side of Io and inside of Io's orbit. The emissions spread out to 7.6 Jupiter radii (RJ). Based on Hisaki observations, we estimated the radial distribution of the atomic oxygen number density and oxygen ion source rate. The peak atomic oxygen number density is 80 cm-3, which is spread 1.2 RJ in the north-south direction. We found more oxygen atoms inside Io's orbit than a previous study. We estimated the total oxygen ion source rate to be 410 kg/s, which is consistent with the value derived from a previous study that used a physical chemistry model based on Hisaki observations of ultraviolet emission ions in the Io plasma torus.

Iron ion and iron hydroxide adsorption to charge-neutral phosphatidylcholine templates

DOE PAGES

Wang, Wenjie; Zhang, Honghu; Feng, Shuren; ...

2016-07-13

Surface-sensitive X-ray scattering and spectroscopy techniques reveal significant adsorption of iron ions and iron-hydroxide (Fe(III)) complexes to a charge-neutral zwitterionic template of phosphatidylcholine (PC). The PC template is formed by a Langmuir monolayer of dipalmitoyl-PC (DPPC) that is spread on the surface of 2 to 40 μM FeCl 3 solutions at physiological levels of KCl (100 mM). At 40 μM of Fe(III) as many as ~3 iron atoms are associated with each PC group. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction measurements indicate a significant disruption in the in-plane ordering of DPPC molecules upon iron adsorption. The binding of iron-hydroxide complexes to amore » neutral PC surface is yet another example of nonelectrostatic, presumably covalent bonding to a charge-neutral organic template. Furthermore, the strong binding and the disruption of in-plane lipid structure has biological implications on the integrity of PC-derived lipid membranes, including those based on sphingomyelin.« less

Calibration of an advanced neutral particle analyzer for the Madison Symmetric Torus reversed-field pinch

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Reusch, J. A.; Anderson, J. K.; Eilerman, S.

2012-10-15

A new E Parallel-To B neutral particle analyzer, which has recently been installed on Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) reversed-field pinch (RFP), has now been calibrated, allowing the measurement of the fast ion density and energy distribution. This diagnostic, dubbed the advanced neutral particle analyzer (ANPA), can simultaneously produce time resolved measurements of the efflux of both hydrogen and deuterium ions from the plasma over a 35 keV energy range with an energy resolution of 2-4 keV and a time resolution of 10 {mu}s. These capabilities are needed to measure both majority ion heating that occurs during magnetic reconnection events inmore » MST and the behavior of the fast ions from the 1 MW hydrogen neutral beam injector on MST. Calibration of the ANPA was performed using a custom ion source that resides in the flight tube between the MST and the ANPA. In this work, the ANPA will be described, the calibration procedure and results will be discussed, and initial measurements of the time evolution of 25 keV neutral beam injection-born fast ions will be presented.« less

Optics of ion beams for the neutral beam injection system on HL-2A Tokamak.

PubMed

Zou, G Q; Lei, G J; Cao, J Y; Duan, X R

2012-07-01

The ion beam optics for the neutral beam injection system on HL-2A Tokomak is studied by two- dimensional numerical simulation program firstly, where the emitting surface is taken at 100 Debye lengths from the plasma electrode. The mathematical formulation, computation techniques are described. Typical ion orbits, equipotential contours, and emittance diagram are shown. For a fixed geometry electrode, the effect of plasma density, plasma potential and plasma electron temperature on ion beam optics is examined, and the calculation reliability is confirmed by experimental results. In order to improve ion beam optics, the application of a small pre-acceleration voltage (∼100 V) between the plasma electrode and the arc discharge anode is reasonable, and a lower plasma electron temperature is desired. The results allow optimization of the ion beam optics in the neutral beam injection system on HL-2A Tokomak and provide guidelines for designing future neutral beam injection system on HL-2M Tokomak.

Effect of ion-neutral collisions on the evolution of kinetic Alfvén waves in plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goyal, R.; Sharma, R. P.

2018-03-01

This paper studies the effect of ion-neutral collisions on the propagation of kinetic Alfvén waves (KAWs) in inhomogeneous magnetized plasma. The inhomogeneity in the plasma imposed by background density in a direction transverse as well as parallel to the ambient magnetic field plays a vital role in the localization process. The mass loading of ions takes place due to their collisions with neutral fluid leading to the damping of the KAWs. Numerical analysis of linear KAWs in inhomogeneous magnetized plasma is done for a fixed finite frequency taking into consideration the ion-neutral collisions. There is a prominent effect of collisional damping on the wave localization, wave magnetic field, and frequency spectrum. A semi-analytical technique has been employed to study the magnetic field amplitude decay process and the effect of wave frequency in the range of ion cyclotron frequency on the propagation of waves leading to damping.

Groundbased studies of spacecraft glow and erosion caused by impact of oxygen and nitrogen beams

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Langer, W. D.; Cohen, S. A.; Manos, D. M.; Motley, R. W.; Paul, S. F.

1987-01-01

To simulate surface reactions in the space environment a ground-based facility was developed that produces a very high flux 10(14) to 10(16)/sq cm/s of low energy (2 to 20 eV) neutral atoms and molecules. The neutral beams are created using a method involving neutralization and reflection of ions from a biased limiter, where the ions are extracted from a toroidal plasma source. The spectra of emission due to beam-solid interactions on targets of Chemglaze Z-306 optical paint and Kapton are presented. Erosion yields for carbon and Kapton targets with low energy (approx. 10 eV) nitrogen and oxygen beams were measured. The reaction rates and surface morphology for the erosion of Kapton are similar to those measured in experiments on STS-5.

Thermal stability of uranyl complexes with neutral oxygen-containing organic bases

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kobets, L.V.

1987-03-01

The thermal stability of uranyl chloride, nitrate, and oxalate with a series of neutral oxygen-containing organic ligands is discussed. It was found that the temperatures of removal of chlorine are higher than the stripping of the first molecule of the base in complexes UO/sub 2/Cl/sub 2/ x 2L. This is an indication of greater strength of the bonds of the Cl/sup -/ ions to the uranyl group in comparison with the investigated bases. It was shown that the temperatures of removal of a mole of neutral ligands depend little on the nature of the anions and exhibit a correlation withmore » the donor capacity of the bases: Ac < TBP < DMFA similarly ordered DMSO < TBPO similarly ordered PyO. The chemistry of the decomposition of the complexes and the strength of the binding of the acido- and neutral ligands in them are discussed.« less

Ion related problems for the XLS ring

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bozoki, E.; Halama, H.

1989-07-11

The electron beam in the XLS will collide with the residual gas in the vacuum chamber. The positive ions will be trapped in the potential well of the electron beam. They will perform stable or unstable oscillations around the beam under the repetitive Coulomb force of the bunches. If not cleared, the captured ions will lead to partial or total neutralization of the beam, causing both, a decrease of life-time and a change in the vertical tunes as well as an increase in the tune-spread. They can also cause coherent transverse instabilities. The degree of neutralization {theta} that one canmore » tolerate, is primarily determined by the allowable tune shift, which of the XLS is between 1 and 5 10{sup {minus}3}. Electrostatic clearing electrodes will be used to keep the neutralization below the desired limit. In order to determine their location and the necessary clearing-rate and voltage, we examine the ion production rate, longitudinal velocity of ions in field-free regions and in the dipoles to see what distance the ions can travel without clearing before the neutralization of the beam reaches the prescribed limit, beam potential to see the locations of the potential wells, voltage requirements for ion clearing, critical mass for ion capture in the bunched beam, tune shift caused by neutralization of the beam, pressure rise due to the trapped ions and power dissipation due to beam image current. 13 refs., 3 figs., 4 tabs.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yin Yunpeng; Sawin, Herbert H.

The impact of etching kinetics and etching chemistries on surface roughening was investigated by etching thermal silicon dioxide and low-k dielectric coral materials in C{sub 4}F{sub 8}/Ar plasma beams in an inductive coupled plasma beam reactor. The etching kinetics, especially the angular etching yield curves, were measured by changing the plasma pressure and the feed gas composition which influence the effective neutral-to-ion flux ratio during etching. At low neutral-to-ion flux ratios, the angular etching yield curves are sputteringlike, with a peak around 60 deg. -70 deg. off-normal angles; the surface at grazing ion incidence angles becomes roughened due to ionmore » scattering related ion-channeling effects. At high neutral-to-ion flux ratios, ion enhanced etching dominates and surface roughening at grazing angles is mainly caused by the local fluorocarbon deposition induced micromasking mechanism. Interestingly, the etched surfaces at grazing angles remain smooth for both films at intermediate neutral-to-ion flux ratio regime. Furthermore, the oxygen addition broadens the region over which the etching without roughening can be performed.« less

Theoretical investigations on plasma processes in the Kaufman thruster

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilhelm, H. E.

1973-01-01

The lateral neutralization of ion beams is treated by standard mathematical methods for first order, nonlinear partial differential equations. A closed form analytical solution is derived for the transient lateral beam neutralization for electron injection by means of a von Mises transformation. A nonlinear theory of the longitudinal ion beam neutralization is developed using the von Mises transformation. By means of the Lenard-Balescu equation, the intercomponent momentum transfer between stable, collisionless electron and ion components is calculated.

Eight-cm mercury ion thruster system technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1974-01-01

The technology status of 8 cm diameter electron bombardment ion thrusters is presented. Much of the technology resulting from the 5 cm diameter thruster has been adapted and improved upon to increase the reliability, durability, and efficiency of the 8 cm thruster. Technology discussed includes: dependence of neutralizer tip erosion upon neutralizer flow rate; impregnated and rolled-foil insert cathode performance and life testing; neutralizer position studies; thruster ion beam profile measurements; high voltage pulse ignition; high utilization ion machined accelerator grids; deposition internal and external to the thruster; thruster vectoring systems; thruster cycling life testing and thruster system weights for typical mission applications.

Interchannel Coupling in the Photoionization of Atoms and Ions in the X-Ray Range

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Manson, Steven T.; Chakraborty, Himadri S.; Deshmukh, Pranawa C.

2002-01-01

To understand how this interchannel coupling, so important in neutral atoms, applies to positive ions, a research program has been initiated to deal with this question, i.e., a program to quantify the effects of interchannel coupling in ionic photoionization, thereby assessing existing photoionization data bases in the x-ray region. To accomplish this task, we have employed the Relativistic Random-Phase-Approximation (RRPA) methodology which includes significant aspects of electron-electron correlation, including interchannel coupling. The RRPA methodology has been found to produce excellent agreement with experiment for neutral Ne at photon energies in the 1 keV range.

Numerical analysis of effects of ion-neutral collision processes on RF ICP discharge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nishida, K.; Mattei, S.; Lettry, J.; Hatayama, A.

2018-01-01

The discharge process of a radiofrequency (RF) inductively coupled plasma (ICP) has been modeled by an ElectroMagnetic Particle-in-Cell Monte Carlo Collision method (EM PIC-MCC). Although the simulation had been performed by our previous model to investigate the discharge mode transition of the RF ICP from a kinetic point of view, the model neglected the collision processes of ions (H+ and H2+) with neutral particles. In this study, the RF ICP discharge process has been investigated by the latest version of the model which takes the ion-neutral collision processes into account. The basic characteristics of the discharge mode transition provided by the previous model have been verified by the comparison between the previous and present results. As for the H-mode discharge regime, on the other hand, the ion-neutral collisions play an important role in evaluating the growth of the plasma. Also, the effect of the ion-neutral collisions on the kinetic feature of the plasma has been investigated, which has highlighted the importance of kinetic perspective for modeling the RF ICP discharge.

Modeling the adsorption of hydrogen, sodium, chloride and phthalate on goethite using a strict charge-neutral ion-exchange theory

PubMed Central

Ndu, Udonna

2017-01-01

Simultaneous adsorption modeling of four ions was predicted with a strict net charge-neutral ion-exchange theory and its corresponding equilibrium and mass balance equations. An important key to the success of this approach was the proper collection of all the data, particularly the proton adsorption data, and the inclusion of variable concentrations of conjugate ions from the experimental pH adjustments. Using IExFit software, the ion-exchange model used here predicted the competitive retention of several ions on goethite by assuming that the co-adsorption or desorption of all ions occurred in the correct stoichiometries needed to maintain electroneutrality. This approach also revealed that the retention strength of Cl− ions on goethite increases in the presence of phthalate ions. That is, an anion-anion enhancement effect was observed. The retention of Cl− ions was much weaker than phthalate ions, and this also resulted in a higher sensitivity of the Cl− ions toward minor variations in the surface reactivity. The proposed model uses four goethite surface sites. The drop in retention of phthalate ions at low pH was fully described here as resulting from competitive Cl− reactions, which were introduced in increasing concentrations into the matrix as the conjugate base to the acid added to lower the pH. PMID:28464020

Energetic neutral particles from Jupiter and Saturn

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, A. F.

1986-04-01

The Voyager 1 spacecraft has detected energetic neutral particles escaping from the magnetospheres of Jupiter and Saturn. These energetic neutrals are created in charge exchange reactions between radiation belt ions and ambient atoms or molecules in the magnetosphere. If the Io torus is assumed to be the dominant Jovian source region for energetic neutrals, the Voyager observations can be used to infer upper limits to the average ion intensities there below about 200 keV. No readily interpretable in-situ measurements are available in the Io torus at these energies. The middle and outer Jovian magnetospheres may also be a significant source of energetic neutrals. At Saturn, the observed neutral particle count rates are too high to be explained by charge exchange between fast protons and H atoms of the Titan torus. Most of the energetic neutrals may be produced by charge exchanges between heavy ions and a neutral cloud containing H2O in Saturn's inner magnetosphere. If so, the Voyager measurements of energetic neutral fluxes would be the first detected emissions from this region of Saturn's magnetosphere.

Neutral-neutral and neutral-ion collision integrals for Y2O3-Ar plasma system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dhamale, Gayatri D.; Nath, Swastik; Mathe, Vikas L.; Ghorui, Srikumar

2017-06-01

A detailed investigation on the neutral-neutral and neutral-ion collision integrals is reported for Y2O3-Ar plasma, an important system of functional material with unique properties having a wide range of processing applications. The calculated integrals are indispensible pre-requisite for the estimation of transport properties needed in CFD modelling of associated plasma processes. Polarizability plays an important role in determining the integral values. Ambiguity in selecting appropriate polarizability data available in the literature and calculating effective number of electrons in the ionized species contributing to the polarizability are addressed. The integrals are evaluated using Lennard-Jones like phenomenological potential up to (l,s) = (4,4). Used interaction potential is suitable for both neutral-neutral and neutral-ion interactions. For atom-parent ion interactions, contribution coming from the inelastic resonant charge transfer process has been accounted properly together with that coming from the elastic counterpart. A total of 14 interacting species and 60 different interactions are considered. Key contributing factors like basic electronic properties of the interacting species and associated polarizability values are accounted carefully. Adopted methodology is first benchmarked against data reported in the literature and then applied to the Y2O3-Ar plasma system for estimating the collision integrals. Results are presented in the temperature range of 100 K-100 000 K.

The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer on the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mahaffy, Paul R.; Benna, Mehdi; King, Todd; Harpold, Daniel N.; Arvey, Robert; Barciniak, Michael; Bendt, Mirl; Carrigan, Daniel; Errigo, Therese; Holmes, Vincent;

Variations in ion and neutral composition at Venus - Evidence of solar control of the formation of the predawn bulges in H/+/ and He1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taylor, H. A., Jr.; Mayr, H.; Brinton, H.; Niemann, H.; Hartle, R.; Daniell, R. E., Jr.

1982-01-01

A comparison of ion and neutral composition measurements at Venus for periods of greatly different solar activity provides qualitative evidence of solar control of the day-to-night transport of light ion and neutral species. Concentrations of H(+) and He in the predawn bulge near solar maximum in November, 1979, exhibit a depletion signature correlated with a pronounced modulation in the solar F10.7 and EUV fluxes. This perturbation, not observed in the predawn region during an earlier period of relative quiet solar conditions, is interpreted as resulting from pronounced changes in solar heating and photoionization on the dayside, which in turn modulate the transport of ions and neutrals into the bulge region.

A new deflection technique applied to an existing scheme of electrostatic accelerator for high energy neutral beam injection in fusion reactor devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pilan, N.; Antoni, V.; De Lorenzi, A.; Chitarin, G.; Veltri, P.; Sartori, E.

2016-02-01

A scheme of a neutral beam injector (NBI), based on electrostatic acceleration and magneto-static deflection of negative ions, is proposed and analyzed in terms of feasibility and performance. The scheme is based on the deflection of a high energy (2 MeV) and high current (some tens of amperes) negative ion beam by a large magnetic deflector placed between the Beam Source (BS) and the neutralizer. This scheme has the potential of solving two key issues, which at present limit the applicability of a NBI to a fusion reactor: the maximum achievable acceleration voltage and the direct exposure of the BS to the flux of neutrons and radiation coming from the fusion reactor. In order to solve these two issues, a magnetic deflector is proposed to screen the BS from direct exposure to radiation and neutrons so that the voltage insulation between the electrostatic accelerator and the grounded vessel can be enhanced by using compressed SF6 instead of vacuum so that the negative ions can be accelerated at energies higher than 1 MeV. By solving the beam transport with different magnetic deflector properties, an optimum scheme has been found which is shown to be effective to guarantee both the steering effect and the beam aiming.

A new deflection technique applied to an existing scheme of electrostatic accelerator for high energy neutral beam injection in fusion reactor devices.

PubMed

Pilan, N; Antoni, V; De Lorenzi, A; Chitarin, G; Veltri, P; Sartori, E

2016-02-01

A scheme of a neutral beam injector (NBI), based on electrostatic acceleration and magneto-static deflection of negative ions, is proposed and analyzed in terms of feasibility and performance. The scheme is based on the deflection of a high energy (2 MeV) and high current (some tens of amperes) negative ion beam by a large magnetic deflector placed between the Beam Source (BS) and the neutralizer. This scheme has the potential of solving two key issues, which at present limit the applicability of a NBI to a fusion reactor: the maximum achievable acceleration voltage and the direct exposure of the BS to the flux of neutrons and radiation coming from the fusion reactor. In order to solve these two issues, a magnetic deflector is proposed to screen the BS from direct exposure to radiation and neutrons so that the voltage insulation between the electrostatic accelerator and the grounded vessel can be enhanced by using compressed SF6 instead of vacuum so that the negative ions can be accelerated at energies higher than 1 MeV. By solving the beam transport with different magnetic deflector properties, an optimum scheme has been found which is shown to be effective to guarantee both the steering effect and the beam aiming.

Determination of phospholipid regiochemistry by Ag(I) adduction and tandem mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Yoo, Hyun Ju; Håkansson, Kristina

2011-02-15

Collision-activated dissociation (CAD) and infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD) of Ag-adducted phospholipids were investigated as structural tools. Previously, determination of the acyl chains at the two phospholipid esterification sites has been performed based on the R(1)COO(-)/R(2)COO(-) ratio in negative ion mode CAD tandem mass spectrometry. However, the observed product ion ratio is dependent on the extent of unsaturation of the fatty acyl group at sn-2 as well as on the total chain length. Similarly, in positive ion mode CAD with/without alkaline or alkaline earth metal adduction, the ratio of product ions resulting from either R(1)COOH or R(2)COOH neutral losses is dependent on the nature of the phospholipid polar headgroup. Ag(+) ion chromatography, in which silver ions are part of the stationary phase, can provide information on double bond number/distribution as well as double bond configuration (cis/trans) because of interaction between Ag(+) ions and olefinic π electrons of fatty acids and lipids. We hypothesized that interactions between double bonds and Ag(+) may be utilized to also reveal phospholipid esterification site information in tandem mass spectrometry. CAD and IRMPD of Ag-adducted phospholipids with unsaturated fatty acids (R(x)COOH, x = 1 or 2) provided characteristic product ions, [R(x)COOH + Ag](+), and their neutral losses. The characteristic product ions and their abundances do not depend on the type of polar headgroup or the number of double bonds of unsaturated acyl chains. Tandem mass spectrometry of Cu-adducted phospholipids was also performed for comparison based on the Lewis acid and base properties of Cu(+) and phospholipid double bonds, respectively.

Four-fluid MHD simulations of the plasma and neutral gas environment of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko near perihelion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Zhenguang; Tóth, Gábor; Gombosi, Tamas I.; Jia, Xianzhe; Rubin, Martin; Fougere, Nicolas; Tenishev, Valeriy; Combi, Michael R.; Bieler, Andre; Hansen, Kenneth C.; Shou, Yinsi; Altwegg, Kathrin

2016-05-01

The neutral and plasma environment is critical in understanding the interaction of the solar wind and comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (CG), the target of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission. To serve this need and support the Rosetta mission, we have developed a 3-D four-fluid model, which is based on BATS-R-US (Block-Adaptive Tree Solarwind Roe-type Upwind Scheme) within SWMF (Space Weather Modeling Framework) that solves the governing multifluid MHD equations and the Euler equations for the neutral gas fluid. These equations describe the behavior and interactions of the cometary heavy ions, the solar wind protons, the electrons, and the neutrals. This model incorporates different mass loading processes, including photoionization and electron impact ionization, charge exchange, dissociative ion-electron recombination, and collisional interactions between different fluids. We simulated the plasma and neutral gas environment near perihelion in three different cases: an idealized comet with a spherical body and uniform neutral gas outflow, an idealized comet with a spherical body and illumination-driven neutral gas outflow, and comet CG with a realistic shape model and illumination-driven neutral gas outflow. We compared the results of the three cases and showed that the simulations with illumination-driven neutral gas outflow have magnetic reconnection, a magnetic pileup region and nucleus directed plasma flow inside the nightside reconnection region, which have not been reported in the literature.

Thermospheric neutral density estimates from heater-induced ion up-flow at EISCAT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kosch, Michael; Ogawa, Yasunobu; Yamazaki, Yosuke; Vickers, Hannah; Blagoveshchenskaya, Nataly

We exploit a recently-developed technique to estimate the upper thermospheric neutral density using measurements of ionospheric plasma parameters made by the EISCAT UHF radar during ionospheric modification experiments. Heating the electrons changes the balance between upward plasma pressure gradient and downward gravity, resulting in ion up-flow up to ~200 m/s. This field-aligned flow is retarded by collisions, which is directly related to the neutral density. Whilst the ion up-flow is consistent with the plasma pressure gradient, the estimated thermospheric neutral density depends on the assumed composition, which varies with altitude. Results in the topside ionosphere are presented.

Ion-neutral-atom sympathetic cooling in a hybrid linear rf Paul and magneto-optical trap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goodman, D. S.; Sivarajah, I.; Wells, J. E.; Narducci, F. A.; Smith, W. W.

2012-09-01

Long-range polarization forces between ions and neutral atoms result in large elastic scattering cross sections (e.g., ˜106a.u. for Na-Na+ or Na-Ca+ at cold and ultracold temperatures). This suggests that a hybrid ion-neutral trap should offer a general means for significant sympathetic cooling of atomic or molecular ions. We present simion 7.0 simulation results concerning the advantages and limitations of sympathetic cooling within a hybrid trap apparatus consisting of a linear rf Paul trap concentric with a Na magneto-optical trap (MOT). This paper explores the impact of various heating mechanisms on the hybrid system and how parameters related to the MOT, Paul trap, number of ions, and ion species affect the efficiency of the sympathetic cooling.

Fishbone activity in experimental advanced superconducting tokamak neutral beam injection plasma

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xu, Liqing; Zhang, Jizong; Chen, Kaiyun, E-mail: Kychen@ipp.cas.cn, E-mail: lqhu@ipp.cas.cn

2015-12-15

Repetitive fishbones near the trapped ion procession frequency were observed for the first time in the neutral beam injection high confinement plasmas in Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) tokamak, and diagnosed using a solid-state neutral particle analyzer based on a compact silicon photodiode together with an upgraded high spatial-temporal-resolution multi-arrays soft X-ray (SX) system. This 1/1 typical internal kink mode propagates in the ion-diamagnetism direction with a rotation speed faster than the bulk plasma in the plasma frame. From the SX measurements, this mode frequency is typical of chirping down and the energetic particle effect related to the twisting modemore » structure. This ion fishbone was found able to trigger a multiple core sawtooth crashes with edge-2/1 sideband modes, as well as to lead to a transition from fishbone to long lived saturated kink mode to fishbone. Furthermore, using SX tomography, a correlation between mode amplitude and mode frequency was found. Finally, a phenomenological prey–predator model was found to reproduce the fishbone nonlinear process well.« less

Study of the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko based on the ROSINA/RTOF instrument onboard Rosetta

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoang, M.; Garnier, P.; Lasue, J.; Reme, H.; Altwegg, K.; Balsiger, H. R.; Bieler, A. M.; Calmonte, U.; Fiethe, B.; Galli, A.; Gasc, S.; Gombosi, T. I.; Jäckel, A.; Mall, U.; Le Roy, L.; Rubin, M.; Tzou, C. Y.; Waite, J. H., Jr.; Wurz, P.

2015-12-01

The ROSETTA spacecraft of ESA is in the environment of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko since August 2014. Among the experiments onboard the spacecraft, the ROSINA experiment (Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis) includes two mass spectrometers (DFMS and RTOF) to analyze the composition of neutrals and ions, and a pressure sensor (COPS) to monitor the density and velocity of neutrals in the coma [1]. We will here analyze and discuss the data of the ROSINA/RTOF instrument during the comet escort phase. The Reflectron-type Time-Of-Flight (RTOF) mass spectrometer possesses a wide mass range and a high temporal resolution [1,2]. It was designed to measure cometary neutral gas as well as cometary ions. A detailed description of the main volatiles (H2O, CO2, CO) dynamics and of the heterogeneities of the coma will then be provided. The influence of various parameters on the coma measurements is investigated on a statistical basis, with the parameters being distance to the comet, heliocentric distance, longitude and latitude of nadir point. Our analysis of the northern hemisphere summer season shows the presence of water vapor mostly in the illuminated northern hemisphere near the neck region with cyclic diurnal variations whereas CO2 was confined to the cold southern hemisphere with a more spatially homogeneous composition, in agreement with previous observations of 67P [2] or Hartley 2 [3]. A comparison will also be provided with the COPS total density and DFMS abundance measurements. [1] Balsiger et al., "ROSINA - Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis", Space Sci. Rev., 2007. [2] Scherer et al., "A novel principle for an ion mirror design in time-of-flight mass spectrometry," Int. Jou. Mass Spectr., 2006. [3] Hässig et al., "Time variability and heterogeneity in the coma of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko", Science, 2015. [4] A'Hearn et al., "EPOXI at comet Hartley 2", Science, 2011.

ExoCube INMS with Neutral Hydrogen Mode

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jones, S.; Paschalidis, N.; Rodriguez, M.; Sittler, E. C., Jr.; Chornay, D. J.; Cameron, T.; Uribe, P.; Nanan, G.; Noto, J.; Waldrop, L.; Mierkiewicz, E. J.; Gardner, D.; Nossal, S. M.; Puig-Suari, J.; Bellardo, J.

2015-12-01

The ExoCube mission launched on Jan 31 2015 into a polar orbit to acquire global knowledge of in situ densities of neutral and ionized H, He, and O in the upper ionosphere and lower exosphere. The CubeSat platform is used in combination with incoherent scatter radar and optical ground stations distributed throughout the Americas. ExoCube seeks to obtain the first in situ measurement of neutral exospheric hydrogen and will measure in situ atomic oxygen for the first time in decades. The compact Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) developed by GSFC uses the gated Time of Flight technique for in situ measurements of ions and neutrals (H, He, N, O, N2, O2) with M/dM of approximately 10. The compact sensor has a dual symmetric configuration with ion and neutral sensor heads. Neutral particles are ionized by electron impact using a thermionic emitter. In situ measurements of neutral hydrogen are notoriously difficult as historically the signal has been contaminated by hydrogen outgassing which persists even years after commissioning. In order to obtain neutral atmospheric hydrogen fluxes, either the atmospheric peak and outgassing peak must be well resolved, or the outgassing component subtracted off. The ExoCube INMS employs a separate mode, specifically for measuring neutral Hydrogen. The details of this mode and lessons learned will be presented as well as in flight instrument validation data for the neutral channel and preliminary flight ion spectra. At the time of abstract submission, the ExoCube spacecraft is currently undergoing attitude control maneuvers to orient INMS in the ram direction for science operations.

Visual offline sample stacking via moving neutralization boundary electrophoresis for analysis of heavy metal ion.

PubMed

Fan, Yinping; Li, Shan; Fan, Liuyin; Cao, Chengxi

2012-06-15

In this paper, a moving neutralization boundary (MNB) electrophoresis is developed as a novel model of visual offline sample stacking for the trace analysis of heavy metal ions (HMIs). In the stacking system, the cathodic-direction motion MNB is designed with 1.95-2.8mM HCl+98 mM KCl in phase alfa and 4.0mM NaOH+96 mM KCl in phase beta. If a little of HMI is present in phase alfa, the metal ion electrically migrates towards the MNB and react with hydroxyl ion, producing precipitation and moving precipitation boundary (MPB). The alkaline precipitation is neutralized by hydrogen ion, leading to a moving eluting boundary (MEB), release of HMI from its precipitation, circle of HMI from the MEB to the MPB, and highly efficient visual stacking. As a proof of concept, a set of metal ions (Cu(II), Co(II), Mn(II), Pb(II) and Cr(III)) were chosen as the model HMIs and capillary electrophoresis (CE) was selected as an analytical tool for the experiments demonstrating the feasibility of MNB-based stacking. As shown in this paper, (i) the visual stacking model was manifested by the experiments; (ii) there was a controllable stacking of HMI in the MNB system; (iii) the offline stacking could achieve higher than 123 fold preconcentration; and (iv) the five HMIs were simultaneously stacked via the developed stacking technique for the trace analyses with the limits of detection (LOD): 3.67×10(-3) (Cu(II)), 1.67×10(-3) (Co(II), 4.17×10(-3) (Mn(II)), 4.6×10(-4) (Pb(II)) and 8.40×10(-4)mM (Cr(III)). Even the off-line stacking was demonstrated for the use of CE-based HMI analysis, it has potential applications in atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and ion chromatography (IC) etc. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dissociative recombination in planetary ionospheres

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fox, J. L.

1993-01-01

Ionization in planetary atmospheres can be produced by solar photoionization, photoelectron impact ionization, and, in auroral regions, by impact of precipitating particles. This ionization is lost mainly in dissociative recombination (DR) of molecular ions. Although atomic ions cannot undergo DR, they can be transformed locally through ion-molecule reactions into molecular ions, or they may be transported vertically or horizontally to regions of the atmosphere where such transformations are possible. Because DR reactions tend to be very exothermic, they can be an important source of kinetically or internally excited fragments. In interplanetary thermospheres, the neutral densities decrease exponentially with altitude. Below the homopause (or turbopause), the atmosphere is assumed to be throughly mixed by convection and/or turbulence. Above the homopause, diffusion is the major transport mechanism, and each species is distributed according to its mass, with the logarithmic derivative of the density with repect to altitude given approximately by -1/H, where H = kT/mg is the scale height. In this expression, T is the neutral temperature, g is the local acceleratiion of gravity, and m is the mass of the species. Thus lighter species become relatively more abundant, and heavier species less abundant, as the altitude increases. This variation of the neutral composition can lead to changes in the ion composition; furthermore, as the neutral densities decrease, dissociative recombination becomes more important relative to ion-neutral reactions as a loss mechanism for molecular ions.

Acceleration of ions and neutrals by a traveling electrostatic wave

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, K. H.; Lee, L. C.; Wong, A. Y.

2018-02-01

We propose a new scheme for accelerating a weakly ionized gas by externally imposing a sinusoidal electrostatic (ES) potential in a tubular system. The weakly ionized gas consists of three fluid components: neutral hydrogen fluid ( H ), positively charged fluid ( H + ), and negatively charged fluids ( H - and/or e - ), as an example. The sinusoidal ES potential is imposed on a series of conductive meshes in the tubular system, and its phase varies with time and space to mimic a traveling ES wave. The charged fluids are trapped and accelerated by the sinusoidal ES potential, while the neutral fluid is accelerated through neutral-ion collisions. The neutral fluid can be accelerated to the wave phase velocity in a few neutral-ion collision times. The whole device remains charge-neutral, and there is no build-up of space charge. The acceleration scheme can be applied to, for example, the propulsion of glider in the air, partially ionized plasma in a chamber, spacecraft, and wind tunnel.

Contemporary instrumentation and application of charge exchange neutral particle diagnostics in magnetic fusion energy experiments.

PubMed

Medley, S S; Donné, A J H; Kaita, R; Kislyakov, A I; Petrov, M P; Roquemore, A L

2008-01-01

An overview of the developments postcirca 1980s in the instrumentation and application of charge exchange neutral particle diagnostics on magnetic fusion energy experiments is presented. First, spectrometers that employ only electric fields and hence provide ion energy resolution but not mass resolution are discussed. Next, spectrometers that use various geometrical combinations of both electric and magnetic fields to provide both energy and mass resolutions are reviewed. Finally, neutral particle diagnostics based on utilization of time-of-flight techniques are presented.

Time-implicit fluid/particle hybrid simulations of the anode plasma dynamics in ion diodes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pointon, T. D.; Boine-Frankenheim, O.; Mehlhorn, T. A.

1997-04-01

Applied-B ion diode experiments with Li+1 ion sources on the PBFA II and SABRE ion accelerators show that early in the pulse the beam is essentially pure Li+1, but is rapidly overwhelmed by impurity ions, called the `parasitic load'. Furthermore, the increasing parasitic current rapidly drops the diode voltage, limiting the accelerator power that can be coupled into the beam. This `impedance collapse' is believed to arise from the desorption of impurity neutrals from the anode surface. These neutrals charge-exchange with the ions, rapidly expanding into the anode-cathode gap where they are ionized by beam ions or secondary electrons. In order to model these processes we are developing a 1 1/2 D electrostatic multifluid/PIC (hybrid) code, designed to self-consistently simulate collisional plasma/neutral systems with an arbitrary number of interacting species, over greatly varying density regimes and together with applied electric and magnetic fields.

Comparison of the SAWNUC model with CLOUD measurements of sulphuric acid-water nucleation.

PubMed

Ehrhart, Sebastian; Ickes, Luisa; Almeida, Joao; Amorim, Antonio; Barmet, Peter; Bianchi, Federico; Dommen, Josef; Dunne, Eimear M; Duplissy, Jonathan; Franchin, Alessandro; Kangasluoma, Juha; Kirkby, Jasper; Kürten, Andreas; Kupc, Agnieszka; Lehtipalo, Katrianne; Nieminen, Tuomo; Riccobono, Francesco; Rondo, Linda; Schobesberger, Siegfried; Steiner, Gerhard; Tomé, António; Wimmer, Daniela; Baltensperger, Urs; Wagner, Paul E; Curtius, Joachim

2016-10-27

Binary nucleation of sulphuric acid-water particles is expected to be an important process in the free troposphere at low temperatures. SAWNUC (Sulphuric Acid Water Nucleation) is a model of binary nucleation that is based on laboratory measurements of the binding energies of sulphuric acid and water in charged and neutral clusters. Predictions of SAWNUC are compared for the first time comprehensively with experimental binary nucleation data from the CLOUD chamber at European Organization for Nuclear Research. The experimental measurements span a temperature range of 208-292 K, sulphuric acid concentrations from 1·10 6 to 1·10 9  cm -3 , and distinguish between ion-induced and neutral nucleation. Good agreement, within a factor of 5, is found between the experimental and modeled formation rates for ion-induced nucleation at 278 K and below and for neutral nucleation at 208 and 223 K. Differences at warm temperatures are attributed to ammonia contamination which was indicated by the presence of ammonia-sulphuric acid clusters, detected by an Atmospheric Pressure Interface Time of Flight (APi-TOF) mass spectrometer. APi-TOF measurements of the sulphuric acid ion cluster distributions ( (H2SO4)i·HSO4- with i = 0, 1, ..., 10) show qualitative agreement with the SAWNUC ion cluster distributions. Remaining differences between the measured and modeled distributions are most likely due to fragmentation in the APi-TOF. The CLOUD results are in good agreement with previously measured cluster binding energies and show the SAWNUC model to be a good representation of ion-induced and neutral binary nucleation of sulphuric acid-water clusters in the middle and upper troposphere.

Concepts for the magnetic design of the MITICA neutral beam test facility ion accelerator.

PubMed

Chitarin, G; Agostinetti, P; Marconato, N; Marcuzzi, D; Sartori, E; Serianni, G; Sonato, P

2012-02-01

The megavolt ITER injector concept advancement neutral injector test facility will be constituted by a RF-driven negative ion source and by an electrostatic Accelerator, designed to produce a negative Ion with a specific energy up to 1 MeV. The beam is then neutralized in order to obtain a focused 17 MW neutral beam. The magnetic configuration inside the accelerator is of crucial importance for the achievement of a good beam efficiency, with the early deflection of the co-extracted and stripped electrons, and also of the required beam optic quality, with the correction of undesired ion beamlet deflections. Several alternative magnetic design concepts have been considered, comparing in detail the magnetic and beam optics simulation results, evidencing the advantages and drawbacks of each solution both from the physics and engineering point of view.

Photodetachment process for beam neutralization

DOEpatents

Fink, Joel H. [Livermore, CA; Frank, Alan M. [Livermore, CA

1979-02-20

A process for neutralization of accelerated ions employing photo-induced charge detachment. The process involves directing a laser beam across the path of a negative ion beam such as to effect photodetachment of electrons from the beam ions. The frequency of the laser beam employed is selected to provide the maximum cross-section for the photodetachment process.

Modeling activities on the negative-ion-based Neutral Beam Injectors of the Large Helical Device

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Agostinetti, P.; Antoni, V.; Chitarin, G.

2011-09-26

At the National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS) large-scaled negative ion sources have been widely used for the Neutral Beam Injectors (NBIs) mounted on the Large Helical Device (LHD), which is the world-largest superconducting helical system. These injectors have achieved outstanding performances in terms of beam energy, negative-ion current and optics, and represent a reference for the development of heating and current drive NBIs for ITER.In the framework of the support activities for the ITER NBIs, the PRIMA test facility, which includes a RF-drive ion source with 100 keV accelerator (SPIDER) and a complete 1 MeV Neutral Beam system (MITICA)more » is under construction at Consorzio RFX in Padova.An experimental validation of the codes has been undertaken in order to prove the accuracy of the simulations and the soundness of the SPIDER and MITICA design. To this purpose, the whole set of codes have been applied to the LHD NBIs in a joint activity between Consorzio RFX and NIFS, with the goal of comparing and benchmarking the codes with the experimental data. A description of these modeling activities and a discussion of the main results obtained are reported in this paper.« less

Establishment of a Charge Reversal Derivatization Strategy to Improve the Ionization Efficiency of Limaprost and Investigation of the Fragmentation Patterns of Limaprost Derivatives Via Exclusive Neutral Loss and Survival Yield Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, Dong; Meng, Xiangjun; Ren, Tianming; Fawcett, John Paul; Wang, Hualu; Gu, Jingkai

2018-04-01

Sensitivity is generally an issue in bioassays of prostaglandins and their synthetic analogs due to their extremely low concentration in vivo. To improve the ionization efficiency of limaprost, an oral prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) synthetic analog, we investigated a charge reversal derivatization strategy in electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). We established that the cholamine derivative exhibits much greater signal intensity in the positive-ion mode compared with limaprost in the negative ion mode. Collision-induced dissociation (CID) involved exclusive neutral mass loss and positive charge migration to form stable cationic product ions with the positive charge on the limaprost residue rather than on the modifying group. This has the effect of maintaining the efficiency and specificity of multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) and avoiding cross talk. CID fragmentation patterns of other limaprost derivatives allowed us to relate the dissociation tendency of different neutral leaving groups to an internal energy distribution scale based on the survival yield method. Knowledge of the energy involved in the production of stabilized positive ions will potentially assist the selection of suitable derivatization reagents for the analysis of a wide variety of lipid acids. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

On charge exchange and knock-on processes in the exosphere of Io

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ip, W.-H.

1982-01-01

One direct consequence of magnetospheric interaction of Io is the strong dynamical coupling of its neutral atmosphere with the corotating plasma. The absorption of the thermal ions and the associated neutral injection is an improtant issue not yet explored. As far as nonthermal escape of the neutral atmosphere is concerned, three processes stand out. That is, apart from sputtering, exospheric interactions like atom-ion knock-on collision and charge exchange recombination could be a significant source of the neutral clouds in the Jovian system. Using a current electrodynamic model of Io, both the absorption rate of the corotating thermal plasma and the production rates of new exospheric ions and the fast neutrals are considered. It is found that the source strength of the neutral atoms and molecules with speeds of about 100 km/sec could amount to 10 to the 26th/sec whereas exospheric neutrals emitted at lower speed (of about 10 km/sec) amounts to 4 x 10 to the 25th/sec. The generation of the new ions in connection with the streaming of the magnetospheric plasma around Io could also produce an asymmetric sputtering with a neutral flux of about 10 to the 27th/sec emitted from the region of Io which faces Jupiter. These results may be related to a number of sodium observations.

Scintillator-based fast ion loss measurements in the EAST.

PubMed

Chang, J F; Isobe, M; Ogawa, K; Huang, J; Wu, C R; Xu, Z; Jin, Z; Lin, S Y; Hu, L Q

2016-11-01

A new scintillator-based fast ion loss detector (FILD) has been installed on Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) to investigate the fast ion loss behavior in high performance plasma with neutral beam injection (NBI) and ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH). A two dimensional 40 mm × 40 mm scintillator-coated (ZnS:Ag) stainless plate is mounted in the front of the detector, capturing the escaping fast ions. Photons from the scintillator plate are imaged with a Phantom V2010 CCD camera. The lost fast ions can be measured with the pitch angle from 60° to 120° and the gyroradius from 10 mm to 180 mm. This paper will describe the details of FILD diagnostic on EAST and describe preliminary measurements during NBI and ICRH heating.

Sputtering Erosion in Ion and Plasma Thrusters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ray, Pradosh K.

1996-01-01

Low energy sputtering of molybdenum, tantalum and boron nitride with xenon ions are being studied using secondary neutral and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SNMS/SIMS). An ultrahigh vacuum chamber was used to conduct the experiment at a base pressure of 1x10(exp -9) torr. The primary ion beam is generated by an ion gun which is capable of delivering ion currents in the range of 20 to 500 nA. The ion beam can be focused to a spot size of approximately 1 mm in diameter. The mass spectrometer is positioned 10 mm from the target and 90 deg to the primary ion beam direction. SNMS and SIMS spectra were collected at various incident angles and different ion energies. For boron nitride sputtering, the target was flooded with an electron beam to neutralize the charge buildup on the surface. In the SNMS mode, sputtering of Mo and Ta can be detected at an ion energy as low as 100 eV whereas in boron nitride the same was observed up to an energy of 300 eV. However, in the positive-SIMS mode, the sputtering of Mo was observed at 10 eV incident ion energy. The SIMS spectra obtained for boron nitride clearly identifies the two isotopes of boron as well as cluster ions such as B2(sup +) and molecular ions such as BN(sup +). From the angle versus yields measurements, it was found that the maximum SNMS yield shifts towards lower incident angles at low ion energies for all three samples.

Measurement of Surface Composition for the Icy Galilean Moons Via Neutral and Ion Mass Spectrometry from Orbit with JIMO

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wong, M.; Berthelier, J.; Carlson, R.; Cooper, J.; Johnson, R.; Jurac, S.; Leblanc, F.; Shematovich, V.

2003-01-01

In this paper, we will provide insights into mass spectrometer requirements. In addition, we will describe the modeling of the neutrals ejected from likely surface materials and their ionization rates in the Jovian environment. We will use such models to connect the mass spectra measurements of the freshly formed ions to surface composition. We will also discuss what possible compositional signatures are for endogenic materials other than water ice. Finally, since a goal is to identify material composition with surface features, we will describe the transport of neutrals ejected from the surface prior to detection by either an ion or neutral mass spectrometer.

Development of ion source with a washer gun for pulsed neutral beam injection.

PubMed

Asai, T; Yamaguchi, N; Kajiya, H; Takahashi, T; Imanaka, H; Takase, Y; Ono, Y; Sato, K N

2008-06-01

A new type of economical neutral beam source has been developed by using a single washer gun, pulsed operation, and a simple electrode system. We replaced the conventional hot filaments for arc-discharge-type plasma formation with a single stainless-steel washer gun, eliminating the entire dc power supply for the filaments and the cooling system for the electrodes. Our initial experiments revealed successful beam extraction up to 10 kV and 8.6 A, based on spatial profile measurements of density and temperature in the plasma source. The system also shows the potential to control the beam profile by controlling the plasma parameters in the ion accumulation chamber.

A review of studies on ion thruster beam and charge-exchange plasmas

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carruth, M. R., Jr.

1982-01-01

Various experimental and analytical studies of the primary beam and charge-exchange plasmas of ion thrusters are reviewed. The history of plasma beam research is recounted, emphasizing experiments on beam neutralization, expansion of the beam, and determination of beam parameters such as electron temperature, plasma density, and plasma potential. The development of modern electron bombardment ion thrusters is treated, detailing experimental results. Studies on charge-exchange plasma are discussed, showing results such as the relationship between neutralizer emission current and plasma beam potential, ion energies as a function of neutralizer bias, charge-exchange ion current collected by an axially moving Faraday cup-RPA for 8-cm and 30-cm ion thrusters, beam density and potential data from a 15-cm ion thruster, and charge-exchange ion flow around a 30-cm thruster. A 20-cm thruster electrical configuration is depicted and facility effects are discussed. Finally, plasma modeling is covered in detail for plasma beam and charge-exchange plasma.

Impact ionization study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whipple, E. C., Jr.

1982-01-01

The impact ionization phenomenon which was observed on certain spacecraft was studied. The phenomenon occurs when a neutral atom, molecule, or ion strikes a surface with sufficient kinetic energy that either the incident neutral or atoms on the surface are ionized, with subsequent escape of ions and/or electrons. The released ions and electrons can interfere with measurements on the spacecraft by confusing interpretation of the data. On the other hand, there is the possibility that the effect could be developed into a diagnostic tool for investigating neutral atmospheric species or for studying physical processes on spacecraft surfaces.

High resolution measurements of nightside ion troughs at Venus - Evidence of electrodynamic perturbations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taylor, H. A., Jr.; Grebowsky, J. M.; Mayr, H. G.; Niemann, H. B.; Brace, L. H.; Cloutier, P. A.; Daniell, R. E., Jr.; Coulson, J. T.

1982-01-01

The Bennett rf ion mass spectrometer of the Pioneer Venus Orbiter was expressly designed to provide variable temporal resolution for measurements of thermal ion composition and density. The Explore-Adapt mode is used to obtain priority for measuring the most prominent ion species; in the 2/16 configuration, the two dominant ions within the available range of 16 species are selectively sampled at the highest rate of 0.2 sec/sample. The high-resolution measurements are combined with independent observations from the magnetic field, neutral mass spectrometer, and electron temperature experiments in investigating sharply structured troughs in the low-altitude nightside ion concentrations. The results suggest a close correlation between the structure in the ion distributions and the structured configuration of the magnetic field that is draped about the planet. In the regions of the ion depletions, sharp fluctuations in electron temperature and anomalous increases in the density of neutral gases suggest that the ion depletion may be associated with dynamic perturbation in the ion and neutral flows and/or local joule heating.

Development progresses of radio frequency ion source for neutral beam injector in fusion devices.

PubMed

Chang, D H; Jeong, S H; Kim, T S; Park, M; Lee, K W; In, S R

2014-02-01

A large-area RF (radio frequency)-driven ion source is being developed in Germany for the heating and current drive of an ITER device. Negative hydrogen ion sources are the major components of neutral beam injection systems in future large-scale fusion experiments such as ITER and DEMO. RF ion sources for the production of positive hydrogen (deuterium) ions have been successfully developed for the neutral beam heating systems at IPP (Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics) in Germany. The first long-pulse ion source has been developed successfully with a magnetic bucket plasma generator including a filament heating structure for the first NBI system of the KSTAR tokamak. There is a development plan for an RF ion source at KAERI to extract the positive ions, which can be applied for the KSTAR NBI system and to extract the negative ions for future fusion devices such as the Fusion Neutron Source and Korea-DEMO. The characteristics of RF-driven plasmas and the uniformity of the plasma parameters in the test-RF ion source were investigated initially using an electrostatic probe.

Enhanced collective focusing of intense neutralized ion beam pulses in the presence of weak solenoidal magnetic fields

DOE PAGES

Dorf, Mikhail A.; Davidson, Ronald C.; Kaganovich, Igor D.; ...

2012-05-31

In this study, the design of ion drivers for warm dense matter and high energy density physics applications and heavy ion fusion involves transverse focusing and longitudinal compression of intense ion beams to a small spot size on the target. To facilitate the process, the compression occurs in a long drift section filled with a dense background plasma, which neutralizes the intense beam self-fields. Typically, the ion bunch charge is better neutralized than its current, and as a result a net self-pinching (magnetic) force is produced. The self-pinching effect is of particular practical importance, and is used in various ionmore » driver designs in order to control the transverse beam envelope. In the present work we demonstrate that this radial self-focusing force can be significantly enhanced if a weak (B~100 G) solenoidal magnetic field is applied inside the neutralized drift section, thus allowing for substantially improved transport. It is shown that in contrast to magnetic self-pinching, the enhanced collective self-focusing has a radial electric field component and occurs as a result of the overcompensation of the beam charge by plasmaelectrons, whereas the beam current becomes well-neutralized. As the beam leaves the neutralizing drift section, additional transverse focusing can be applied. For instance, in the neutralized drift compression experiments (NDCX) a strong (several Tesla) final focus solenoid is used for this purpose. In the present analysis we propose that the tight final focus in the NDCX experiments may possibly be achieved by using a much weaker (few hundred Gauss) magnetic lens, provided the ion beam carries an equal amount of co-moving neutralizing electrons from the preceding drift section into the lens. In this case the enhanced focusing is provided by the collective electrondynamics strongly affected by a weak applied magnetic field.« less

Photodetachment process for beam neutralization

DOEpatents

Fink, J.H.; Frank, A.M.

1979-02-20

A process for neutralization of accelerated ions employing photo-induced charge detachment is disclosed. The process involves directing a laser beam across the path of a negative ion beam such as to effect photodetachment of electrons from the beam ions. The frequency of the laser beam employed is selected to provide the maximum cross-section for the photodetachment process. 2 figs.

Vaporisation of a dicationic ionic liquid.

PubMed

Lovelock, Kevin R J; Deyko, Alexey; Corfield, Jo-Anne; Gooden, Peter N; Licence, Peter; Jones, Robert G

2009-02-02

Highest heat of vaporization yet: The dicationic ionic liquid [C(3)(C(1)Im)(2)][Tf(2)N](2) evaporates as a neutral ion triplet. These neutral ion triplets can then be ionised to form singly and doubly charged ions. The mass spectrum exhibits the dication attached to one remaining anion, and the naked dication itself (see picture).

Neutral and Ion Measurements in the Ionosphere and Thermosphere: Neutral Wind, Ion-drift, Temperatures and Composition

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-09-30

NTR 5025703. HONORS/AWARDS/PRIZES Hollis H. Jones, NASA Goddard AETD Award for Innovative Technology Development, July 2009, Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate, NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, Maryland. 5

The Role of the Upper Atmosphere for Dawn-Dusk and Interhemispheric Differences in the Coupled Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Foerster, M.; Doornbos, E.; Haaland, S.

2016-12-01

Solar wind and IMF interaction with the geomagnetic field sets up a large-scale plasma circulation in the Earth's magnetosphere and the magnetically tightly connected ionosphere. The ionospheric ExB ion drift at polar latitudes accelerates the neutral gas as a nondivergent momentum source primarily in force balance with pressure gradients, while the neutral upper thermosphere circulation is essentially modified by apparent forces due to Earth's rotation (Coriolis and centrifugal forces) as well as advection and viscous forces. The apparent forces affect the dawn and dusk side asymmetrically, favouring a large dusk-side neutral wind vortex, while the non-dipolar portions of the Earth's magnetic field constitute significant hemispheric differences in magnetic flux and field configurations that lead to essential interhemispheric differences of the ion-neutral interaction. We present statistical studies of both the high-latitude ionospheric convection and the upper thermospheric circulation patterns based on measurements of the electron drift instrument (EDI) on board the Cluster satellites and by the accelerometer on board the CHAMP, GOCE, and Swarm spacecraft, respectively.

A current disruption mechanism in the neutral sheet - A possible trigger for substorm expansions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lui, A. T. Y.; Mankofsky, A.; Chang, C.-L.; Papadopoulos, K.; Wu, C. S.

1990-01-01

A linear analysis is performed to investigate the kinetic cross-field streaming instability in the earth's magnetotail neutral sheet region. Numerical solution of the dispersion equation shows that the instability can occur under conditions expected for the neutral sheet just prior to the onset of substorm expansion. The excited waves are obliquely propagating whistlers with a mixed polarization in the lower hybrid frequency range. The ensuing turbulence of this instability can lead to a local reduction of the cross-tail current causing it to continue through the ionosphere to form a substorm current wedge. A substorm expansion onset scenario is proposed based on this instability in which the relative drift between ions and electrons is primarily due to unmagnetized ions undergoing current sheet acceleration in the presence of a cross-tail electric field. The required electric field strength is within the range of electric field values detected in the neutral sheet region during substorm intervals. The skew in local time of substorm onset location and the three conditions under which substorm onset is observed can be understood on the basis of the proposed scenario.

Atomic and Molecular Spectroscopic Studies of the DIII-D Neutral Beam Ion Source and Neutralizer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crowley, B.; Rauch, J.; Scoville, J. T.; Sharma, S. K.; Choksi, B.

2015-11-01

The neutral beam system is interesting in that it comprises two distinct low temperature plasmas. Firstly, the ion source is typically a filament or RF driven plasma from which ions are extracted by a high voltage accelerator grid system. Secondly the neutralizer is essentially a low temperature plasma system with the beam serving as the primary ionization source and the neutralizer walls serving as conducting boundaries. Atomic spectroscopy of Doppler shifted D-alpha light emanating from the fast atoms is studied to determine the composition of the source and the divergence of the beam. Molecular spectroscopy involves measuring fine structure in electron-vibrational rotational bands. The technique has applications in low temperature plasmas and here it is used to determine gas temperature in the neutralizer. We describe the experimental set-up and the physics model used to relate the spectroscopic data to the plasma parameters and we present results of recent experiments exploring how to increase neutralization efficiency. Supported by the US DOE under DE-FC02-04ER54698.

Method and apparatus for confinement of ions in the presence of a neutral gas

DOEpatents

Peurrung, Anthony J.; Barlow, Stephan E.

1999-01-01

The present invention is an apparatus and method for combining ions with a neutral gas and flowing the mixture with a radial flow component through a magnetic field so that the weakly ionized gas is confined by the neutral gas. When the weakly ionized gas is present in sufficient density, a weakly ionized non-neutral plasma is formed that may be trapped in accordance with the present invention. Applications for a weakly ionized non-neutral plasma exploit the trap's ability to store and manipulate ionic species in the presence of neutral gas. The trap may be connected to a mass spectrometer thereby permitting species identification after a fixed period of time. Delicate and/or heavy particles such as clusters may be held and studied in a "gentle" environment. In addition, the trap can provide a relatively intense, low-energy source of a particular ion species for surface implantation or molecular chemistry. Finally, a long trap may permit spectroscopy of unprecedented accuracy to be performed on ionic species.

A new deflection technique applied to an existing scheme of electrostatic accelerator for high energy neutral beam injection in fusion reactor devices

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pilan, N., E-mail: nicola.pilan@igi.cnr.it; Antoni, V.; De Lorenzi, A.

A scheme of a neutral beam injector (NBI), based on electrostatic acceleration and magneto-static deflection of negative ions, is proposed and analyzed in terms of feasibility and performance. The scheme is based on the deflection of a high energy (2 MeV) and high current (some tens of amperes) negative ion beam by a large magnetic deflector placed between the Beam Source (BS) and the neutralizer. This scheme has the potential of solving two key issues, which at present limit the applicability of a NBI to a fusion reactor: the maximum achievable acceleration voltage and the direct exposure of the BSmore » to the flux of neutrons and radiation coming from the fusion reactor. In order to solve these two issues, a magnetic deflector is proposed to screen the BS from direct exposure to radiation and neutrons so that the voltage insulation between the electrostatic accelerator and the grounded vessel can be enhanced by using compressed SF{sub 6} instead of vacuum so that the negative ions can be accelerated at energies higher than 1 MeV. By solving the beam transport with different magnetic deflector properties, an optimum scheme has been found which is shown to be effective to guarantee both the steering effect and the beam aiming.« less

A facility to study the particles released by ion sputtering process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Angelis, E.; di Lellis, A. M.; Vannaroni, G.; Orsini, S.; Mangano, V.; Milillo, A.; Massetti, S.; Mura, A.; Vertolli, N.

2007-08-01

Research on the planetary surface erosion and planetary evolution could be enriched with the detection of the escaping material, in terms of energy and direction, caused by ions sputtering. A complete study of emitted neutral distribution from which infers the processes occurring on the impacted surface requires dedicated instrumentation, tailored on the peculiarity on the low energy profile of the sputtered signal. We propose a comprehensive facility at INAF/IFSI in Rome intended to provide the opportunity to investigate the interaction of selectable ion beam with planetary analogues through the detection of sputtered neutral atoms. The laboratory is equipped with a high volume UHV chamber, ion selectable sources in the range 0 to 10 keV, a set of 3D sample/sensor orientation motion actuation motors down to 1/100 deg resolution. The laboratory will support a set of neutral sensor heads sets derived from the Emitted for Low Energetic Neutral Atoms (ELENA) instrument under development for the ESA BepiColombo Mercury mission able to detect neutral atoms (few eV-up to 5 keV).

Production of high-density highly-ionized helicon plasmas in the ProtoMPEX

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caneses, J. F.; Kafle, N.; Showers, M.; Goulding, R. H.; Biewer, T. M.; Caughman, J. B. O.; Bigelow, T.; Rapp, J.

2017-10-01

High-density (2-6e19 m-3) Deuterium helicon plasmas in the ProtoMPEX have been produced that successfully use differential pumping to produce neutral gas pressures suitable for testing the RF electron and ion heating concepts. To minimize collisional losses when heating electrons and ions, plasmas with very low neutral gas content (<< 0.1 Pa) in the heating sections are required. This requirement is typically not compatible with the neutral gas pressures (1-2 Pa) commonly used in high-density light-ion helicon sources. By using skimmers, a suitable gas injection scheme and long duration discharges (>0.3 s), high-density plasmas with very low neutral gas pressures (<< 0.1 Pa) in the RF heating sections have been produced. Measurements indicate the presence of a highly-ionized plasma column and that discharges lasting at least 0.3 s are required to significantly reduce the neutral gas pressure in the RF heating sections to levels suitable for investigating electron/ion RF heating concepts in this linear configuration. This work was supported by the US. D.O.E. contract DE-AC05-00OR22725.

A Strategy Combining Higher Energy C-Trap Dissociation with Neutral Loss- and Product Ion-Based MSn Acquisition for Global Profiling and Structure Annotation of Fatty Acids Conjugates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bi, Qi-rui; Hou, Jin-jun; Yang, Min; Shen, Yao; Qi, Peng; Feng, Rui-hong; Dai, Zhuo; Yan, Bing-peng; Wang, Jian-wei; Shi, Xiao-jian; Wu, Wan-ying; Guo, De-an

2017-03-01

Fatty acids conjugates (FACs) are ubiquitous but found in trace amounts in the natural world. They are composed of multiple unknown substructures and side chains. Thus, FACs are difficult to be analyzed by traditional mass spectrometric methods. In this study, an integrated strategy was developed to global profiling and targeted structure annotation of FACs in complex matrix by LTQ Orbitrap. Dicarboxylic acid conjugated bufotoxins (DACBs) in Venenum bufonis (VB) were used as model compounds. The new strategy (abbreviated as HPNA) combined higher-energy C-trap dissociation (HCD) with product ion- (PI), neutral loss- (NL) based MSn (n ≥ 3) acquisition in both positive-ion mode and negative-ion mode. Several advantages are presented. First, various side chains were found under HCD in negative-ion mode, which included both known and unknown side chains. Second, DACBs with multiple side chains were simultaneously detected in one run. Compared with traditional quadrupole-based mass method, it greatly increased analysis throughput. Third, the fragment ions of side chain and steroids substructure could be obtained by PI- and NL-based MSn acquisition, respectively, which greatly increased the accuracy of the structure annotation of DACBs. In all, 78 DACBs have been discovered, of which 68 were new compounds; 25 types of substructure formulas and seven dicarboxylic acid side chains were found, especially five new side chains, including two saturated dicarboxylic acids [(azelaic acid (C9) and sebacic acid (C10)] and three unsaturated dicarboxylic acids (u-C8, u-C9, and u-C10). All these results greatly enriched the structures of DACBs in VB.

Charged aerodynamics of a Low Earth Orbit cylinder

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Capon, C. J.; Brown, M.; Boyce, R. R.

2016-11-01

This work investigates the charged aerodynamic interaction of a Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) cylinder with the ionosphere. The ratio of charge to neutral drag force on a 2D LEO cylinder with diffusely reflecting cool walls is derived analytically and compared against self-consistent electrostatic Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations. Analytical calculations predict that neglecting charged drag in an O+ dominated LEO plasma with a neutral to ion number density ratio of 102 will cause a 10% over-prediction of O density based on body accelerations when body potential (ɸB) is ≤ -390 V. Above 900 km altitude in LEO, where H+ becomes the dominant ion species, analytical predictions suggest charge drag becomes equivalent to neutral drag for ɸB ≤ -0.75 V. Comparing analytical predictions against PIC simulations in the range of 0 < - ɸB < 50 V found that analytical charged drag was under-estimated for all body potentials; the degree of under-estimation increasing with ɸB. Based on the -50 V PIC simulations, our in-house 6 degree of freedom orbital propagator saw a reduction in the semi-major axis of a 10 kg satellite at 700 km of 6.9 m/day and 0.98 m/day at 900 km compared that caused purely by neutral drag - 0.67 m/day and 0.056 m/day respectively. Hence, this work provides initial evidence that charged aerodynamics may become significant compared to neutral aerodynamics for high voltage LEO bodies.

Specific features of measuring the isotopic composition of hydrogen ions in ITER plasma by using neutral particle diagnostics under neutral beam injection conditions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Afanasyev, V. I.; Goncharov, P. R., E-mail: p.goncharov@spbstu.ru; Mironov, M. I.

2015-12-15

Results of numerical simulation of signals from neutral particle analyzers under injection of the heating and diagnostic neutral beams in different operating modes of the ITER tokamak are presented. The distribution functions of fast ions in plasma are simulated, and the corresponding neutral particle fluxes escaping from the plasma along the line of sight of the analyzers are calculated. It is shown that the injection of heating deuterium (D{sup 0}) beams results in the appearance of an intense background signal hampering measurements of the ratio between the densities of deuterium and tritium fuel ions in plasma in the thermal energymore » range. The injection of a diagnostic hydrogen (H{sup 0}) beam does not affect measurements owing to the high mass resolution of the analyzers.« less

Fusion proton diagnostic for the C-2 field reversed configurationa)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Magee, R. M.; Clary, R.; Korepanov, S.; Smirnov, A.; Garate, E.; Knapp, K.; Tkachev, A.

2014-11-01

Measurements of the flux of fusion products from high temperature plasmas provide valuable insights into the ion energy distribution, as the fusion reaction rate is a very sensitive function of ion energy. In C-2, where field reversed configuration plasmas are formed by the collision of two compact toroids and partially sustained by high power neutral beam injection [M. Binderbauer et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 045003 (2010); M. Tuszewski et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 255008 (2012)], measurements of DD fusion neutron flux are used to diagnose ion temperature and study fast ion confinement and dynamics. In this paper, we will describe the development of a new 3 MeV proton detector that will complement existing neutron detectors. The detector is a large area (50 cm2), partially depleted, ion implanted silicon diode operated in a pulse counting regime. While the scintillator-based neutron detectors allow for high time resolution measurements (˜100 kHz), they have no spatial or energy resolution. The proton detector will provide 10 cm spatial resolution, allowing us to determine if the axial distribution of fast ions is consistent with classical fast ion theory or whether anomalous scattering mechanisms are active. We will describe in detail the diagnostic design and present initial data from a neutral beam test chamber.

ASYMMETRIC MAGNETIC RECONNECTION IN WEAKLY IONIZED CHROMOSPHERIC PLASMAS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Murphy, Nicholas A.; Lukin, Vyacheslav S., E-mail: namurphy@cfa.harvard.edu

2015-06-01

Realistic models of magnetic reconnection in the solar chromosphere must take into account that the plasma is partially ionized and that plasma conditions within any two magnetic flux bundles undergoing reconnection may not be the same. Asymmetric reconnection in the chromosphere may occur when newly emerged flux interacts with pre-existing, overlying flux. We present 2.5D simulations of asymmetric reconnection in weakly ionized, reacting plasmas where the magnetic field strengths, ion and neutral densities, and temperatures are different in each upstream region. The plasma and neutral components are evolved separately to allow non-equilibrium ionization. As in previous simulations of chromospheric reconnection,more » the current sheet thins to the scale of the neutral–ion mean free path and the ion and neutral outflows are strongly coupled. However, the ion and neutral inflows are asymmetrically decoupled. In cases with magnetic asymmetry, a net flow of neutrals through the current sheet from the weak-field (high-density) upstream region into the strong-field upstream region results from a neutral pressure gradient. Consequently, neutrals dragged along with the outflow are more likely to originate from the weak-field region. The Hall effect leads to the development of a characteristic quadrupole magnetic field modified by asymmetry, but the X-point geometry expected during Hall reconnection does not occur. All simulations show the development of plasmoids after an initial laminar phase.« less

NEXT Long-Duration Test Neutralizer Performance and Erosion Characteristics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herman, Daniel A.; Soulas, George C.; Patterson, Michael J.

2009-01-01

The NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) program is developing the next-generation ion propulsion system with significant enhancements beyond the state-of-the-art to provide future NASA science missions with enhanced capabilities at a low total development cost. A Long-Duration Test (LDT) was initiated in June 2005, to verify the NEXT propellant throughput capability to a qualification-level of 450 kg, 1.5 times the anticipated throughput requirement of 300 kg per thruster based on mission analyses. As of September 2, 2009, the thruster has accumulated 24,400 hr of operation with extensive durations at the following input powers: 6.9, 4.7, 1.1, and 0.5 kW. The thruster has processed 434 kg of xenon, surpassing the NASA Solar Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR) program thruster propellant throughput demonstrated during the extended life testing of the Deep Space 1 flight spare ion thruster and approaching the NEXT development qualification throughput goal of 450 kg. The NEXT LDT has demonstrated a total impulse of 16.1 10(exp 6zzz0 N s; the highest total impulse ever demonstrated by an ion thruster. A reduction in neutralizer flow margin has been the only appreciable source of thruster performance degradation. The behavior of the neutralizer is not easily predicted due to both erosion and deposition observed in previous wear tests. Spot-to-plume mode transition flow data and in-situ erosion results for the LDT neutralizer are discussed. This loss of flow margin has been addressed through a combination of a design change in the prototype-model neutralizer to increase flow margin at low emission current and to update the NEXT throttle table to ensure adequate flow margin as a function of propellant throughput processed. The new throttle table will be used for future LDT operations. The performance of the NEXT LDT neutralizer is consistent with that observed for long-life hollow cathodes. The neutralizer life-limiting failure modes are progressing as expected and the neutralizer data indicate none of the neutralizer failures are imminent.

Comparison of Measurement And Modeling Of Current Profile Changes Due To Neutral Bean Ion Redistribution During TAE Avalanches in NSTX

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Darrow, Douglas

Brief "avalanches" of toroidal Alfven eigenmodes (TAEs) are observed in NSTX plasmas with several different n numbers simultaneously present. These affect the neutral beam ion distribution as evidenced by a concurrent drop in the neutron rate and, sometimes, beam ion loss. Guiding center orbit modeling has shown that the modes can transiently render portions of the beam ion phase space stochastic. The resulting redistribution of beam ions can also create a broader beam-driven current profile and produce other changes in the beam ion distribution function

Negative ion MALDI-TOF MS, ISD and PSD of neutral underivatized oligosaccharides without anionic dopant strategies, using 2,5-DHAP as a matrix.

PubMed

Jovanović, Marko; Peter-Katalinić, Jasna

2016-02-01

Oligosaccharides represent complex class of analytes for mass spectrometric analysis due to the high variety of structural isomers concerning glycosidic linkages and possible branching. A systematic study of the negative ion mode matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry of various neutral oligosaccharides under selection of an appropriate matrix, like 2,5-dihydroxyacetophenone (2,5-DHAP) is reported here, without commonly used anion dopant strategies. Nevertheless, we were able to generate relevant in-source decay (ISD) cross-ring fragment ions, typically obtained in the negative ion mode. Data observed indicate that the intrinsic property of the terminal non-reduced aldose is crucial for this behavior. A systematic study of the post source decay (PSD) of molecular, pseudomolecular and ISD cross-ring cleavage precursor ions is reported here. A direct comparison of the positive and negative ion mode MALDI MS1 and PSD behavior of neutral oligosaccharides could also be performed under the use of the same matrix preparation, because 2,5-DHAP is fully compatible with positive ion mode acquisition. We found that PSD spectra of deprotonated neutral oligosaccharides obtained in the negative ion mode are richer, because they contained both glycosidic and cross-ring fragment ions. However, we also found that cross-ring fragment ions are readily produced in the positive ion mode when potassiated precursor ions were selected. In addition, we show evidence that non-anionic dopants and specific instrumental parameters can also significantly influence the ISD fragmentation. Taken together, our results should increase our understanding of oligosaccharide behavior in the negative ion mode as well as increase our knowledge regarding many aspects of in-source MALDI chemistry. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PULSED ION SOURCE

DOEpatents

Anderson, C.E.; Ehlers, K.W.

1958-06-17

An ion source is described for producing very short high density pulses of ions without bcam scattering. The ions are created by an oscillating electron discharge within a magnetic field. After the ions are drawn from the ionization chamber by an accelerating electrode the ion beam is under the influence of the magnetic field for separation of the ions according to mass and, at the same time, passes between two neutralizing plntes maintained nt equal negative potentials. As the plates are formed of a material having a high ratio of secondary electrons to impinging ions, the ion bombardment of the plntes emits electrons which neutralize the frirge space-charge of the beam and tend to prevent widening of the beam cross section due to the mutual repulsion of the ions.

Positive and negative ion beam merging system for neutral beam production

DOEpatents

Leung, Ka-Ngo; Reijonen, Jani

2005-12-13

The positive and negative ion beam merging system extracts positive and negative ions of the same species and of the same energy from two separate ion sources. The positive and negative ions from both sources pass through a bending magnetic field region between the pole faces of an electromagnet. Since the positive and negative ions come from mirror image positions on opposite sides of a beam axis, and the positive and negative ions are identical, the trajectories will be symmetrical and the positive and negative ion beams will merge into a single neutral beam as they leave the pole face of the electromagnet. The ion sources are preferably multicusp plasma ion sources. The ion sources may include a multi-aperture extraction system for increasing ion current from the sources.

Simulations of space charge neutralization in a magnetized electron cooler

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gerity, James; McIntyre, Peter M.; Bruhwiler, David Leslie

Magnetized electron cooling at relativistic energies and Ampere scale current is essential to achieve the proposed ion luminosities in a future electron-ion collider (EIC). Neutralization of the space charge in such a cooler can significantly increase the magnetized dynamic friction and, hence, the cooling rate. The Warp framework is being used to simulate magnetized electron beam dynamics during and after the build-up of neutralizing ions, via ionization of residual gas in the cooler. The design follows previous experiments at Fermilab as a verification case. We also discuss the relevance to EIC designs.

Continuous wave cavity ring-down spectroscopy for velocity distribution measurements in plasma.

PubMed

McCarren, D; Scime, E

2015-10-01

We report the development of a continuous wave cavity ring-down spectroscopic (CW-CRDS) diagnostic for real-time, in situ measurement of velocity distribution functions of ions and neutral atoms in plasma. This apparatus is less complex than conventional CW-CRDS systems. We provide a detailed description of the CW-CRDS apparatus as well as measurements of argon ions and neutrals in a high-density (10(9) cm(-3) < plasma density <10(13) cm(-3)) plasma. The CW-CRDS measurements are validated through comparison with laser induced fluorescence measurements of the same absorbing states of the ions and neutrals.

Ion current in a magnetic neutral region - Generation of an incipient magnetopause

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whipple, E. C.; Silevitch, M. B.

1982-01-01

The current contributed by ions trapped in the vicinity of a magnetic X line is calculated. The three dimensional configuration of the neutral region is found to be critical in determining the current in that the escape mechanism and trapping times depend on the three-dimensional aspects. A trapping criterion is defined. In the neutral region the ions can gain substantial kinetic energy, and the current will change the X line configuration in such a way that there will be a positive feedback effect, rapidly forming an extended magnetopauselike structure for even very small incident plasma densities.

Strong-field Photoionization of Sputtered Neutral Molecules for Molecular Depth Profiling

PubMed Central

Willingham, D; Brenes, D. A.; Wucher, A

2009-01-01

Molecular depth profiles of an organic thin film of guanine vapor deposited onto a Ag substrate are obtained using a 40 keV C60 cluster ion beam in conjunction with time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometric (ToF-SIMS) detection. Strong-field, femtosecond photoionization of intact guanine molecules is used to probe the neutral component of the profile for direct comparison with the secondary ion component. The ability to simultaneously acquire secondary ions and photoionized neutral molecules reveals new fundamental information about the factors that influence the properties of the depth profile. Results show that there is an increased ionization probability for protonated molecular ions within the first 10 nm due to the generation of free protons within the sample. Moreover, there is a 50% increase in fragment ion signal relative to steady state values 25 nm before reaching the guanine/Ag interface as a result of interfacial chemical damage accumulation. An altered layer thickness of 20 nm is observed as a consequence of ion beam induced chemical mixing. In general, we show that the neutral component of a molecular depth profile using the strong-field photoionization technique can be used to elucidate the effects of variations in ionization probability on the yield of molecular ions as well as to aid in obtaining accurate information about depth dependent chemical composition that cannot be extracted from TOF-SIMS data alone. PMID:20495665

Negatively Charged Hydrogen Production in a Multicusp Microwave Plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trow, John Robert

1985-06-01

High energy neutral beams are necessary for the continued development of magnetically confined fusion plasma devices. Neutral beams based on positive ions are not efficient at beam energies of 100 keV or above, however negative ion based neutral beam systems are efficient, even at high beam energies. Volume production of H('-) has many advantages over the other methods, chiefly: simplicity of design and operation, and no need for alkalai metals. Since volume production requires a low electron temperature ((TURN)1 eV) but also requires molecular intermediates only formed by more energetic electrons (>20 eV), double plasma devices with a separate hot electron region are desirable. Therefore an experiment was undertaken to examine H('-) production by volume processes in a multicusp microwave discharge, part of the cusp field being enhanced to produce an ECR (electron cyclotron resonance), that would also isolate the hotter plasma formed there. This arrangement is analogous to the "magnetic filters" used in some other negative ion sources. This work describes the experiment set up and the results obtained, which are a survey of the behavior of this type of device. Also included is a discussion of the volume processes associated with H('-) production including numerical estimates, based on the experimental measurements, which indicate H('-) production is by dissociative attachment of cold electrons to vibrationally excited hydrogen molecules, and loss is by mutual neutralization with positive ions. The experimental observations are consistent with this model. These are also the same mechanisms used in the models of Bacal and Hiskes. Since magnetic fields generated by samarium cobalt permanent magnets were an important part of this experiment a set of field calculations was undertaken and is included here as a separate chapter. This device is shown to be a viable scheme of H('-) (or D('-)) produc- tion and is worthy of further development. There are several more. quantities which still need to be measured listed in the conclusion, along with suggested improvements. *This work was supported by the Director, Office of Energy Research, Office of Fusion Energy, Development & Technology Division of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.

3D measurements and simulations of ion and neutral velocity distribution functions in a magnetized plasma boundary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thompson, Derek S.; Keniley, Shane; Curreli, Davide; Henriquez, Miguel F.; Caron, David D.; Jemiolo, Andrew J.; McLaughlin, Jacob W.; Dufor, Mikal T.; Neal, Luke A.; Scime, Earl E.; Siddiqui, M. Umair

2017-10-01

We present progress toward the first paired 3D laser induced fluorescence measurements of ion and neutral velocity distribution functions (I/NVDFs) in a magnetized plasma boundary. These measurements are performed in the presheath region of an absorbing boundary immersed in a background magnetic field that is obliquely incident to the boundary surface (ψ =74°). Parallel and perpendicular flow measurements demonstrate that cross-field ion flows occur and that ions within several gyro-radii of the surface are accelerated in the E-> × B-> direction. We present electrostatic probe measurements of electron temperature, plasma density, and electric potential in the same region. Ion, neutral and electron measurements are compared to Boltzmann simulations, allowing direct comparison between measured and theoretical distribution functions in the boundary region. NSF PHYS 1360278.

Flow stagnation at Enceladus: The effects of neutral gas and charged dust

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Omidi, N.; Tokar, R. L.; Averkamp, T.; Gurnett, D. A.; Kurth, W. S.; Wang, Z.

2012-06-01

Enceladus is one of Saturn's most active moons. It ejects neutral gas and dust particles from its southern plumes with velocities of hundreds of meters per second. The interaction between the ejected material and the corotating plasma in Saturn's magnetosphere leads to flow deceleration in ways that remain to be understood. The most effective mechanism for the interaction between the corotating plasma and the neutral gas is charge exchange which replaces the hotter corotating ions with nearly stationary cold ions that are subsequently accelerated by the motional electric field. Dust particles in the plume can become electrically charged through electron absorption and couple to the plasma through the motional electric field. The objective of this study is to determine the level of flow deceleration associated with each of these processes using Cassini RPWS dust impact rates, Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) plasma data, and 3-D electromagnetic hybrid (kinetic ions, fluid electrons) simulations. Hybrid simulations show that the degree of flow deceleration by charged dust varies considerably with the spatial distribution of dust particles. Based on the RPWS observations of dust impacts during the E7 Cassini flyby of Enceladus, we have constructed a dust model consisting of multiple plumes. Using this model in the hybrid simulation shows that when the dust density is high enough for complete absorption of electrons at the point of maximum dust density, the corotating flow is decelerated by only a few km/s. This is not sufficient to account for the CAPS observation of flow stagnation in the interaction region. On the other hand, charge exchange with neutral gas plumes similar to the modeled dust plumes but with base (plume opening) densities of ˜109 cm-3 result in flow deceleration similar to that observed by CAPS. The results indicate that charge exchange with neutral gas is the dominant mechanism for flow deceleration at Enceladus.

Measurement and Simulation of First-Orbit Fast-Ion D-Alpha Emission and the Application to Fast-Ion Loss Detection in the DIII-D Tokamak

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolte, Nathan; Heidbrink, W. W.; Pace, D. C.; van Zeeland, M. A.; Chen, X.

2015-11-01

A new fast-ion diagnostic method uses passive emission of D-alpha radiation to determine fast-ion losses quantitatively. The passive fast-ion D-alpha simulation (P-FIDAsim) forward models the Doppler-shifted spectra of first-orbit fast ions that charge exchange with edge neutrals. Simulated spectra are up to 80 % correlated with experimental spectra. Calibrated spectra are used to estimate the 2D neutral density profile by inverting simulated spectra. The inferred neutral density shows the expected increase toward each x-point and an average value of 8 × 10 9 cm-3 at the plasma boundary and 1 × 10 11 cm-3 near the wall. Measuring and simulating first-orbit spectra effectively ``calibrates'' the system, allowing for the quantification of more general fast-ion losses. Sawtooth crashes are estimated to eject 1.2 % of the fast-ion inventory, in good agreement with a 1.7 % loss estimate made by TRANSP. Sightlines sensitive to passing ions observe larger sawtooth losses than sightlines sensitive to trapped ions. Supported by US DOE under SC-G903402, DE-FC02-04ER54698.

A Monte Carlo simulation of the effect of ion self-collisions on the ion velocity distribution function in the high-latitude F-region

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Barghouthi, I. A.; Barakat, A. R.; Schunk, R. W.

1994-01-01

Non-Maxwellian ion velocity distribution functions have been theoretically predicted and confirmed by observations, to occur at high latitudes. These distributions deviate from Maxwellian due to the combined effect of the E x B drift and ion-neutral collisions. At high altitude and/or for solar maximum conditions, the ion-to-neutral density ratio increases and, hence, the role of ion self-collisions becomes appreciable. A Monte Carlo simulation was used to investigate the behavior of O(+) ions that are E x B-drifting through a background of neutral O, with the effect of O(+) (Coulomb) self-collisions included. Wide ranges of the ion-to-neutral density ratio n(sub i)/n(sub n) and the electrostatic field E were considered in order to investigate the change of ion behavior with solar cycle and with altitude. For low altitudes and/or solar minimum (n(sub i)/n(sub n) less than or equal to 10(exp -5)), the effect of self-collisions is negligible. For higher values of n(sub i)/n(sub n), the effect of self-collisions becomes significant and, hence, the non-Maxwellian features of the O(+) distribution are reduced. The Monte Carlo results were compared to those that used simplified collision models in order to assess their validity. In general, the simple collision models tend to be more accurate for low E and for high n(sub i)/n(sub n).

Increasing positive ion number densities below the peak of ion-electron pair production in Titan's ionosphere

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vigren, E.; Galand, M.; Shebanits, O.

2014-05-01

We combine derived ion-electron pair formation rates with Cassini Radio Plasma Wave Science Langmuir Probe measurements of electron and positive ion number densities in Titan's sunlit ionosphere. We show that positive ion number densities in Titan's sunlit ionosphere can increase toward significantly lower altitudes than the peak of ion-electron pair formation despite that the effective ion-electron recombination coefficient increases. This is explained by the increased mixing ratios of negative ions, which are formed by electron attachment to neutrals. While such a process acts as a sink for free electrons, the positive ions become longer-lived as the rate coefficients for ion-anionmore » neutralization reactions are smaller than those for ion-electron dissociative recombination reactions.« less

New ion source for KSTAR neutral beam injection system.

PubMed

Kim, Tae-Seong; Jeong, Seung Ho; In, Sang-Ryul

2012-02-01

The neutral beam injection system (NBI-1) of the KSTAR tokamak can accommodate three ion sources; however, it is currently equipped with only one prototype ion source. In the 2010 and 2011 KSTAR campaigns, this ion source supplied deuterium neutral beam power of 0.7-1.6 MW to the KSTAR plasma with a beam energy of 70-100 keV. A new ion source will be prepared for the 2012 KSTAR campaign with a much advanced performance compared with the previous one. The newly designed ion source has a very large transparency (∼56%) without deteriorating the beam optics, which is designed to deliver a 2 MW injection power of deuterium beams at 100 keV. The plasma generator of the ion source is of a horizontally cusped bucket type, and the whole inner wall, except the cathode filaments and plasma grid side, functions as an anode. The accelerator assembly consists of four multi-circular aperture grids made of copper and four electrode flanges made of aluminum alloy. The electrodes are insulated using PEEK. The ion source will be completed and tested in 2011.

Laboratory Studies of Thermal Energy Charge Transfer of Multiply Charged Ions in Astrophysical Plasmas

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kwong, Victor H. S.

2003-01-01

The laser ablation/ion storage facility at the UNLV Physics Department has been dedicated to the study of atomic and molecular processes in low temperature plasmas. Our program focuses on the charge transfer (electron capture) of multiply charged ions and neutrals important in astrophysics. The electron transfer reactions with atoms and molecules is crucial to the ionization condition of neutral rich photoionized plasmas. With the successful deployment of the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) and the Chandra X-ray Observatory by NASA high resolution VUV and X-ray emission spectra fiom various astrophysical objects have been collected. These spectra will be analyzed to determine the source of the emission and the chemical and physical environment of the source. The proper interpretation of these spectra will require complete knowledge of all the atomic processes in these plasmas. In a neutral rich environment, charge transfer can be the dominant process. The rate coefficients need to be known accurately. We have also extended our charge transfer measurements to KeV region with a pulsed ion beam. The inclusion of this facility into our current program provides flexibility in extending the measurement to higher energies (KeV) if needed. This flexibility enables us to address issues of immediate interest to the astrophysical community as new observations are made by high resolution space based observatories.

TRIO (Triplet Ionospheric Observatory) Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, D.; Seon, J.; Jin, H.; Kim, K.; Lee, J.; Jang, M.; Pak, S.; Kim, K.; Lin, R. P.; Parks, G. K.; Halekas, J. S.; Larson, D. E.; Eastwood, J. P.; Roelof, E. C.; Horbury, T. S.

2009-12-01

Triplets of identical cubesats will be built to carry out the following scientific objectives: i) multi-observations of ionospheric ENA (Energetic Neutral Atom) imaging, ii) ionospheric signature of suprathermal electrons and ions associated with auroral acceleration as well as electron microbursts, and iii) complementary measurements of magnetic fields for particle data. Each satellite, a cubesat for ion, neutral, electron, and magnetic fields (CINEMA), is equipped with a suprathermal electron, ion, neutral (STEIN) instrument and a 3-axis magnetometer of magnetoresistive sensors. TRIO is developed by three institutes: i) two CINEMA by Kyung Hee University (KHU) under the WCU program, ii) one CINEMA by UC Berkeley under the NSF support, and iii) three magnetometers by Imperial College, respectively. Multi-spacecraft observations in the STEIN instruments will provide i) stereo ENA imaging with a wide angle in local times, which are sensitive to the evolution of ring current phase space distributions, ii) suprathermal electron measurements with narrow spacings, which reveal the differential signature of accelerated electrons driven by Alfven waves and/or double layer formation in the ionosphere between the acceleration region and the aurora, and iii) suprathermal ion precipitation when the storm-time ring current appears. In addition, multi-spacecraft magnetic field measurements in low earth orbits will allow the tracking of the phase fronts of ULF waves, FTEs, and quasi-periodic reconnection events between ground-based magnetometer data and upstream satellite data.

Ion-neutral Clustering of Bile Acids in Electrospray Ionization Across UPLC Flow Regimes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brophy, Patrick; Broeckling, Corey D.; Murphy, James; Prenni, Jessica E.

2018-02-01

Bile acid authentic standards were used as model compounds to quantitatively evaluate complex in-source phenomenon on a UPLC-ESI-TOF-MS operated in the negative mode. Three different diameter columns and a ceramic-based microfluidic separation device were utilized, allowing for detailed descriptions of bile acid behavior across a wide range of flow regimes and instantaneous concentrations. A custom processing algorithm based on correlation analysis was developed to group together all ion signals arising from a single compound; these grouped signals produce verified compound spectra for each bile acid at each on-column mass loading. Significant adduction was observed for all bile acids investigated under all flow regimes and across a wide range of bile acid concentrations. The distribution of bile acid containing clusters was found to depend on the specific bile acid species, solvent flow rate, and bile acid concentration. Relative abundancies of each cluster changed non-linearly with concentration. It was found that summing all MS level (low collisional energy) ions and ion-neutral adducts arising from a single compound improves linearity across the concentration range (0.125-5 ng on column) and increases the sensitivity of MS level quantification. The behavior of each cluster roughly follows simple equilibrium processes consistent with our understanding of electrospray ionization mechanisms and ion transport processes occurring in atmospheric pressure interfaces. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Dust dynamics and diagnostic applications in quasi-neutral plasmas and magnetic fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Zhehui; Ticos, Catalin M.; Si, Jiahe; Delzanno, Gian Luca; Lapenta, Gianni; Wurden, Glen

2007-11-01

Little is known about dust dynamics in highly ionized quasi-neutral plasmas with ca. 1.0 e+20 per cubic meter density and ion temperature at a few eV and above, including in magnetic fusion. For example, dust motion in fusion, better known as UFO's, has been observed since 1980's but not explained. Solid understanding of dust dynamics is also important to International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) because of concerns about safety and dust contamination of fusion core. Compared with well studied strongly-coupled dusty plasma regime, new physics may arise in the higher density quasi-neutral plasma regime because of at least four orders of magnitude higher density and two orders of magnitude hotter ion temperature. Our recent laboratory experiments showed that plasma-flow drag force dominates over other forces in a quasi-neutral flowing plasma. In contrast, delicate balance among different forces in dusty plasma has led to many unique phenomena, in particular, the formation of dust crystal. Based on our experiments, we argue that 1) dust crystal will not form in the highly ionized plasmas with flows; 2) the UFO's are moving dust dragged by plasma flows; 3) dust can be used to measure plasma flow. Two diagnostic applications using dust for laboratory quasi-neutral plasmas and magnetic fusion will also be presented.

Production of Neutral Beams from Negative Ion Beam Systems in the USSR

DTIC Science & Technology

1982-12-01

research is to produce long-pulse and CW high-energy neutral beams. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory ( ORNL ) has been concentrating on the direct extraction...next generation of mirror devices [1II. ORNL is using a cesium converter to produce negative ions from low-energy positive ions from a duopigatron ion...with Formation of Highly Excited Hydrogen Atoms," ZhTF, Vol. 36, No. 7, 1966, p. 1241 . 107. Kartashev, K. B., V. I. Pistunovich, V. V. Platonov, V. D

Edge momentum transport by neutrals: an interpretive numerical framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Omotani, J. T.; Newton, S. L.; Pusztai, I.; Viezzer, E.; Fülöp, T.; The ASDEX Upgrade Team

2017-06-01

Due to their high cross-field mobility, neutrals can contribute to momentum transport even at the low relative densities found inside the separatrix and they can generate intrinsic rotation. We use a charge-exchange dominated solution to the neutral kinetic equation, coupled to neoclassical ions, to evaluate the momentum transport due to neutrals. Numerical solutions to the drift-kinetic equation allow us to cover the full range of collisionality, including the intermediate levels typical of the tokamak edge. In the edge there are several processes likely to contribute to momentum transport in addition to neutrals. Therefore, we present here an interpretive framework that can evaluate the momentum transport through neutrals based on radial plasma profiles. We demonstrate its application by analysing the neutral angular momentum flux for an L-mode discharge in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak. The magnitudes of the angular momentum fluxes we find here due to neutrals of 0.6-2 \\text{N} \\text{m} are comparable to the net torque on the plasma from neutral beam injection, indicating the importance of neutrals for rotation in the edge.

The impact of exospheric neutral dynamics on ring current decay

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ilie, R.; Liemohn, M. W.; Skoug, R. M.; Funsten, H. O.; Gruntman, M.; Bailey, J. J.; Toth, G.

2015-12-01

The geocorona plays an important role in the energy budget of the Earth's inner magnetosphere since charge exchange of energetic ions with exospheric neutrals makes the exosphere act as an energy sink for ring current particles. Long-term ring current decay following a magnetic storm is mainly due to these electron transfer reactions, leading to the formation energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) that leave the ring current system on ballistic trajectories. The number of ENAs emitted from a given region of space depends on several factors, such as the energy and species of the energetic ion population in that region and the density of the neutral gas with which the ions undergo charge exchange. However, the density and structure of the exosphere are strongly dependent on changes in atmospheric temperature and density as well as charge exchange with the ions of plasmaspheric origin, which depletes the geocorona (by having a neutral removed from the system). Moreover, the radiation pressure exerted by solar far-ultraviolet photons pushes the geocoronal hydrogen away from the Earth in an anti-sunward direction to form a tail of neutral hydrogen. TWINS ENA images provide a direct measurement of these ENA losses and therefore insight into the dynamics of the ring current decay through interactions with the geocorona. We assess the influence of geocoronal neutrals on ring current formation and decay by analysis of the predicted ENA emissions using 6 different geocoronal models and simulations from the HEIDI ring current model during storm time. Comparison with TWINS ENA images shows that the location of the peak ENA enhancements is highly dependent on the distribution of geocoronal hydrogen density. We show that the neutral dynamics has a strong influence on the time evolution of the ring current populations as well as on the formation of energetic neutral atoms.

Diurnal variations of Titan's ionosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cui, J.; Galand, M.; Yelle, R. V.; Vuitton, V.; Wahlund, J.-E.; Lavvas, P. P.; Müller-Wodarg, I. C. F.; Cravens, T. E.; Kasprzak, W. T.; Waite, J. H.

2009-06-01

We present our analysis of the diurnal variations of Titan's ionosphere (between 1000 and 1300 km) based on a sample of Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) measurements in the Open Source Ion (OSI) mode obtained from eight close encounters of the Cassini spacecraft with Titan. Although there is an overall ion depletion well beyond the terminator, the ion content on Titan's nightside is still appreciable, with a density plateau of ˜700 cm-3 below ˜1300 km. Such a plateau is a combined result of significant depletion of light ions and modest depletion of heavy ones on Titan's nightside. We propose that the distinctions between the diurnal variations of light and heavy ions are associated with their different chemical loss pathways, with the former primarily through “fast” ion-neutral chemistry and the latter through “slow” electron dissociative recombination. The strong correlation between the observed night-to-day ion density ratios and the associated ion lifetimes suggests a scenario in which the ions created on Titan's dayside may survive well to the nightside. The observed asymmetry between the dawn and dusk ion density profiles also supports such an interpretation. We construct a time-dependent ion chemistry model to investigate the effect of ion survival associated with solid body rotation alone as well as superrotating horizontal winds. For long-lived ions, the predicted diurnal variations have similar general characteristics to those observed. However, for short-lived ions, the model densities on the nightside are significantly lower than the observed values. This implies that electron precipitation from Saturn's magnetosphere may be an additional and important contributor to the densities of the short-lived ions observed on Titan's nightside.

Gas-Phase Oxidation of Neutral Basic Residues in Polypeptide Cations by Periodate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pilo, Alice L.; Bu, Jiexun; McLuckey, Scott A.

2016-12-01

The gas-phase oxidation of doubly protonated peptides containing neutral basic residues to various products, including [M + H + O]+, [M - H]+, and [M - H - NH3]+, is demonstrated here via ion/ion reactions with periodate. It was previously demonstrated that periodate anions are capable of oxidizing disulfide bonds and methionine, tryptophan, and S-alkyl cysteine residues. However, in the absence of these easily oxidized sites, we show here that systems containing neutral basic residues can undergo oxidation. Furthermore, we show that these neutral basic residues primarily undergo different types of oxidation (e.g., hydrogen abstraction) reactions than those observed previously (i.e., oxygen transfer to yield the [M + H + O]+ species) upon gas-phase ion/ion reactions with periodate anions. This chemistry is illustrated with a variety of systems, including a series of model peptides, a cell-penetrating peptide containing a large number of unprotonated basic sites, and ubiquitin, a roughly 8.6 kDa protein.

Measurement of fast minority /sub 3/He/sup + +/ energy distribution during ICRF heating

DOEpatents

Post, D.E. Jr.; Grisham, L.R.; Medley, S.S.

A method and means for measuring the fast /sub 3/He/sup + +/ distribution during /sub 3/He/sup + +/ minority Ion Cyclotron Resonance Frequency (ICRF) heating is disclosed. The present invention involves the use of 10 to 100 keV beams of neutral helium atoms to neutralize the fast /sub 3/He/sup + +/ ions in a heated plasma by double charge exchange (/sub 3/He/sup + +/ + /sub 4/He/sup 0/ ..-->.. /sub 3/He/sup 0/ + /sub 4/He/sup + +/). The neutralized fast /sub 3/He/sup 0/ atoms then escape from the hot plasma confined by a magnetic field and are detected by conventional neutral particle analyzing means. This technique permits the effectiveness of the coupling of the ion cyclotron waves to the /sub 3/He/sup + +/ minority ions to be accurately measured. The present invention is particularly adapted for use in evaluating the effectiveness of the intermediate coupling between the RF heating and the /sub 3/He/sup + +/ in an energetic toroidal plasma.

The Phobos neutral and ionized torus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Poppe, A. R.; Curry, S. M.; Fatemi, S.

2016-05-01

Charged particle sputtering, micrometeoroid impact vaporization, and photon-stimulated desorption are fundamental processes operating at airless surfaces throughout the solar system. At larger bodies, such as Earth's Moon and several of the outer planet moons, these processes generate tenuous surface-bound exospheres that have been observed by a variety of methods. Phobos and Deimos, in contrast, are too gravitationally weak to keep ejected neutrals bound and, thus, are suspected to generate neutral tori in orbit around Mars. While these tori have not yet been detected, the distribution and density of both the neutral and ionized components are of fundamental interest. We combine a neutral Monte Carlo model and a hybrid plasma model to investigate both the neutral and ionized components of the Phobos torus. We show that the spatial distribution of the neutral torus is highly dependent on each individual species (due to ionization rates that span nearly 4 orders of magnitude) and on the location of Phobos with respect to Mars. Additionally, we present the flux distribution of torus pickup ions throughout the Martian system and estimate typical pickup ion fluxes. We find that the predicted pickup ion fluxes are too low to perturb the ambient plasma, consistent with previous null detections by spacecraft around Mars.

High mass resolution isochronous time-of-flight spectrograph for three-dimensional space plasma measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moebius, E.; Bochsler, P.; Ghielmetti, A. G.; Hamilton, D. C.

1990-01-01

By combining a toroidal electrostatic analyzer with a novel cylindrically symmetric isochronous time-of-flight mass spectrometer, an instrument was developed that simultaneously determines the three-dimensional distribution function of ions and differentiates species. The ion mass is determined to high resolution (M/Delta-M greater than 50) from the time of flight within a harmonic field configuration defined by hyperboloid equipotential surfaces. A second conventional time-of-flight channel makes use of particles leaving the thin entrance foil as neutrals. An additional solid state detector in which the neutrals are stopped allows the total energy and thereby the ionic charge of the incident ions to be determined as well. Information from the neutral and the ion channels can be combined to determine the total mass of an incident molecular ion and the mass of one atomic fragment.

Metabolism and bioactivation of the tricyclic antidepressant amitriptyline in human liver microsomes and human urine.

PubMed

Zhou, Xin; Chen, Chang; Zhang, Fangrong; Zhang, Yang; Feng, Yuling; Ouyang, Hui; Xu, Yong; Jiang, Hongliang

2016-07-01

Amitriptyline is a widely used tricyclic antidepressant, but the metabolic studies were conducted almost 20 years ago using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with ultraviolet detector or radiolabeled methods. First, multiple ion monitoring (MIM)- enhanced product ion (EPI) scan was used to obtain the diagnostic ions or neutral losses in human liver microsome incubations with amitriptyline. Subsequently, predicted multiple reaction monitoring (MRM)-EPI scan was used to identify the metabolites in human urine with the diagnostic ions or neutral losses. Finally, product ion filtering and neutral loss filtering were used as the data mining tools to screen metabolites. Consequently, a total of 28 metabolites were identified in human urine after an oral administration using LC-MS/MS. An integrated workflow using LC-MS/MS was developed to comprehensively profile the metabolites of amitriptyline in human urine, in which five N-acetyl-l-cysteine conjugates were characterized as tentative biomarkers for idiosyncratic toxicity.

Parametric scaling of neutral and ion excited state densities in an argon helicon source

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCarren, D.; Scime, E.

2016-04-01

We report measurements of the absolute density and temperature of ion and neutral excited states in an argon helicon source. The excited ion state density, which depends on ion density, electron density, and electron temperature, increases sharply with increasing magnetic field in the source. The neutral argon metastable density measurements are consistent with an increasing ionization fraction with increasing magnetic field strength. The ion temperature shows no evidence of increased heating with increasing magnetic field strength (which has only been observed in helicon sources operating at driving frequencies close to the lower hybrid frequency). The measurements were obtained through cavity ring down spectroscopy, a measurement technique that does not require the target excited state to be metastable or part of a fluorescence scheme; and is therefore applicable to any laser accessible atomic or ionic transition in a plasma.

High-Voltage, High-Impedance Ion Beam Production

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-06-01

the anode tube with a loosely-crumpled, thin aluminized- mylar foil. This spoils the virtual cathode and greatly reduces the neutron signal, as seen...ions follow ballistic (straight-line) trajectories in the drift tube (see Sec. VIII), then (except for the small displacement associated with bending...mTorr) ambient in the drift tube . Based on our previous experience, we would expect charge, but not necessarily current, neutralization of the beam

Reduction of ion thermal diffusivity associated with the transition of the radial electric field in neutral-beam-heated plasmas in the large helical device.

PubMed

Ida, K; Funaba, H; Kado, S; Narihara, K; Tanaka, K; Takeiri, Y; Nakamura, Y; Ohyabu, N; Yamazaki, K; Yokoyama, M; Murakami, S; Ashikawa, N; deVries, P C; Emoto, M; Goto, M; Idei, H; Ikeda, K; Inagaki, S; Inoue, N; Isobe, M; Itoh, K; Kaneko, O; Kawahata, K; Khlopenkov, K; Komori, A; Kubo, S; Kumazawa, R; Liang, Y; Masuzaki, S; Minami, T; Miyazawa, J; Morisaki, T; Morita, S; Mutoh, T; Muto, S; Nagayama, Y; Nakanishi, H; Nishimura, K; Noda, N; Notake, T; Kobuchi, T; Ohdachi, S; Ohkubo, K; Oka, Y; Osakabe, M; Ozaki, T; Pavlichenko, R O; Peterson, B J; Sagara, A; Saito, K; Sakakibara, S; Sakamoto, R; Sanuki, H; Sasao, H; Sasao, M; Sato, K; Sato, M; Seki, T; Shimozuma, T; Shoji, M; Suzuki, H; Sudo, S; Tamura, N; Toi, K; Tokuzawa, T; Torii, Y; Tsumori, K; Yamamoto, T; Yamada, H; Yamada, I; Yamaguchi, S; Yamamoto, S; Yoshimura, Y; Watanabe, K Y; Watari, T; Hamada, Y; Motojima, O; Fujiwara, M

2001-06-04

Recent large helical device experiments revealed that the transition from ion root to electron root occurred for the first time in neutral-beam-heated discharges, where no nonthermal electrons exist. The measured values of the radial electric field were found to be in qualitative agreement with those estimated by neoclassical theory. A clear reduction of ion thermal diffusivity was observed after the mode transition from ion root to electron root as predicted by neoclassical theory when the neoclassical ion loss is more dominant than the anomalous ion loss.

Beam ion susceptibility to loss in NSTX-U plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Darrow, Douglass; Fredrickson, Eric; Podesta, Mario; Liu, Deyong; White, Roscoe

2016-10-01

NSTX-U has operated with three additional neutral beam sources whose tangency radii of 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 m are significantly larger than the 0.5, 0.6, and 0.7 m tangency radii of the neutral beams previously used in NSTX. These latter beams have also be retained for NSTX-U. Here, we present an estimate of the susceptibility of the beam ions from all the various sources to loss under a range of NSTX-U plasma conditions. This estimation is based upon TRANSP calculations of beam ion deposition in phase space, and the location of the FLR-corrected loss boundary in that phase space. Since losses are often observed at the injection energy, a simple measure of loss susceptibility is the change in canonical toroidal momentum required to move beam ions from their deposition point to the loss boundary, as a function of magnetic moment. To augment this simple estimate, we intend to report some associated transport coefficients of beam ions due to AE activity. Work supported by U.S. DOE DE-AC0209CH11466, DE-FG02-06ER54867, and DE-FG03-02ER54681.

Ion-ion dynamic structure factor, acoustic modes, and equation of state of two-temperature warm dense aluminum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harbour, L.; Förster, G. D.; Dharma-wardana, M. W. C.; Lewis, Laurent J.

2018-04-01

The ion-ion dynamical structure factor and the equation of state of warm dense aluminum in a two-temperature quasiequilibrium state, with the electron temperature higher than the ion temperature, are investigated using molecular-dynamics simulations based on ion-ion pair potentials constructed from a neutral pseudoatom model. Such pair potentials based on density functional theory are parameter-free and depend directly on the electron temperature and indirectly on the ion temperature, enabling efficient computation of two-temperature properties. Comparison with ab initio simulations and with other average-atom calculations for equilibrium aluminum shows good agreement, justifying a study of quasiequilibrium situations. Analyzing the van Hove function, we find that ion-ion correlations vanish in a time significantly smaller than the electron-ion relaxation time so that dynamical properties have a physical meaning for the quasiequilibrium state. A significant increase in the speed of sound is predicted from the modification of the dispersion relation of the ion acoustic mode as the electron temperature is increased. The two-temperature equation of state including the free energy, internal energy, and pressure is also presented.

Sympathetic Cooling of Molecular Ions in Selected Rotational and Vibrational States Produced by Threshold Photoionization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tong, Xin; Winney, Alexander H.; Willitsch, Stefan

2010-10-01

We present a new method for the generation of rotationally and vibrationally state-selected, translationally cold molecular ions in ion traps. Our technique is based on the state-selective threshold photoionization of neutral molecules followed by sympathetic cooling of the resulting ions with laser-cooled calcium ions. Using N2+ ions as a test system, we achieve >90% selectivity in the preparation of the ground rovibrational level and state lifetimes on the order of 15 minutes limited by collisions with background-gas molecules. The technique can be employed to produce a wide range of apolar and polar molecular ions in the ground and excited rovibrational states. Our approach opens up new perspectives for cold quantum-controlled ion-molecule-collision studies, frequency-metrology experiments with state-selected molecular ions and molecular-ion qubits.

Ion cyclotron waves at Saturn: Implications of latitudinal distribution for the neutral water torus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crary, F. J.; Dols, V. J.

2016-12-01

Ion cyclotron waves in Saturn's magnetosphere, produced by freshly produced pickup ions, are an indication of plasma production and constrain the distribution of the parent neutrals. Cassini spacecraft observations have shown that these waves are generally present between 4 and 6 Saturn radii, are generated near the equator and propagate to higher latitudes. Wave amplitudes peak at approximately 2 degrees off the equator, where the amplitude is roughly twice its equatorial value. At higher latitudes, the wave amplitudes decrease, dropping by over an order of magnitude by 5 degrees latitude. This has been interpreted as advective growth, from due to equatorially confined pickup ions. Away from this source population, the waves are damped by the thermal background ions. Here, we present an analysis of this growth and damping. Using both analytic theory and hybrid simulations, calculate ion cyclotron wave amplitudes as a function of latitude. These results allow us to estimate the vertical extent of the neutral cloud.

Method and apparatus for confinement of ions in the presence of a neutral gas

DOEpatents

Peurrung, A.J.; Barlow, S.E.

1999-08-03

The present invention is an apparatus and method for combining ions with a neutral gas and flowing the mixture with a radial flow component through a magnetic field so that the weakly ionized gas is confined by the neutral gas. When the weakly ionized gas is present in sufficient density, a weakly ionized non-neutral plasma is formed that may be trapped in accordance with the present invention. Applications for a weakly ionized non-neutral plasma exploit the trap`s ability to store and manipulate ionic species in the presence of neutral gas. The trap may be connected to a mass spectrometer thereby permitting species identification after a fixed period of time. Delicate and/or heavy particles such as clusters may be held and studied in a ``gentle`` environment. In addition, the trap can provide a relatively intense, low-energy source of a particular ion species for surface implantation or molecular chemistry. Finally, a long trap may permit spectroscopy of unprecedented accuracy to be performed on ionic species. 4 figs.

Determining the spatial and temporal variability of Enceladus' mass-loading rate from ion-cyclotron wave observations and hybrid simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Powell, Ronald; Wei, Hanying; Cowee, Misa; Russell, Christopher; Leisner, Jared; Dougherty, Michele

2014-05-01

The southern plume of Enceladus releases a significant amount of neutrals, ions and dust into the inner magnetosphere of Saturn, thus it plays a critical role in the dynamics of plasma transport. The moon is also considered to be the ultimate source for the dusty E-ring and the extended neutral cloud from 3.5 to 6.5 Saturn radii. The mass loading rate from the plume can not only be directly measured from plasma instruments, but can also be obtained from the magnetic signatures produced by the plume and the properties of ion-cyclotron waves (ICW) generated by pickup ions from the plume. The ICWs grow from the free energy of the highly anisotropic distribution of the pickup ions, and their powers are proportional to the density and energy of the pickup ions. At Enceladus, ICWs are detected by Cassini not only near the moon but throughout the extended neutral cloud in all local times. However, the wave power is largely enhanced near the moon's longitude rather than far away from it. This indicates that on top of the relatively azimuthally symmetric mass-loading source of the neutral cloud, there is a much denser cloud of neutrals centered on the moon and rotating with it. The latter source is the instantaneous mass loading from Enceladus' plume, which leads to asymmetry and dynamics in the magnetosphere. From hybrid simulations, we study the ICW generation and understand the relationship between wave power and pickup ion densities. From observations, we obtain the spatial profiles of the ICW power near and far from the moon. Through comparison with waves at longitudes far away from the moon, we investigate how significant is the plume's mass-loading with respect to the neutral cloud mass-loading. We also compare the waves along several groups of identical trajectories and find that the temporal variability of the plume is within a factor of two.

Mass loading and heating of the Enceladus torus from ion-cyclotron wave observations and hybrid simulations in the Saturn magnetosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Russell, C. T.; Dougherty, Michele K.; Cowee, Misa M.; Wei, Hanying; Leisner, Jared; Powell, Ronald

The southern plume of Enceladus releases a significant amount of neutrals, ions and dust into the inner magnetosphere of Saturn, thus it plays a critical role in the dynamics of plasma transport. The moon is also considered to be the ultimate source for the dusty E-ring and the extended neutral cloud from 3.5 to 6.5 Saturn radii. The mass loading rate from the plume can not only be directly measured from plasma instruments, but can also be obtained from the magnetic signatures produced by the plume and the properties of ion-cyclotron waves (ICW) generated by pickup ions from the plume. The ICWs grow from the free energy of the highly anisotropic distribution of the pickup ions, and their powers are proportional to the density and energy of the pickup ions. At Enceladus, ICWs are detected by Cassini not only near the moon but throughout the extended neutral cloud in all local times. However, the wave power is largely enhanced near the moon’s longitude rather than far away from it. This indicates that on top of the relatively azimuthally symmetric mass-loading source of the neutral cloud, there is a much denser cloud of neutrals centered on the moon and rotating with it. The latter source is the instantaneous mass loading from Enceladus’ plume, which leads to asymmetry and dynamics in the magnetosphere. From hybrid simulations, we study the ICW generation and understand the relationship between wave power and pickup ion densities. From observations, we obtain the spatial profiles of the ICW power near and far from the moon. Through comparison with waves at longitudes far away from the moon, we investigate how significant is the plume’s mass-loading with respect to the neutral cloud mass-loading. We also compare the waves along several groups of identical trajectories and find that the temporal variability of the plume is within a factor of two.

DESTRUCTION OF NEUTRAL PARTICLES IN A DEVICE FOR PRODUCING A HIGH DENSITY PLASMA

DOEpatents

Simon, A.

1962-05-01

A method and apparatus are described for burning out neutral particles in an evacuated region and within a strong magnetic field. The method comprises injecting energetic molecular ions into the region perpendicular to the magnetic field and into the path of a dissociating, energetic arc discharge, the atomic ions formed in the dissociating process being trapped by the magnetic field, and then increasing the value of the trapped atomic ion current to such a value that the neutral particles are destroyed faster than they are formed, thereby causing a dense, energetic plasma to be built up and sustained by the magnetic field. (AEC)

Continuous wave cavity ring-down spectroscopy for velocity distribution measurements in plasma

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McCarren, D.; Lockheed Martin, Palmdale, California 93599; Scime, E., E-mail: earl.scime@mail.wvu.edu

2015-10-15

We report the development of a continuous wave cavity ring-down spectroscopic (CW-CRDS) diagnostic for real-time, in situ measurement of velocity distribution functions of ions and neutral atoms in plasma. This apparatus is less complex than conventional CW-CRDS systems. We provide a detailed description of the CW-CRDS apparatus as well as measurements of argon ions and neutrals in a high-density (10{sup 9} cm{sup −3} < plasma density <10{sup 13} cm{sup −3}) plasma. The CW-CRDS measurements are validated through comparison with laser induced fluorescence measurements of the same absorbing states of the ions and neutrals.

Low pressure and high power rf sources for negative hydrogen ions for fusion applications (ITER neutral beam injection).

PubMed

Fantz, U; Franzen, P; Kraus, W; Falter, H D; Berger, M; Christ-Koch, S; Fröschle, M; Gutser, R; Heinemann, B; Martens, C; McNeely, P; Riedl, R; Speth, E; Wünderlich, D

2008-02-01

The international fusion experiment ITER requires for the plasma heating and current drive a neutral beam injection system based on negative hydrogen ion sources at 0.3 Pa. The ion source must deliver a current of 40 A D(-) for up to 1 h with an accelerated current density of 200 Am/(2) and a ratio of coextracted electrons to ions below 1. The extraction area is 0.2 m(2) from an aperture array with an envelope of 1.5 x 0.6 m(2). A high power rf-driven negative ion source has been successfully developed at the Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) at three test facilities in parallel. Current densities of 330 and 230 Am/(2) have been achieved for hydrogen and deuterium, respectively, at a pressure of 0.3 Pa and an electron/ion ratio below 1 for a small extraction area (0.007 m(2)) and short pulses (<4 s). In the long pulse experiment, equipped with an extraction area of 0.02 m(2), the pulse length has been extended to 3600 s. A large rf source, with the width and half the height of the ITER source but without extraction system, is intended to demonstrate the size scaling and plasma homogeneity of rf ion sources. The source operates routinely now. First results on plasma homogeneity obtained from optical emission spectroscopy and Langmuir probes are very promising. Based on the success of the IPP development program, the high power rf-driven negative ion source has been chosen recently for the ITER beam systems in the ITER design review process.

Molecular Friction-Induced Electroosmotic Phenomena in Thin Neutral Nanotubes.

PubMed

Vuković, Lela; Vokac, Elizabeth; Král, Petr

2014-06-19

We reveal by classical molecular dynamics simulations electroosmotic flows in thin neutral carbon (CNT) and boron nitride (BNT) nanotubes filled with ionic solutions of hydrated monovalent atomic ions. We observe that in (12,12) BNTs filled with single ions in an electric field, the net water velocity increases in the order of Na(+) < K(+) < Cl(-), showing that different ions have different power to drag water in thin nanotubes. However, the effect gradually disappears in wider nanotubes. In (12,12) BNTs containing neutral ionic solutions in electric fields, we observe net water velocities going in the direction of Na(+) for (Na(+), Cl(-)) and in the direction of Cl(-) for (K(+), Cl(-)). We hypothesize that the electroosmotic flows are caused by different strengths of friction between ions with different hydration shells and the nanotube walls.

Metallic ions in the equatorial ionosphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aikin, A. C.; Goldberg, R. A.

1972-01-01

Four positive ion composition measurements of the equatorial E region made at Thumba, India, are presented. During the day, the major ions between 90 and 125 km are NO(+) and O2(+). A metallic ion layer centered at 92 km is observed, and found to contain Mg(+), Fe(+), Ca(+), K(+), Al(+), and Na(+) ions. The layer is explained in terms of a similarly shaped latitude distribution of neutral atoms which are photoionized and charge-exchanged with NO(+) and O2(+). Three body reactions form molecular metallic ions which are rapidly lost by dissociative ion-electron recombination. Nighttime observations show downward drifting of the metallic ion layer caused by equatorial dynamo effects. These ions react and form neutral metals which exchange charges with NO(+) and O2(+) to produce an observed depletion of those ions within the metallic ion region.

Energy and Pitch Distribution of Spontaneously-generated High-energy Bulk Ions in the RFP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Jungha; Anderson, Jay; Reusch, Joshua; Eilerman, Scott; Capecchi, William

2014-10-01

Magnetic reconnection events in the reversed field pinch (RFP) are known to heat bulk and impurity ions. Runaway due to a parallel electric field has recently been confirmed as an important acceleration mechanism for high energy test ions supplied by a neutral beam. This effect does not, however, explain the change in distribution of nearly Maxwellian bulk ions at a reconnection event. By operating MST near maximum current and low electron density, significant fusion neutron flux can be generated without neutral beam injection. The bulk ion distribution created in these plasmas is well-confined, non-Maxwellian, and can be measured by the Advanced Neutral Particle Analyzer (ANPA) placed at a radial or tangential porthole. Data show a high energy tail up to 25 keV with a relatively higher signal in the low energy channels (8-15 keV) at the radial port following a reconnection event. Analysis of the energy dependence of trapped orbits sampled by the ANPA at the radial view implies an abundance of lower energy particles in regions of higher neutral density. This mandates a careful deconvolution of the measured ANPA signal to compute the fast ion distribution. This work is supported by the US DOE and NSF.

The Cadarache negative ion experiments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Massmann, P.; Bottereau, J.M.; Belchenko, Y.

1995-12-31

Up to energies of 140 keV neutral beam injection (NBI) based on positive ions has proven to be a reliable and flexible plasma heating method and has provided major contributions to most of the important experiments on virtually all large tokamaks around the world. As a candidate for additional heating and current drive on next step fusion machines (ITER ao) it is hoped that NBI can be equally successful. The ITER NBI parameters of 1 MeV, 50 MW D{degree} demand primary D{sup {minus}} beams with current densities of at least 15 mA/cm{sup 2}. Although considerable progress has been made inmore » the area of negative ion production and acceleration the high demands still require substantial and urgent development. Regarding negative ion production Cs seeded plasma sources lead the way. Adding a small amount of Cs to the discharge (Cs seeding) not only increases the negative ion yield by a factor 3--5 but also has the advantage that the discharge can be run at lower pressures. This is beneficial for the reduction of stripping losses in the accelerator. Multi-ampere negative ion production in a large plasma source is studied in the MANTIS experiment. Acceleration and neutralization at ITER relevant parameters is the objective of the 1 MV SINGAP experiment.« less

Supersonic plasma beams with controlled speed generated by the alternative low power hybrid ion engine (ALPHIE) for space propulsion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conde, L.; Domenech-Garret, J. L.; Donoso, J. M.; Damba, J.; Tierno, S. P.; Alamillo-Gamboa, E.; Castillo, M. A.

2017-12-01

The characteristics of supersonic ion beams from the alternative low power hybrid ion engine (ALPHIE) are discussed. This simple concept of a DC powered plasma accelerator that only needs one electron source for both neutral gas ionization and ion beam neutralization is also examined. The plasma production and space charge neutralization processes are thus coupled in this plasma thruster that has a total DC power consumption of below 450 W, and uses xenon or argon gas as a propellant. The operation parameters of the plasma engine are studied in the laboratory in connection with the ion energy distribution function obtained with a retarding-field energy analyzer. The ALPHIE plasma beam expansion produces a mesothermal plasma flow with two-peaked ion energy distribution functions composed of low and high speed ion groups. The characteristic drift velocities of the fast ion groups, in the range 36.6-43.5 Km/s, are controlled by the acceleration voltage. These supersonic speeds are higher than the typical ion sound velocities of the low energy ion group produced by the expansion of the plasma jet. The temperatures of the slow ion population lead to ion Debye lengths longer than the electron Debye lengths. Furthermore, the electron impact ionization can coexist with collisional ionization by fast ions downstream the grids. Finally, the performance characteristics and comparisons with other plasma accelerator schemes are also discussed.

Spectroscopic characterization of H 2 and D 2 helicon plasmas generated by a resonant antenna for neutral beam applications in fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marini, C.; Agnello, R.; Duval, B. P.; Furno, I.; Howling, A. A.; Jacquier, R.; Karpushov, A. N.; Plyushchev, G.; Verhaegh, K.; Guittienne, Ph.; Fantz, U.; Wünderlich, D.; Béchu, S.; Simonin, A.

2017-03-01

A new generation of neutral beam systems will be required in future fusion reactors, such as DEMO, able to deliver high power (up to 50 MW) with high (800 keV or higher) neutral energy. Only negative ion beams may be able to attain this performance, which has encouraged a strong research focus on negative ion production from both surface and volumetric plasma sources. A novel helicon plasma source, based on the resonant birdcage network antenna configuration, is currently under study at the Swiss Plasma Centre before installation on the Cybele negative ion source at the Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research, CEA, Cadarache, France. This source is driven by up to 10 kW at 13.56 MHz, and is being tested on a linear resonant antenna ion device. Passive spectroscopic measurements of the first three Balmer lines α, β and γ and of the Fulcher-α bands were performed with an f/2 spectrometer, for both hydrogen and deuterium. Multiple viewing lines and an absolute intensity calibration were used to determine the plasma radiance profile, with a spatial resolution  <3 mm. A minimum Fisher regularization algorithm was applied to obtain the absolute emissivity profile for each emission line for cylindrical symmetry, which was experimentally confirmed. An uncertainty estimate of the inverted profiles was performed using a Monte Carlo approach. Finally, a radiofrequency-compensated Langmuir probe was inserted to measured the electron temperature and density profiles. The absolute line emissivities are interpreted using the collisional-radiative code YACORA which estimates the degree of dissociation and the distribution of the atomic and molecular species, including the negative ion density. This paper reports the results of a power scan up to 5 kW in conditions satisfying Cybele requirements for the plasma source, namely a low neutral pressure, p≤slant 0.3 Pa and magnetic field B≤slant 150 G.

ECR Plasma Source for Heavy Ion Beam Charge Neutralization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Efthimion, P. C.; Gilson, E.; Grishman, L.; Kolchin, P.; Davidson, R. C.

2002-01-01

Highly ionized plasmas are being considered as a medium for charge neutralizing heavy ion beams in order to focus beyond the space-charge limit. Calculations suggest that plasma at a density of 1 - 100 times the ion beam density and at a length of approximately 0.1-2 m would be suitable for achieving a high level of charge neutralization. An ECR source has been built at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) to support a joint Neutralized Transport Experiment (NTX) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to study ion beam neutralization with plasma. The ECR source operates at 13.6 MHz and with solenoid magnetic fields of 1-10 gauss. The goal is to operate the source at pressures of approximately 10-6 torr at full ionization. The initial operation of the source has been at pressures of 10-4 - 10-1. Electron densities in the range of 108 - 1011 per cubic centimeter have been achieved. Low-pressure operation is important to reduce ion beam ionization. A cusp magnetic field has been installed to improve radial confinement and reduce the field strength on the beam axis. In addition, axial confinement is believed to be important to achieve lower-pressure operation. To further improve breakdown at low pressure, a weak electron source will be placed near the end of the ECR source.

Neutral recycling effects on ITG turbulence

DOE PAGES

Stotler, D. P.; Lang, J.; Chang, C. S.; ...

2017-07-04

Here, the effects of recycled neutral atoms on tokamak ion temperature gradient (ITG) driven turbulence have been investigated in a steep edge pedestal, magnetic separatrix configuration, with the full-f edge gryokinetic code XGC1. An adiabatic electron model has been used; hence, the impacts of neutral particles and turbulence on the density gradient are not considered, nor are electromagnetic turbulence effects. The neutral atoms enhance the ITG turbulence, first, by increasing the ion temperature gradient in the pedestal via the cooling effects of charge exchange and, second, by a relative reduction in themore » $$E\\times B$$ shearing rate.« less

Neutral recycling effects on ITG turbulence

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stotler, D. P.; Lang, J.; Chang, C. S.

Here, the effects of recycled neutral atoms on tokamak ion temperature gradient (ITG) driven turbulence have been investigated in a steep edge pedestal, magnetic separatrix configuration, with the full-f edge gryokinetic code XGC1. An adiabatic electron model has been used; hence, the impacts of neutral particles and turbulence on the density gradient are not considered, nor are electromagnetic turbulence effects. The neutral atoms enhance the ITG turbulence, first, by increasing the ion temperature gradient in the pedestal via the cooling effects of charge exchange and, second, by a relative reduction in themore » $$E\\times B$$ shearing rate.« less

Precursor and Neutral Loss Scans in an RF Scanning Linear Quadrupole Ion Trap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Snyder, Dalton T.; Szalwinski, Lucas J.; Schrader, Robert L.; Pirro, Valentina; Hilger, Ryan; Cooks, R. Graham

2018-03-01

Methodology for performing precursor and neutral loss scans in an RF scanning linear quadrupole ion trap is described and compared to the unconventional ac frequency scan technique. In the RF scanning variant, precursor ions are mass selectively excited by a fixed frequency resonance excitation signal at low Mathieu q while the RF amplitude is ramped linearly to pass ions through the point of excitation such that the excited ion's m/z varies linearly with time. Ironically, a nonlinear ac frequency scan is still required for ejection of the product ions since their frequencies vary nonlinearly with the linearly varying RF amplitude. In the case of the precursor scan, the ejection frequency must be scanned so that it is fixed on a product ion m/z throughout the RF scan, whereas in the neutral loss scan, it must be scanned to maintain a constant mass offset from the excited precursor ions. Both simultaneous and sequential permutation scans are possible; only the former are demonstrated here. The scans described are performed on a variety of samples using different ionization sources: protonated amphetamine ions generated by nanoelectrospray ionization (nESI), explosives ionized by low-temperature plasma (LTP), and chemical warfare agent simulants sampled from a surface and analyzed with swab touch spray (TS). We lastly conclude that the ac frequency scan variant of these MS/MS scans is preferred due to electronic simplicity. In an accompanying manuscript, we thus describe the implementation of orthogonal double resonance precursor and neutral loss scans on the Mini 12 using constant RF voltage. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Satellite tori at Saturn

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Richardson, J. D.; Eviatar, A.; Siscoe, G. L.

1986-01-01

The inner satellites of Saturn are icy bodies imbedded in a plasma environment in which they are continuously bombarded by energetic ions, corotating plasma, and solar radiation. Laboratory sputtering experiments indicate that this should result in the injection of substantial amounts of neutral H, H2, OH, H2O, and O2 into the magnetosphere. The atomic processes affecting these neutrals and the neutrals and ions formed from them are modeled, and the steady state neutral and ion densities expected in the plasma tori of Enceladus, Dione-Tethys, and Rhea are calculated. Comparison with observations shows that recombination can limit the Enceladus and Dione-Tethys tori to the observed densities, but that transport rates of at least 4 x 10 to the -8th Saturn radii squared/s are required to limit torus densities at Rhea to the observed values.

The dynamo of the diurnal tide and its effect on the thermospheric circulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mayr, H. G.; Harris, I.; Herrero, F. A.

1990-01-01

A theoretical multiconstituent model (including O, N2, and O2) which describes the interactions between neutral winds, dynamo electric fields, and ion drifts is used to interpret observations that revealed a dominance of the fundamental diurnal tide in the upper thermosphere and at equatorial latitudes, and its effect on the thermospheric circulation. The model is shown to reproduce reasonably well the magnitudes of the neutral winds, ion drift velocities, and the ratio between the two. A solution for the neutral winds in which the dynamo electric field is forced to zero shows that the dynamo-induced ion drift is very important in accelerating the neutral atmosphere at higher altitudes. The dynamo interaction primarily affects the curl component of the field; its effect on the temperature and density perturbations is small.

Adding high time resolution to charge-state-specific ion energy measurements for pulsed copper vacuum arc plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanaka, Koichi; Han, Liang; Zhou, Xue; Anders, André

2015-08-01

Charge-state-resolved ion energy-time distributions of pulsed Cu arc plasma were obtained by using direct (time-dependent) acquisition of the ion detection signal from a commercial ion mass-per-charge and energy-per-charge analyzer. We find a shift of energies of Cu2+, Cu3+ and Cu4+ ions to lower values during the first few hundred microseconds after arc ignition, which is evidence for particle collisions in the plasma. The generation of Cu+ ions in the later part of the pulse, measured by the increase of Cu+ signal intensity and an associated slight reduction of the mean charge state, points to charge exchange reactions between ions and neutrals. At the very beginning of the pulse, when the plasma expands into vacuum and the plasma potential strongly fluctuates, ions with much higher energy (over 200 eV) are observed. Early in the pulse, the ion energies observed are approximately proportional to the ion charge state, and we conclude that the acceleration mechanism is primarily based on acceleration in an electric field. This field is directed away from the cathode, indicative of a potential hump. Measurements by a floating probe suggest that potential structures travel, and ions moving in the traveling field can gain high energies up to a few hundred electron-volts. Later in the pulse, the approximate proportionality is lost, which is related to increased smearing out of different energies due to collisions with neutrals, and/or to a change of the acceleration character from electrostatic to ‘gas-dynamic’, i.e. dominated by pressure gradient.

Collision-Induced Dissociation of Deprotonated Peptides. Relative Abundance of Side-Chain Neutral Losses, Residue-Specific Product Ions, and Comparison with Protonated Peptides

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, Yuxue; Neta, Pedatsur; Yang, Xiaoyu; Stein, Stephen E.

2018-03-01

High-accuracy MS/MS spectra of deprotonated ions of 390 dipeptides and 137 peptides with three to six residues are studied. Many amino acid residues undergo neutral losses from their side chains. The most abundant is the loss of acetaldehyde from threonine. The abundance of losses from the side chains of other amino acids is estimated relative to that of threonine. While some amino acids lose the whole side chain, others lose only part of it, and some exhibit two or more different losses. Side-chain neutral losses are less abundant in the spectra of protonated peptides, being significant mainly for methionine and arginine. In addition to the neutral losses, many amino acid residues in deprotonated peptides produce specific negative ions after peptide bond cleavage. An expanded list of fragment ions from protonated peptides is also presented and compared with those of deprotonated peptides. Fragment ions are mostly different for these two cases. These lists of fragments are used to annotate peptide mass spectral libraries and to aid in the confirmation of specific amino acids in peptides. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Transition from moving to stationary double layers in a single-ended Q machine

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Song, Bin; Merlino, R. L.; D'Angelo, N.

1990-01-01

Large-amplitude (less than about 100 percent) relaxation oscillations in the plasma potential are known to be generated when the cold endplate of a single-ended Q machine is biased positively. These oscillations are associated with double layers that form near the hot plate (plasma source) and travel toward the endplate at about the ion-acoustic velocity. At the endplate they dissolve and then form again near the hot plate, the entire process repeating itself in a regular manner. By admitting a sufficient amount of neutral gas into the system, the moving double layers were slowed down and eventually stopped. The production of stationary double layers requires an ion source on the high-potential side of the double layers. These ions are provided by ionization of the neutral gas by electrons that are accelerated through the double layer. The dependence of the critical neutral gas pressure required for stationary double-layer formation on endplate voltage, magnetic field strength, and neutral atom mass has been examined. These results are discussed in terms of a simple model of ion production and loss, including ion losses across the magnetic field.

Collision-Induced Dissociation of Deprotonated Peptides. Relative Abundance of Side-Chain Neutral Losses, Residue-Specific Product Ions, and Comparison with Protonated Peptides.

PubMed

Liang, Yuxue; Neta, Pedatsur; Yang, Xiaoyu; Stein, Stephen E

2018-03-01

High-accuracy MS/MS spectra of deprotonated ions of 390 dipeptides and 137 peptides with three to six residues are studied. Many amino acid residues undergo neutral losses from their side chains. The most abundant is the loss of acetaldehyde from threonine. The abundance of losses from the side chains of other amino acids is estimated relative to that of threonine. While some amino acids lose the whole side chain, others lose only part of it, and some exhibit two or more different losses. Side-chain neutral losses are less abundant in the spectra of protonated peptides, being significant mainly for methionine and arginine. In addition to the neutral losses, many amino acid residues in deprotonated peptides produce specific negative ions after peptide bond cleavage. An expanded list of fragment ions from protonated peptides is also presented and compared with those of deprotonated peptides. Fragment ions are mostly different for these two cases. These lists of fragments are used to annotate peptide mass spectral libraries and to aid in the confirmation of specific amino acids in peptides. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

The phase-space dependence of fast-ion interaction with tearing modes

DOE PAGES

Heidbrink, William W.; Bardoczi, Laszlo; Collins, Cami S.; ...

2018-03-19

Modulation of various neutral beam sources probes the interaction of fast ions with tearing modes (TM) in the DIII-D tokamak. As measured by electron cyclotron emission, the (m,n) = (2,1) tearing modes have an island width of ~8 cm and change phase 180 at the q = 2 surface. (Here, m is the poloidal mode number and n is the toroidal mode number.) Deuterium neutral beam injection by six sources with differing injection geometries produces the fast ions. To study the interaction in different parts of phase space, on successive discharges, one of the six sources is modulated at 20more » Hz to populate different fast-ion orbits. The modulation only changes the island width by a few millimeters, implying that any fast-ion effect on mode stability is below detection limits. When compared to the expected signals in the absence of TM-induced transport, both the average and modulated neutron signals deviate, implying that fast-ion transport occurs in much of phase space. Fast-ion D-α (FIDA) measurements detect reductions in signal at wavelengths that are sensitive to counter-passing ions. Neutral particle analyzer data imply poor confinement of trapped fast ions. Lastly, calculations of the expected fast-ion transport that use measured TM properties successfully reproduce the data.« less

The phase-space dependence of fast-ion interaction with tearing modes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Heidbrink, William W.; Bardoczi, Laszlo; Collins, Cami S.

Modulation of various neutral beam sources probes the interaction of fast ions with tearing modes (TM) in the DIII-D tokamak. As measured by electron cyclotron emission, the (m,n) = (2,1) tearing modes have an island width of ~8 cm and change phase 180 at the q = 2 surface. (Here, m is the poloidal mode number and n is the toroidal mode number.) Deuterium neutral beam injection by six sources with differing injection geometries produces the fast ions. To study the interaction in different parts of phase space, on successive discharges, one of the six sources is modulated at 20more » Hz to populate different fast-ion orbits. The modulation only changes the island width by a few millimeters, implying that any fast-ion effect on mode stability is below detection limits. When compared to the expected signals in the absence of TM-induced transport, both the average and modulated neutron signals deviate, implying that fast-ion transport occurs in much of phase space. Fast-ion D-α (FIDA) measurements detect reductions in signal at wavelengths that are sensitive to counter-passing ions. Neutral particle analyzer data imply poor confinement of trapped fast ions. Lastly, calculations of the expected fast-ion transport that use measured TM properties successfully reproduce the data.« less

Observations of neutral winds in the auroral E region during the magnetospheric storm of August 3-9, 1972

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brekke, A.; Doupnik, J. R.; Banks, P. M.

1974-01-01

Auroral zone E-region neutral winds have been derived from simultaneous measurements of ion drift velocities in different altitudes by the incoherent radar facility at Chatanika, Alaska, on a quiet day before and during the great magnetospheric storm of Aug. 3-9, 1972. The neutral wind expected for a day-night pressure asymmetry appears to be strongly opposed by ion drag and local pressure gradients in the auroral oval.

Preparations, structures and properties of heterobimetallic complexes based on tetrahydrofuran-2,3,4,5-tetracarboxylate

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jia, Tian-Jing; Li, Shu-Mu; Cao, Wei

2013-05-01

Transition heterobimetallic metal-organic frameworks based on tetrahydrofuran-2,3,4,5-tetracarboxylicate (FTA), namely [M(H₂O)₆][Cu₂M(FTA)₂(H₂O)₂]·4H₂O [M=Mn (1), Co (2)], and [CuZn(FTA)(H₂O)₅]·H₂O (3) have been synthesized and characterized. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction indicates that complexes 1 and 2 are isomorphic. In 1 and 2, FTA ligand links the metal ions to a 2-D wave-like negative-charged layer with a topology of (4;6²)₂(4;6³;8²)₂(6). They possess 1-D channels with [M(H₂O)₆]²⁺ and lattice water molecules enclathrated. While in the complex 3, Cu²⁺ and Zn²⁺ ions are bridged by FTA to a 2-D neutral layer structure with a (8)₂(8⁴;12²) topology. Magnetic properties of 1–3 were analyzed in connection with their structures, whichmore » show that there exist weak antiferromagnetic interactions between metal ions. - Graphical abstract: Three heterobimetallic MOFs were constructed through the size-selectivity of TFA coordination sites for different transition metal ions based on the concept of “Hard and Soft Acids and Bases”. Highlights: • Complexes 1 and 3 contain 2-D wave-like negative-charged layers. • Complex 2 is a 2-D neutral layer structure with a (8)₂(8⁴;12²) topology. • Complexes 1–3 are the first example of heterobimetallic MOFs based on FTA. • The coordination sites of FTA show size-selectivity to metal ions.« less

Etching in Chlorine Discharges Using an Integrated Feature Evolution-Plasma Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hwang, Helen H.; Bose, Deepak; Govindan, T. R.; Meyyappan, M.; Biegel, Bryan (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Etching of semiconductor materials is reliant on plasma properties. Quantities such as ion and neutral fluxes, both in magnitude and in direction, are often determined by reactor geometry (height, radius, position of the coils, etc.) In order to obtain accurate etching profiles, one must also model the plasma as a whole to obtain local fluxes and distributions. We have developed a set of three models that simulates C12 plasmas for etching of silicon, ion and neutral trajectories in the plasma, and feature profile evolution. We have found that the location of the peak in the ion densities in the reactor plays a major role in determining etching uniformity across the wafer. For a stove top coil inductively coupled plasma (ICP), the ion density is peaked at the top of the reactor. This leads to nearly uniform neutral and ion fluxes across the wafer. A side coil configuration causes the ion density to peak near the sidewalls. Ion fluxes are thus greater toward the wall's and decrease toward the center. In addition, the ions bombard the wafer at a slight angle. This angle is sufficient to cause slanted profiles, which is highly undesirable.

A survey of bimolecular ion-molecule reactions for use in modeling the chemistry of planetary atmospheres, cometary comae, and interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anicich, V. G.; Huntress, W. T., Jr.

1986-01-01

All bimolecular positive ion-molecule reactions reported from 1965 to 1985 for temperatures below 1000 K are included in the present survey of those ion-molecule reactions pertinent to the chemistries of planetary atmospheres, cometary comae, and interstellar clouds. This survey is intended as an update of the first, by Huntress (1977). The tabular presentation is organized according to reactant ion, with cross-references for both the ionic and the neutral reactants as well as the ionic and neutral products.

Dissociative recombination in interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Black, John H.; Van Dishoeck, Ewine F.

1989-01-01

Molecular ions play a significant role in the chemistry and evolution of interstellar molecular clouds, even though these regions are overwhelmingly neutral. The dissociative recombination (DR) process governs the abundances of many of these ions and of related neutral species. The gas-phase ion-molecule chemistry of the simplest species is summarized, with emphasis on those problems which are most sensitive to uncertain rates or product branching ratios of DR processes. Examples of the kinds of information needed about DR processes are presented. The importance of the H3(+) ion and prospects for its direct observation are discussed.

Diurnal variations of Titan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cui, J.; Galand, M.; Yelle, R. V.; Vuitton, V.; Wahlund, J.-E.; Lavvas, P. P.; Mueller-Wodarg, I. C. F.; Kasprzak, W. T.; Waite, J. H.

2009-04-01

We present our analysis of the diurnal variations of Titan's ionosphere (between 1,000 and 1,400 km) based on a sample of Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) measurements in the Open Source Ion (OSI) mode obtained from 8 close encounters of the Cassini spacecraft with Titan. Though there is an overall ion depletion well beyond the terminator, the ion content on Titan's nightside is still appreciable, with a density plateau of ~700 cm-3 below ~1,300 km. Such a plateau is associated with the combination of distinct diurnal variations of light and heavy ions. Light ions (e.g. CH5+, HCNH+, C2H5+) show strong diurnal variation, with clear bite-outs in their nightside distributions. In contrast, heavy ions (e.g. c-C3H3+, C2H3CNH+, C6H7+) present modest diurnal variation, with significant densities observed on the nightside. We propose that the distinctions between light and heavy ions are associated with their different chemical loss pathways, with the former primarily through "fast" ion-neutral chemistry and the latter through "slow" electron dissociative recombination. The INMS data suggest day-to-night transport as an important source of ions on Titan's nightside, to be distinguished from the conventional scenario of auroral ionization by magnetospheric particles as the only ionizing source on the nightside. This is supported by the strong correlation between the observed night-to-day ion density ratios and the associated ion lifetimes. We construct a time-dependent ion chemistry model to investigate the effects of day-to-night transport on the ionospheric structures of Titan. The predicted diurnal variation has similar general characteristics to those observed, with some apparent discrepancies which could be reconciled by imposing fast horizontal thermal winds in Titan's upper atmosphere.

Dynamic neutral beam current and voltage control to improve beam efficacy in tokamaks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pace, D. C.; Austin, M. E.; Bardoczi, L.; Collins, C. S.; Crowley, B.; Davis, E.; Du, X.; Ferron, J.; Grierson, B. A.; Heidbrink, W. W.; Holcomb, C. T.; McKee, G. R.; Pawley, C.; Petty, C. C.; Podestà, M.; Rauch, J.; Scoville, J. T.; Spong, D. A.; Thome, K. E.; Van Zeeland, M. A.; Varela, J.; Victor, B.

2018-05-01

An engineering upgrade to the neutral beam system at the DIII-D tokamak [J. L. Luxon, Nucl. Fusion 42, 614 (2002)] enables time-dependent programming of the beam voltage and current. Initial application of this capability involves pre-programmed beam voltage and current injected into plasmas that are known to be susceptible to instabilities that are driven by energetic ( E ≥ 40 keV) beam ions. These instabilities, here all Alfvén eigenmodes (AEs), increase the transport of the beam ions beyond a classical expectation based on particle drifts and collisions. Injecting neutral beam power, P beam ≥ 2 MW, at reduced voltage with increased current reduces the drive for Alfvénic instabilities and results in improved ion confinement. In lower-confinement plasmas, this technique is applied to eliminate the presence of AEs across the mid-radius of the plasmas. Simulations of those plasmas indicate that the mode drive is decreased and the radial extent of the remaining modes is reduced compared to a higher beam voltage case. In higher-confinement plasmas, this technique reduces AE activity in the far edge and results in an interesting scenario of beam current drive improving as the beam voltage reduces from 80 kV to 65 kV.

Dynamic neutral beam current and voltage control to improve beam efficacy in tokamaks

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Austin, Max E.; Bardoczi, Laszlo; Collins, Cami S.

Here, an engineering upgrade to the neutral beam system at the DIII-D tokamak enables time-dependent programming of the beam voltage and current. Initial application of this capability involves pre-programmed beam voltage and current injected into plasmas that are known to be susceptible to instabilities that are driven by energetic (E ≥ 40 keV) beam ions. These instabilities, here all Alfvén eigenmodes (AEs), increase the transport of the beam ions beyond a classical expectation based on particle drifts and collisions. Injecting neutral beam power, P beam ≥ 2MW, at reduced voltage with increased current reduces the drive for Alfvénic instabilities andmore » results in improved ion confinement. In lower-confinement plasmas, this technique is applied to eliminate the presence of AEs across the mid-radius of the plasmas. Simulations of those plasmas indicate that the mode drive is decreased and the radial extent of the remaining modes is reduced compared to a higher beam voltage case. In higher-confinement plasmas, this technique reduces AE activity in the far edge and results in an interesting scenario of beam current drive improving as the beam voltage reduces from 80 kV to 65 kV.« less

Dynamic neutral beam current and voltage control to improve beam efficacy in tokamaks

DOE PAGES

Austin, Max E.; Bardoczi, Laszlo; Collins, Cami S.; ...

2018-04-20

Here, an engineering upgrade to the neutral beam system at the DIII-D tokamak enables time-dependent programming of the beam voltage and current. Initial application of this capability involves pre-programmed beam voltage and current injected into plasmas that are known to be susceptible to instabilities that are driven by energetic (E ≥ 40 keV) beam ions. These instabilities, here all Alfvén eigenmodes (AEs), increase the transport of the beam ions beyond a classical expectation based on particle drifts and collisions. Injecting neutral beam power, P beam ≥ 2MW, at reduced voltage with increased current reduces the drive for Alfvénic instabilities andmore » results in improved ion confinement. In lower-confinement plasmas, this technique is applied to eliminate the presence of AEs across the mid-radius of the plasmas. Simulations of those plasmas indicate that the mode drive is decreased and the radial extent of the remaining modes is reduced compared to a higher beam voltage case. In higher-confinement plasmas, this technique reduces AE activity in the far edge and results in an interesting scenario of beam current drive improving as the beam voltage reduces from 80 kV to 65 kV.« less

Low-Energy Sputtering Studies of Boron Nitride with Xenon Ions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ray, P. K.; Shutthanandan, V.

1999-01-01

Sputtering of boron nitride with xenon ions was investigated using secondary ion (SIMS) and secondary neutral (SNMS) mass spectrometry. The ions generated from the ion gun were incident on the target at an angle of 50' with respect to the surface'normal. The energy of ions ranged from 100 eV to 3 keV. A flood electron gun was used to neutralize the positive charge build-up on the target surface. The intensities of sputtered neutral and charged particles, including single atoms, molecules, and clusters, were measured as a function of ion energy. Positive SIMS spectra were dominated by the two boron isotopes whereas BN- and B- were the two major constituents of the negative SIMS spectra. Nitrogen could be detected only in the SNMS spectra. The intensity-energy curves of the sputtered particles were similar in shape. The knees in P-SIMS and SNMS intensity-energy curves appear at around I keV which is significantly higher that 100 to 200 eV energy range at which knees appear in the sputtering of medium and heavy elements by ions of argon and xenon. This difference in the position of the sputter yield knee between boron nitride and heavier targets is due to the reduced ion energy differences. The isotopic composition of secondary ions of boron were measured by bombarding boron nitride with xenon ions at energies ranging from 100 eV to 1.5 keV using a quadrupole mass spectrometer. An ion gun was used to generate the ion beam. A flood electron gun was used to neutralize the positive charge buildup on the target surface. The secondary ion flux was found to be enriched in heavy isotopes at lower incident ion energies. The heavy isotope enrichment was observed to decrease with increasing primary ion energy. Beyond 350 eV, light isotopes were sputtered preferentially with the enrichment increasing to an asymptotic value of 1.27 at 1.5 keV. The trend is similar to that of the isotopic enrichment observed earlier when copper was sputtered with xenon ions in the same energy range.

STELLARATOR INJECTOR

DOEpatents

Post, R.F.

1962-09-01

A method and means are described for injecting energetic neutral atoms or molecular ions into dense magnetically collimated plasma columns of stellarators and the like in such a manner that the atoms or ions are able to significantly penetrate the column before being ionized by collision with the plasma constituent particles. Penetration of the plasma column by the neutral atoms or molecular ions is facilitated by superposition of two closely spaced magnetic mirrors on the plasma confinement field. The mirrors are moved apart to magnetically sweep plasma from a region between the mirrors and establish a relatively low plasma density therein. By virture of the low density, neutral atoms or molecular ions injected into the region significantly penetrate the plasma column before being ionized. Thereafter, the mirrors are diminished to permit the injected material to admix with the plasma in the remainder of the column. (AEC)

Neutral beam dose and sputtering characteristics in an ion implantation system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roberts, A. S., Jr.; Ash, R. L.; Berger, M. H.

1973-01-01

A technique and instrument design for calorimetric detection of the neutral atom content of a 60 keV argon ion beam. A beam sampling method is used to measure local heat flux to a small platinum wire at steady state; integration of power density profiles leads to a determination of equivalent neutral beam current. The fast neutral production occurs as a result of charge transfer processes in the region of the beam system between analyzing magnet and beam stop where the pressure remains less than .00001 torr. A description of the neutral beam detector is given in section along with a presentation of results. An elementary analysis of sputter material transport from target to substrate was performed; the analysis relates to semiconductor sputtering.

Monte Carlo simulation of neutral-beam injection for mirror fusion reactors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Miller, Ronald Lee

1979-01-01

Computer simulation techniques using the Monte Carlo method have been developed for application to the modeling of neutral-beam intection into mirror-confined plasmas of interest to controlled thermonuclear research. The energetic (10 to 300 keV) neutral-beam particles interact with the target plasma (T i ~ 10 to 100 keV) through electron-atom and ion-atom collisional ionization as well as ion-atom charge-transfer (charge-exchange) collisions to give a fractional trapping of the neutral beam and a loss of charge-transfer-produced neutrals which escape to bombard the reactor first wall. Appropriate interaction cross sections for these processes are calculated for the assumed anisotropic, non-Maxwellian plasma ionmore » phase-space distributions.« less

Negative ion productions in high velocity collision between small carbon clusters and Helium atom target

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

M, Chabot; K, Béroff; T, Pino; G, Féraud; N, Dothi; Padellec A, Le; G, Martinet; S, Bouneau; Y, Carpentier

2012-11-01

We measured absolute double capture cross section of Cn+ ions (n=1,5) colliding, at 2.3 and 2.6 a.u velocities, with an Helium target atom and the branching ratios of fragmentation of the so formed electronically excited anions Cn-*. We also measured absolute cross section for the electronic attachment on neutral Cn clusters colliding at same velocities with He atom. This is to our knowledge the first measurement of neutral-neutral charge exchange in high velocity collision.

Theoretical studies of defect formation and target heating by intense pulsed ion beams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnard, J. J.; Schenkel, T.; Persaud, A.; Seidl, P. A.; Friedman, A.; Grote, D. P.; Davidson, R. C.; Gilson, E. P.; Kaganovich, I.

2015-11-01

We present results of three studies related to experiments on NDCX-II, the Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment, a short-pulse (~ 1ns), high-current (~ 70A) linear accelerator for 1.2 MeV ions at LBNL. These include: (a) Coupled transverse and longitudinal envelope calculations of the final non-neutral ion beam transport, followed by neutralized drift and final focus, for a number of focus and drift lengths and with a series of ion species (Z =1-19). Predicted target fluences were obtained and target temperatures in the 1 eV range estimated. (b) HYDRA simulations of the target response for Li and He ions and for Al and Au targets at various ion fluences (up to 1012 ions/pulse/mm2) and pulse durations, benchmarking temperature estimates from the envelope calculations. (c) Crystal-Trim simulations of ion channeling through single-crystal lattices, with comparisons to ion transmission data as a function of orientation angle of the crystal foil and for different ion intensities and ion species. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. DOE under contracts DE-AC52-07NA27344 (LLNL), DE-AC02-05CH11231 (LBNL) and DE-AC02-76CH0307 (PPPL) and was supported by the US DOE Office of Science, Fusion Energy Sciences. LLNL-ABS-67521.

Simulation of cesium injection and distribution in rf-driven ion sources for negative hydrogen ion generation.

PubMed

Gutser, R; Fantz, U; Wünderlich, D

2010-02-01

Cesium seeded sources for surface generated negative hydrogen ions are major components of neutral beam injection systems in future large-scale fusion experiments such as ITER. Stability and delivered current density depend highly on the cesium conditions during plasma-on and plasma-off phases of the ion source. The Monte Carlo code CSFLOW3D was used to study the transport of neutral and ionic cesium in both phases. Homogeneous and intense flows were obtained from two cesium sources in the expansion region of the ion source and from a dispenser array, which is located 10 cm in front of the converter surface.

The Effect of Sub-Auroral Polarization Streams (SAPS) on Ionosphere and Thermosphere during 2015 St. Patrick's Day storm: Global Ionosphere-Thermosphere Model (GITM) Simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, J.; Deng, Y.; Zhang, D.; Lu, Y.; Sheng, C.

2017-12-01

Sub-Auroral Polarization Streams (SAPS) are incorporated into the non-hydrostatic Global Ionosphere-Thermosphere Model (GITM), revealing the complex effects on neutral dynamics and ion-neutral coupling processes. The intense westward ion stream could enhance the neutral zonal wind within the SAPS channel. Through neutral dynamics the neutrals then divide into two streams, one turns poleward and the other turns equatorward, forming a two-cell pattern in the SAPS-changed wind. The significant Joule heating induced by SAPS also leads to traveling atmospheric disturbances (TAD) accompanied by traveling ionospheric disturbances (TID), increasing the total electron content (TEC) by 2-8 TECu in the mid-latitude ionosphere. We investigate the potential causes of the reported poleward wind surge during the St. Patrick's Day storm in 2015. It is confirmed that Coriolis force on the westward zonal wind can contribute the poleward wind during post-SAPS interval. In addition, the simulations imply that the sudden decrease of heating rate within auroral oval could result in a TAD propagating equatorward, which could also be responsible for the sudden poleward wind surge. This study highlights the complicated effects of SAPS on ion-neutral coupling and neutral dynamics.

Development of SSUBPIC code for modeling the neutral gas depletion effect in helicon discharges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kollasch, Jeffrey; Sovenic, Carl; Schmitz, Oliver

2017-10-01

The SSUBPIC (steady-state unstructured-boundary particle-in-cell) code is being developed to model helicon plasma devices. The envisioned modeling framework incorporates (1) a kinetic neutral particle model, (2) a kinetic ion model, (3) a fluid electron model, and (4) an RF power deposition model. The models are loosely coupled and iterated until convergence to steady-state. Of the four required solvers, the kinetic ion and neutral particle simulation can now be done within the SSUBPIC code. Recent SSUBPIC modifications include implementation and testing of a Coulomb collision model (Lemons et al., JCP, 228(5), pp. 1391-1403) allowing efficient coupling of kineticly-treated ions to fluid electrons, and implementation of a neutral particle tracking mode with charge-exchange and electron impact ionization physics. These new simulation capabilities are demonstrated working independently and coupled to ``dummy'' profiles for RF power deposition to converge on steady-state plasma and neutral profiles. The geometry and conditions considered are similar to those of the MARIA experiment at UW-Madison. Initial results qualitatively show the expected neutral gas depletion effect in which neutrals in the plasma core are not replenished at a sufficient rate to sustain a higher plasma density. This work is funded by the NSF CAREER award PHY-1455210 and NSF Grant PHY-1206421.

Search for an explanation for neutralization rates of atomic ion-ion reactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miller, Thomas M.; Wiens, Justin P.; Shuman, Nicholas S.; Viggiano, Albert A.

2016-09-01

We have measured well over a hundred rate coefficients k for cation-anion mutual neutralization reactions at thermal energies. For molecular ions, the k at 300 K tend not to vary more than a factor of two or three, presumably because a great many neutral states cross the incoming Coulombic potential energy curve. Atomic-atomic systems, for which there are few favorable curve crossings between the neutral and Coulombic curves, show variation of at least a factor of 60 in the measured k values at 300 K. For reactions involving the noble-gas cations, we assume that the final state is the lowest excited state of the neutral, plus the ground state of the neutralized anion, because otherwise the crossing distance R is so small that the curve-crossing probability is nil. We plotted measured k values (in cm3/s) vs the distance R (in bohr) at which the neutral and Coulombic curves cross, the found that the data are fairly well fit by a power law for k, 10-4R - 2 . 8 . The question is, is there a physical explanation for the observed dependence on R? We will discuss the data and the expectations of Landau-Zener theory. Supported by Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR-2303EP).

Chemistry and dynamics of the lower ionosphere of Mars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haider, Syed A.; Sheel, Varun

MIRI: Validation and Testing Requirements The high energy cosmic rays propagate through the Martian atmosphere producing nucleonic cascades. The impact of primary cosmic rays onto the atmospheric gases produces protons, neutrons and pions. The neutral pions quickly decay to gamma rays and their contribution to energy deposition is very important in the lower atmosphere of Mars. Near the mesosphere, the maximum ion production rates are controlled by protons. The charged pions decay to meons, which do not decay and their energy is transferred to the surface on reaching the ground. In this paper we have calculated production rates, conductivity, densities of positive and negative ions due to cosmic ray ionization. The model couples ion-neutral, electron neutral, dissociation of positive and negative ions, electron detachment, ion-ion and ion-electron recombination processes. The hydrated hydronium and water cluster ions (H _{3}O (+) (H _{2}O) _{n} , NO _{2} (-) (H _{2}O) _{n} and CO _{3} (-) (H _{2}O) _{n} for n=1-4) are dominated below 60 km, while NO (+) and O _{2} (+) are major ions above this altitude. We have also examined the effect of dust storms on the lower ionosphere of Mars. It is found that during intense period of dust storms, the D region ionosphere disappears for several weeks until the dust settles down to its normal condition

Investigation of Thermospheric and Ionospheric Changes during Ionospheric Storms with Satellite and Ground-Based Data and Modeling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Richards, Philip G.

2001-01-01

The purpose of this proposed research is to improve our basic understanding of the causes of ionospheric storm behavior in the midlatitude F region ionosphere. This objective will be achieved by detailed comparisons between ground based measurements of the peak electron density (N(sub m)F(sub 2)), Atmosphere Explorer satellite measurements of ion and neutral composition, and output from the Field Line Interhemispheric Plasma (FLIP) model. The primary result will be a better understanding of changes in the neutral densities and ion chemistry during magnetic storms that will improve our capability to model the weather of the ionosphere which will be needed as a basis for ionospheric prediction. Specifically, this study seeks to answer the following questions: (1) To what extent are negative ionospheric storm phases caused by changes in the atomic to molecular ratio? (2) Are the changes in neutral density ratio due to increased N2, or decreased O, or both? (3) Are there other chemical processes (e.g., excited N2) that increase O+ loss rates during negative storms? (4) Do neutral density altitude distributions differed from hydrostatic equilibrium? (5) Why do near normal nighttime densities often follow daytime depletions of electron density; and (6) Can changes in h(sub m)F2 fully account for positive storm phases? To answer these questions, we plan to combine ground-based and space-based measurements with the aid of our ionospheric model which is ideally suited to this purpose. These proposed studies will lead to a better capability to predict long term ionospheric variability, leading to better predictions of ionospheric weather.

High-latitude E Region Ionosphere-thermosphere Coupling: A Comparative Study Using in Situ and Incoherent Scatter Radar Observations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burchill, J. K.; Clemmons, J. H.; Knudsen, D. J.; Larsen, M.; Nicolls, M. J.; Pfaff, R. F.; Rowland, D.; Sangalli, L.

2012-01-01

We present in situ and ground-based measurements of the ratio k of ion cyclotronangular frequency to ion-neutral momentum transfer collision frequency to investigateionosphere-thermosphere (IT) coupling in the auroral E region. In situ observations were obtained by NASA sounding rocket 36.234, which was launched into the nightsideE region ionosphere at 1229 UT on 19 January 2007 from Poker Flat, AK. The payload carried instrumentation to determine ion drift angle and electric field vectors. Neutral winds were measured by triangulating a chemical tracer released from rocket 41.064 launched two minutes later. k is calculated from the rotation of the ion drift angle relative to the E-cross-B drift direction in a frame co-rotating with the payload. Between the altitudes of 118 km and 130 km k increases exponentially with a scale height of 9.3 +/- 0.7 km, deviating from an exponential above 130 km. k = 1 at an altitude z(sub0) of 119.9 +/- 0.5 km. The ratio was also estimated from Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR) measurements using the rotation of ion velocity with altitude. Exponential fits to the PFISR measurements made during the flight of 41.064 yield z(sub0) 115.9 +/- 1.2 km and a scale height of 9.1 +/- 1.0 km. Differences between in situ and ground-based measurements show that the E region atmospheric densities were structured vertically and/or horizontally on scales of 1 km to 10 km. There were no signs of ionospheric structure in ion density or ion temperature below scales of 1 km. The observations demonstrate the accuracy with which the in situ and PFISR data may be used as probes of IT coupling.

Electron effects in the Neutralized Transport Experiment (NTX)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eylon, S.; Henestroza, E.; Roy, P. K.; Yu, S. S.

2005-05-01

The Neutralized Transport Experiment (NTX) at the Heavy Ion Fusion Virtual National Laboratory is exploring the performance of neutralized final focus systems for high-perveance heavy ion beams. To focus a high-intensity beam to a small spot requires a high-brightness beam. In the NTX experiment, a potassium ion beam of up to 400 keV and 80 mA is generated in a Pierce-type diode. At the diode exit, an aperture with variable opening provides the capability to vary the beam perveance. The beam is transported through four quadrupole magnets to a distance of 2.5 m. The beam can be neutralized and focused using a MEVVA plasma plug and a RF plasma source. We shall report on the measurement of the electron effects and the ways to mitigate the effects. Furthermore, we shall present the results of EGUN calculations consistent with the measurements effects of the electrons.

Dynamics of Ion Beam Charge Neutralization by Ferroelectric Plasma Sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stepanov, Anton D.; Gilson, Erik P.; Grisham, Larry R.; Kaganovich, Igor D.; Davidson, Ronald C.; Ji, Qing; Persaud, Arun; Seidl, Peter A.; Schenkel, Thomas

2016-10-01

Ferroelectric Plasma Sources (FEPSs) can generate plasma that provides effective space-charge neutralization of intense high-perveance ion beams. Here we present experimental results on charge neutralization of a high-perveance 38 keV Ar+ beam by a FEPS plasma. By comparing the measured beam radius with the envelope model for space-charge expansion, it is shown that a charge neutralization fraction of 98% is attainable. The transverse electrostatic potential of the ion beam is reduced from 15 V before neutralization to 0.3 V, implying that the energy of the neutralizing electrons is below 0.3 eV. Near-complete charge neutralization is established 5 μs after the driving pulse is applied to the FEPS, and can last for 35 μs. It is argued that the duration of neutralization is much longer than a reasonable lifetime of the plasma produced in the sub- μs surface discharge. Measurements of current flow in the driving circuit of the FEPS suggest that plasma can be generated for tens of μs after the high voltage pulse is applied. This is confirmed by fast photography of the plasma in the 1-meter long FEPS on NDCX-II, where effective charge neutralization of the beam was achieved with the optimized FEPS timing. This work was supported by the Office of Science of the US Department of Energy under contracts DE-AC0209CH11466 (PPPL) and DE-AC0205CH11231 (LBNL).

Studies of Ion Beam Charge Neutralization by Ferroelectric Plasma Sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stepanov, A.; Gilson, E. P.; Grisham, L.; Davidson, R. C.

2013-10-01

Space-charge forces limit the possible transverse compression of high perveance ion beams that are used in ion-beam-driven high energy density physics applications; the minimum radius to which a beam can be focused is an increasing function of perveance. The limit can be overcome if a plasma is introduced in the beam path between the focusing element and the target in order to neutralize the space charge of the beam. This concept has been implemented on the Neutralized Drift Compression eXperiment (NDCX) at LBNL using Ferroelectric Plasma Sources (FEPS). In our experiment at PPPL, we propagate a perveance-dominated ion beam through a FEPS to study the effect of the neutralizing plasma on the beam envelope and its evolution in time. A 30-60 keV space-charge-dominated Argon beam is focused with an Einzel lens into a FEPS located at the beam waist. The beam is intercepted downstream from the FEPS by a movable Faraday cup that provides time-resolved 2D current density profiles of the beam spot on target. We report results on: (a) dependence of charge neutralization on FEPS plasma density; (b) effects on beam emittance, and (c) time evolution of the beam envelope after the FEPS pulse. Research supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Development of High-Intensity Negative Ion Sources and Beams in the USSR

DTIC Science & Technology

1981-09-01

ion beams as the basis for creating neutral beams for injection into mirror traps and tokamaks, for inertial confinement fusion, and possibly for...create intense neutral beams for injection systems for mirror traps and tokamaks and for inertial confinement fusion. These applications require high...Scient. Instr., Vol. 44, 1973, p. 145. 46. Gabovich, M. D., Yu. N. Kozyrev , A. P. Nayda, L. S. Simonenko, I. A. Soloshenko, "H- Ion Beam Limit from a

Dynamics of ion beam charge neutralization by ferroelectric plasma sources

DOE PAGES

Stepanov, Anton D.; Gilson, Erik P.; Grisham, Larry R.; ...

2016-04-27

Ferroelectric Plasma Sources (FEPSs) can generate plasma that provides effective space-charge neutralization of intense high-perveance ion beams, as has been demonstrated on the Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment NDCX-I and NDCX-II. This article presents experimental results on charge neutralization of a high-perveance 38 keV Ar + beam by a plasma produced in a FEPS discharge. By comparing the measured beam radius with the envelope model for space-charge expansion, it is shown that a charge neutralization fraction of 98% is attainable with sufficiently dense FEPS plasma. The transverse electrostatic potential of the ion beam is reduced from 15V before neutralization to 0.3more » V, implying that the energy of the neutralizing electrons is below 0.3 eV. Measurements of the time-evolution of beam radius show that near-complete charge neutralization is established similar to –5 μs after the driving pulse is applied to the FEPS and can last for 35 μs. It is argued that the duration of neutralization is much longer than a reasonable lifetime of the plasma produced in the sub-mu s surface discharge. Measurements of current flow in the driving circuit of the FEPS show the existence of electron emission into vacuum, which lasts for tens of mu s after the high voltage pulse is applied. Lastly, it is argued that the beam is neutralized by the plasma produced by this process and not by a surface discharge plasma that is produced at the instant the high-voltage pulse is applied.« less

Near midplane scintillator-based fast ion loss detector on DIII-D.

PubMed

Chen, X; Fisher, R K; Pace, D C; García-Muñoz, M; Chavez, J A; Heidbrink, W W; Van Zeeland, M A

2012-10-01

A new scintillator-based fast-ion loss detector (FILD) installed near the outer midplane of the plasma has been commissioned on DIII-D. This detector successfully measures coherent fast ion losses produced by fast-ion driven instabilities (≤500 kHz). Combined with the first FILD at ∼45° below the outer midplane [R. K. Fisher, et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 81, 10D307 (2010)], the two-detector system measures poloidal variation of losses. The phase space sensitivity of the new detector (gyroradius r(L) ∼ [1.5-8] cm and pitch angle α ∼ [35°-85°]) is calibrated using neutral beam first orbit loss measurements. Since fast ion losses are localized poloidally, having two FILDs at different poloidal locations allows for the study of losses over a wider range of plasma shapes and types of loss orbits.

Electron Heating and the Farley-Buneman Instability in the Solar Chromosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buchert, Stephan

Convective motion in the solar chromosphere has generally more than enough energy to po-tentially explain observed heating, but the possible dissipation mechanisms disserve more con-sideration. When, driven by electric fields, neutrals and ions move at different fluid velocities, like it happens in the Earth's thermosphere, then ion-neutral collisions cause friction and Joule heating. Because of a relatively short neutral-ion collision time in the chromosphere, neutral motion is expected to follow the ions within less than a tenth of a second, canceling any elec-tric fields in the reference frame of the neutral gas. Thus only overshooting slip motion from Alfven waves with correspondigly high frequencies can cause frictional heating. In the Earth's lower thermosphere another mechanism, the Farley-Buneman instability, causes quite intense electron heating when the ExB velocity exceeds the ion-acoustic speed. Similar conditions can occur in the chromosphere as well, but again only due to overshooting motion. We have mod-eled electron heating from the Farley-Buneman instability in the chromosphere, assuming that the instability heats similar as in the Earth's ionosphere, but electrons are cooled by collisions with H atoms instead of atmospheric molecules. Then electron temperatures can become very high and the enhancements are eventually limited by radiative losses. Observed ubiquitous and persistent UV emission of the solar chromosphere could so be explained by the Farley-Buneman instability, if the emissions in reality are intermittent with time scales less than a second.

Pickup ion processes associated with spacecraft thrusters: Implications for solar probe plus

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Clemens, Adam, E-mail: a.j.clemens@qmul.ac.uk; Burgess, David

2016-03-15

Chemical thrusters are widely used in spacecraft for attitude control and orbital manoeuvres. They create an exhaust plume of neutral gas which produces ions via photoionization and charge exchange. Measurements of local plasma properties will be affected by perturbations caused by the coupling between the newborn ions and the plasma. A model of neutral expansion has been used in conjunction with a fully three-dimensional hybrid code to study the evolution and ionization over time of the neutral cloud produced by the firing of a mono-propellant hydrazine thruster as well as the interactions of the resulting ion cloud with the ambientmore » solar wind. Results are presented which show that the plasma in the region near to the spacecraft will be perturbed for an extended period of time with the formation of an interaction region around the spacecraft, a moderate amplitude density bow wave bounding the interaction region and evidence of an instability at the forefront of the interaction region which causes clumps of ions to be ejected from the main ion cloud quasi-periodically.« less

Short intense ion pulses for materials and warm dense matter research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seidl, Peter A.; Persaud, Arun; Waldron, William L.; Barnard, John J.; Davidson, Ronald C.; Friedman, Alex; Gilson, Erik P.; Greenway, Wayne G.; Grote, David P.; Kaganovich, Igor D.; Lidia, Steven M.; Stettler, Matthew; Takakuwa, Jeffrey H.; Schenkel, Thomas

2015-11-01

We have commenced experiments with intense short pulses of ion beams on the Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment-II at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, by generating beam spots size with radius r<1 mm within 2 ns FWHM and approximately 1010 ions/pulse. To enable the short pulse durations and mm-scale focal spot radii, the 1.2 MeV Li+ ion beam is neutralized in a 1.6-meter drift compression section located after the last accelerator magnet. An 8-Tesla short focal length solenoid compresses the beam in the presence of the large volume plasma near the end of this section before the target. The scientific topics to be explored are warm dense matter, the dynamics of radiation damage in materials, and intense beam and beam-plasma physics including selected topics of relevance to the development of heavy-ion drivers for inertial fusion energy. Here we describe the accelerator commissioning and time-resolved ionoluminescence measurements of yttrium aluminum perovskite using the fully integrated accelerator and neutralized drift compression components.

Reconstructing Ion Spectra from Low-Altitude ENAs: Moderate to Large Storms.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

LLera, K.; Goldstein, J.; McComas, D. J.; Valek, P. W.

2015-12-01

Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers (TWINS) Energetic neutral atom (ENA) imagers regularly observe Low-altitude Emission (LAE) intensifications during geomagnetic storm intervals. Since LAEs are produced by the interaction between ions and the near-Earth exosphere (altitudes ~200-800 km), they are a global signature of how the ring current decays in response to solar wind conditions. In this "optically thick" region, an ENA readily becomes reionized, and an ion is readily neutralized. Therefore, emerging ENAs that contribute to the LAE signal (detectable several RE away) have undergone multiple charge exchange and electron stripping interactions. Accounting for the ~36 eV energy loss per interaction, we developed a model to quantify the total energy lost by emergent LAEs. The analytical tool is applied to an ensemble of moderate to large storms (including the recent 17 March and 23 June storms in 2015) to reconstruct the parent ion spectra from TWINS ENA images. We examine the ion spectra energy characteristics among the various storm events.

Molecular dynamics simulations of Si etching in Cl- and Br-based plasmas: Cl{sup +} and Br{sup +} ion incidence in the presence of Cl and Br neutrals

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nakazaki, Nobuya, E-mail: nakazaki.nobuya.58x@st.kyoto-u.ac.jp; Takao, Yoshinori; Eriguchi, Koji

Classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been performed for Cl{sup +} and Br{sup +} ions incident on Si(100) surfaces with Cl and Br neutrals, respectively, to gain a better understanding of the ion-enhanced surface reaction kinetics during Si etching in Cl- and Br-based plasmas. The ions were incident normally on surfaces with translational energies in the range E{sub i} = 20–500 eV, and low-energy neutrals of E{sub n} = 0.01 eV were also incident normally thereon with the neutral-to-ion flux ratio in the range Γ{sub n}{sup 0}/Γ{sub i}{sup 0} = 0–100, where an improved Stillinger--Weber potential form was employed for the interatomic potential concerned. The etch yieldsmore » and thresholds presently simulated were in agreement with the experimental results previously reported for Si etching in Cl{sub 2} and Br{sub 2} plasmas as well as in Cl{sup +}, Cl{sub 2}{sup +}, and Br{sup +} beams, and the product stoichiometry simulated was consistent with that observed during Ar{sup +} beam incidence on Si in Cl{sub 2}. Moreover, the surface coverage of halogen atoms, halogenated layer thickness, surface stoichiometry, and depth profile of surface products simulated for Γ{sub n}{sup 0}/Γ{sub i}{sup 0} = 100 were in excellent agreement with the observations depending on E{sub i} reported for Si etching in Cl{sub 2} plasmas. The MD also indicated that the yield, coverage, and surface layer thickness are smaller in Si/Br than in Si/Cl system, while the percentage of higher halogenated species in product and surface stoichiometries is larger in Si/Br. The MD further indicated that in both systems, the translational energy distributions of products and halogen adsorbates desorbed from surfaces are approximated by two Maxwellians of temperature T{sub 1} ≈ 2500 K and T{sub 2} ≈ 7000–40 000 K. These energy distributions are discussed in terms of the desorption or evaporation from hot spots formed through chemically enhanced physical sputtering and physically enhanced chemical sputtering, which have so far been speculated to both occur in the ion-enhanced surface reaction kinetics of plasma etching.« less

Simulations of Atmospheric Neutral Wave Coupling to the Ionosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Siefring, C. L.; Bernhardt, P. A.

2005-12-01

The densities in the E- and F-layer plasmas are much less than the density of background neutral atmosphere. Atmospheric neutral waves are primary sources of plasma density fluctuations and are the sources for triggering plasma instabilities. The neutral atmosphere supports acoustic waves, acoustic gravity waves, and Kelvin Helmholtz waves from wind shears. These waves help determine the structure of the ionosphere by changes in neutral density that affect ion-electron recombination and by neutral velocities that couple to the plasma via ion-neutral collisions. Neutral acoustic disturbances can arise from thunderstorms, chemical factory explosions and intentional high-explosive tests. Based on conservation of energy, acoustic waves grow in amplitude as they propagate upwards to lower atmospheric densities. Shock waves can form in an acoustic pulse that is eventually damped by viscosity. Ionospheric effects from acoustic waves include transient perturbations of E- and F-Regions and triggering of E-Region instabilities. Acoustic-gravity waves affect the ionosphere over large distances. Gravity wave sources include thunderstorms, auroral region disturbances, Space Shuttle launches and possibly solar eclipses. Low frequency acoustic-gravity waves propagate to yield traveling ionospheric disturbances (TID's), triggering of Equatorial bubbles, and possible periodic structuring of the E-Region. Gravity wave triggering of equatorial bubbles is studied numerically by solving the equations for plasma continuity and ion velocity along with Ohms law to provide an equation for the induced electric potential. Slow moving gravity waves provide density depressions on bottom of ionosphere and a gravitational Rayleigh-Taylor instability is initiated. Radar scatter detects field aligned irregularities in the resulting plasma bubble. Neutral Kelvin-Helmholtz waves are produced by strong mesospheric wind shears that are also coincident with the formation of intense E-layers. An atmospheric model for periodic structures with Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) wavelengths is used to show the development of quasi-periodic structures in the E-layer. For the model, a background atmosphere near 100 km altitude with a scale height of 12.2 km is subjected to a wind shear profile varying by 100 m/s over a distance of 1.7 km. This neutral speed shear drives the KH instability with a growth time of about 100 seconds. The neutral KH wave is a source of plasma turbulence. The E-layer responds to the KH-Wave structure in the neutral atmosphere as an electrodynamic tracer. The plasma flow leads to small scale plasma field aligned irregularities from a gradient drift, plasma interchange instability (GDI) or a Farley-Buneman, two-stream instability (FBI). These irregularities are detected by radar scatter as quasi-periodic structures. All of these plasma phenomena would not occur without the initiation by neutral atmospheric waves.

Effective ion speeds at ˜200-250 km from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko near perihelion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vigren, E.; André, M.; Edberg, N. J. T.; Engelhardt, I. A. D.; Eriksson, A. I.; Galand, M.; Goetz, C.; Henri, P.; Heritier, K.; Johansson, F. L.; Nilsson, H.; Odelstad, E.; Rubin, M.; Stenberg-Wieser, G.; Tzou, C.-Y.; Vallières, X.

2017-07-01

In 2015 August, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the target comet of the ESA Rosetta mission, reached its perihelion at ˜1.24 au. Here, we estimate for a three-day period near perihelion, effective ion speeds at distances ˜200-250 km from the nucleus. We utilize two different methods combining measurements from the Rosetta Plasma Consortium (RPC)/Mutual Impedance Probe with measurements either from the RPC/Langmuir Probe or from the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA)/Comet Pressure Sensor (COPS) (the latter method can only be applied to estimate the effective ion drift speed). The obtained ion speeds, typically in the range 2-8 km s-1, are markedly higher than the expected neutral outflow velocity of ˜1 km s-1. This indicates that the ions were de-coupled from the neutrals before reaching the spacecraft location and that they had undergone acceleration along electric fields, not necessarily limited to acceleration along ambipolar electric fields in the radial direction. For the limited time period studied, we see indications that at increasing distances from the nucleus, the fraction of the ions' kinetic energy associated with radial drift motion is decreasing.

Neutral and Plasma Sources in the Saturn's Magnetosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jurac, S.; Johnson, R. E.

1999-05-01

The heavy ion plasma in Saturnian inner magnetosphere is derived from the icy satellites and ring particles imbedded in the plasma. Recent Hubble Space Telescope measurements of the densities of neutral OH molecules which co-exist with and are precursors of the plasma ions have constrained models for the plasma sources. Richardson et al (1998) considered all existing HST observations and derived water-like neutral densities and estimated required sources to maintain equilibrium. Their neutral densities show maximum close to Enceladus (where the E-ring density peaks) and their total neutral source rate needed to maintain neutrals in steady state is for an order of magnitude larger than source rate given by Shi et al (1995). We model the sputtering of water-ice using the recently developed Monte-Carlo collisional transport code, and calculate neutral supply rates from sputtering of Enceladus and the E-ring. This collisional code, used previously to evaluate sputtering from the interstellar grains (Jurac et al, 1998) is modified to include electronic processes relevant to water-ice sputtering, and then applied to the E-ring grains. It is shown that the grain erosion rate increases substantially when the ion penetration depth becomes comparable to the grain radius. The sputtering and collection rates for plasma ions and neutrals are evaluated and it is shown that the E-ring might be the dominant source of water-like neutrals in the Saturnian magnetosphere. We also describe competition between grain growth and erosion and discuss implications to the existing E-ring evolutionary models. References: Jurac S., R. E. Johnson, B. Donn; Astroph. J. 503, 247, 1998 Richardson, J. D., A. Eviatar, M. A. McGrath, V. M. Vasyliunas; J. Geophys. Res., 103, 20245, 1998 Shi, M., R.A. Baragiola, D.E. Grosjean, R.E. Johnson, S. Jurac and J. Schou; J. Geophys. Res., 100, 26387, 1995.

Improvement of a plasma uniformity of the 2nd ion source of KSTAR neutral beam injector.

PubMed

Jeong, S H; Kim, T S; Lee, K W; Chang, D H; In, S R; Bae, Y S

2014-02-01

The 2nd ion source of KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research) NBI (Neutral Beam Injector) had been developed and operated since last year. A calorimetric analysis revealed that the heat load of the back plate of the ion source is relatively higher than that of the 1st ion source of KSTAR NBI. The spatial plasma uniformity of the ion source is not good. Therefore, we intended to identify factors affecting the uniformity of a plasma density and improve it. We estimated the effects of a direction of filament current and a magnetic field configuration of the plasma generator on the plasma uniformity. We also verified that the operation conditions of an ion source could change a uniformity of the plasma density of an ion source.

Collision-induced fragmentation of negative ions from N-linked glycans derivatized with 2-aminobenzoic acid.

PubMed

Harvey, David J

2005-05-01

N-Linked glycans from bovine ribonuclease B, chicken ovalbumin, bovine fetuin, porcine thyroglobulin and human alpha(1)-acid glycoprotein were derivatized with 2-aminobenzoic acid by reductive amination and their tandem mass spectra were recorded by negative ion electrospray ionization with a quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Derivatives were also prepared from 2-amino-5-methyl- and 2-amino-4,5-dimethoxybenzoic acid in order to confirm the identity of fragment ions containing the reducing terminus. Major fragments from the [M - H](-) ions from the neutral glycans retained the derivative (Y-type cleavages) and provided information on sequence and branching. Other major fragments were products of A-type cross-ring cleavages giving information on antenna structure. Singly doubly and triply charged ions were formed from sialylated glycans. They produced major fragments by loss of sialic acid and a series of singly charged ions that were similar to those from the neutral analogues. Doubly charge ions were also produced by the neutral glycans and were fragmented to form product ions with one and two charges. Again, the fragment ions with a single charge were similar to those from the singly charged parents, but branching information was less obvious because of the occurrence of more abundant ions produced by multiple cleavages. Detection limits were around 200 fmol (3 : 1 signal-to-noise ratio). Copyright 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Collisional Cooling of Light Ions by Cotrapped Heavy Atoms.

PubMed

Dutta, Sourav; Sawant, Rahul; Rangwala, S A

2017-03-17

We experimentally demonstrate cooling of trapped ions by collisions with cotrapped, higher-mass neutral atoms. It is shown that the lighter ^{39}K^{+} ions, created by ionizing ^{39}K atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT), when trapped in an ion trap and subsequently allowed to cool by collisions with ultracold, heavier ^{85}Rb atoms in a MOT, exhibit a longer trap lifetime than without the localized ^{85}Rb MOT atoms. A similar cooling of trapped ^{85}Rb^{+} ions by ultracold ^{133}Cs atoms in a MOT is also demonstrated in a different experimental configuration to validate this mechanism of ion cooling by localized and centered ultracold neutral atoms. Our results suggest that the cooling of ions by localized cold atoms holds for any mass ratio, thereby enabling studies on a wider class of atom-ion systems irrespective of their masses.

Venus ionosphere: photochemical and thermal diffusion control of ion composition.

PubMed

Bauer, S J; Donahue, T M; Hartle, R E; Taylor, H A

1979-07-06

The major photochemical sources and sinks for ten of the ions measured by the ion mass spectrometer on the Pioneer Venus bus and orbiter spacecraft that are consistent with the neutral gas composition measured on the same spacecraft have been identified. The neutral gas temperature (Tn) as a function of solar zenith angle (chi) derived from measured ion distributions in photochemical equilibrium is given by Tn (K) = 323 cos(1/5)chi. Above 200 kilometers, the altitude behavior of ions is generally controlled by plasma diffusion, with important modifications for minor ions due to thermal diffusion resulting from the observed gradients of plasma temperatures. The dayside equilibrium distributions of ions are sometimes perturbed by plasma convection, while lateral transport of ions from the dayside seems to be a major source of the nightside ionosphere.

Effects of MHD instabilities on neutral beam current drive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Podestà, M.; Gorelenkova, M.; Darrow, D. S.; Fredrickson, E. D.; Gerhardt, S. P.; White, R. B.

2015-05-01

Neutral beam injection (NBI) is one of the primary tools foreseen for heating, current drive (CD) and q-profile control in future fusion reactors such as ITER and a Fusion Nuclear Science Facility. However, fast ions from NBI may also provide the drive for energetic particle-driven instabilities (e.g. Alfvénic modes (AEs)), which in turn redistribute fast ions in both space and energy, thus hampering the control capabilities and overall efficiency of NB-driven current. Based on experiments on the NSTX tokamak (M. Ono et al 2000 Nucl. Fusion 40 557), the effects of AEs and other low-frequency magneto-hydrodynamic instabilities on NB-CD efficiency are investigated. A new fast ion transport model, which accounts for particle transport in phase space as required for resonant AE perturbations, is utilized to obtain consistent simulations of NB-CD through the tokamak transport code TRANSP. It is found that instabilities do indeed reduce the NB-driven current density over most of the plasma radius by up to ∼50%. Moreover, the details of the current profile evolution are sensitive to the specific model used to mimic the interaction between NB ions and instabilities. Implications for fast ion transport modeling in integrated tokamak simulations are briefly discussed.

Effects of MHD instabilities on neutral beam current drive

DOE PAGES

Podestà, M.; Gorelenkova, M.; Darrow, D. S.; ...

2015-04-17

One of the primary tools foreseen for heating, current drive (CD) and q-profile control in future fusion reactors such as ITER and a Fusion Nuclear Science Facility is the neutral beam injection (NBI). However, fast ions from NBI may also provide the drive for energetic particle-driven instabilities (e.g. Alfvénic modes (AEs)), which in turn redistribute fast ions in both space and energy, thus hampering the control capabilities and overall efficiency of NB-driven current. Based on experiments on the NSTX tokamak (M. Ono et al 2000 Nucl. Fusion 40 557), the effects of AEs and other low-frequency magneto-hydrodynamic instabilities on NB-CDmore » efficiency are investigated. When looking at the new fast ion transport model, which accounts for particle transport in phase space as required for resonant AE perturbations, is utilized to obtain consistent simulations of NB-CD through the tokamak transport code TRANSP. It is found that instabilities do indeed reduce the NB-driven current density over most of the plasma radius by up to ~50%. Moreover, the details of the current profile evolution are sensitive to the specific model used to mimic the interaction between NB ions and instabilities. Finally, implications for fast ion transport modeling in integrated tokamak simulations are briefly discussed.« less

Electron precipitation control of the Mars nightside ionosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lillis, R. J.; Girazian, Z.; Mitchell, D. L.; Adams, D.; Xu, S.; Benna, M.; Elrod, M. K.; Larson, D. E.; McFadden, J. P.; Andersson, L.; Fowler, C. M.

2017-12-01

The nightside ionosphere of Mars is known to be highly variable, with densities varying substantially with ion species, solar zenith angle, solar wind conditions and geographic location. The factors that control its structure include neutral densities, day-night plasma transport, plasma temperatures, dynamo current systems driven by neutral winds, solar energetic particle events, superthermal electron precipitation, chemical reaction rates and the strength, geometry and topology of crustal magnetic fields. The MAVEN mission has been the first to systematically sample the nightside ionosphere by species, showing that shorter-lived species such as CO2+ and O+ are more correlated with electron precipitation flux than longer lived species such as O2+ and NO+, as would be expected, and is shown in the figure below from Girazian et al. [2017, under review at Geophysical Research Letters]. In this study we use electron pitch-angle and energy spectra from the Solar Wind Electron Analyzer (SWEA) and Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) instruments, ion and neutral densities from the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS), electron densities and temperatures from the Langmuir Probe and Waves (LPW) instrument, as well as electron-neutral ionization cross-sections. We present a comprehensive statistical study of electron precipitation on the Martian nightside and its effect on the vertical, local-time and geographic structure and composition of the ionosphere, over three years of MAVEN observations. We also calculate insitu electron impact ionization rates and compare with ion densities to judge the applicability of photochemical models of the formation and maintenance of the nightside ionosphere. Lastly, we show how this applicability varies with altitude and is affected by ion transport measured by the Suprathermal and thermal Ion Composition (STATIC) instrument.

Aza compounds as anion receptors

DOEpatents

Lee, H.S.; Yang, X.Q.; McBreen, J.

1998-01-06

A family of aza-ether based compounds including linear, multi-branched and aza-crown ethers is provided. When added to non-aqueous battery electrolytes, the family of aza-ether based compounds acts as neutral receptors to complex the anion moiety of the electrolyte salt thereby increasing the conductivity and the transference number of Li{sup +} ion in alkali metal batteries. 3 figs.

Aza compounds as anion receptors

DOEpatents

Lee, Hung Sui; Yang, Xiao-Qing; McBreen, James

1998-01-06

A family of aza-ether based compounds including linear, multi-branched and aza-crown ethers is provided. When added to non-aqueous battery electrolytes, the family of aza-ether based compounds acts as neutral receptors to complex the anion moiety of the electrolyte salt thereby increasing the conductivity and the transference number of Li.sup.+ ion in alkali metal batteries.

Spectroscopic method to study low charge state ion and cold electron population in ECRIS plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kronholm, R.; Kalvas, T.; Koivisto, H.; Tarvainen, O.

2018-04-01

The results of optical emission spectroscopy experiments probing the cold electron population of a 14 GHz Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Source (ECRIS) are reported. The study has been conducted with a high resolution spectrometer and data acquisition setup developed specifically for the diagnostics of weak emission line characteristic to ECRIS plasmas. The optical emission lines of low charge state ions and neutral atoms of neon have been measured and analyzed with the line-ratio method. The aforementioned electron population temperature of the cold electron population (Te < 100 eV) is determined for Maxwell-Boltzmann and Druyvesteyn energy distributions to demonstrate the applicability of the method. The temperature was found to change significantly when the extraction voltage of the ion source is turned on/off. In the case of the Maxwellian distribution, the temperature of the cold electron population is 20 ± 10 eV when the extraction voltage is off and 40 ± 10 eV when it is on. The optical emission measurements revealed that the extraction voltage also affects both neutral and ion densities. Based on the rate coefficient analysis with the aforementioned temperatures, switching the extraction voltage off decreases the rate coefficient of neutral to 1+ ionization to 42% and 1+ to 2+ ionization to 24% of the original. This suggests that switching the extraction voltage on favors ionization to charge states ≥2+ and, thus, the charge state distributions of ECRIS plasmas are probably different with the extraction voltage on/off. It is therefore concluded that diagnostics results of ECRIS plasmas obtained without the extraction voltage are not depicting the plasma conditions in normal ECRIS operation.

Mass spectrometric characterization of tamoxifene metabolites in human urine utilizing different scan parameters on liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Mazzarino, Monica; de la Torre, Xavier; Di Santo, Roberto; Fiacco, Ilaria; Rosi, Federica; Botrè, Francesco

2010-03-01

Different liquid chromatographic/tandem mass spectrometric (LC/MS/MS) scanning techniques were considered for the characterization of tamoxifene metabolites in human urine for anti-doping purpose. Five different LC/MS/MS scanning methods based on precursor ion scan (precursor ion scan of m/z 166, 152 and 129) and neutral loss scan (neutral loss of 72 Da and 58 Da) in positive ion mode were assessed to recognize common ions or common losses of tamoxifene metabolites. The applicability of these methods was checked first by infusion and then by the injection of solution of a mixture of reference standards of four tamoxifene metabolites available in our laboratory. The data obtained by the analyses of the mixture of the reference standards showed that the five methods used exhibited satisfactory results for all tamoxifene metabolites considered at a concentration level of 100 ng/mL, whereas the analysis of blank urine samples spiked with the same tamoxifene metabolites at the same concentration showed that the neutral loss scan of 58 Da lacked sufficient specificity and sensitivity. The limit of detection in urine of the compounds studied was in the concentration range 10-100 ng/mL, depending on the compound structure and on the selected product ion. The suitability of these approaches was checked by the analysis of urine samples collected after the administration of a single dose of 20 mg of tamoxifene. Six metabolites were detected: 4-hydroxytamoxifene, 3,4-dihydroxytamoxifene, 3-hydroxy-4-methoxytamoxifene, N-demethyl-4-hydroxytamoxifene, tamoxifene-N-oxide and N-demethyl-3-hydroxy-4-methoxytamoxifene, which is in conformity to our previous work using a time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometer in full scan acquisition mode. Copyright (c) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Charge-Exchange Neutral Particle Analyzer for an Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion Device

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Becerra, Gabriel; Kulcinski, Gerald; Santarius, John; Emmert, Gilbert

2013-10-01

An electrostatic energy analyzer for outgoing charge-exchange neutral particles has been designed and constructed for application on HELIOS, an inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion device designed for advanced fuel studies. Ions are extracted from an external helicon plasma source and subsequently accelerated radially into an electrostatic potential well set up by a semi-transparent cathode grid inside the HELIOS spherical chamber. Analysis of fast neutrals produced by charge exchange between energetic ions and background gas yields information on primary ion energy spectra, as well as a quantitative measure of charge exchange as an energy loss mechanism in IEC devices. Preliminary data with helium is used to benchmark the two-charge-state helium formalism of VICTER, a numerical code on spherically convergent ion flow, as it relates to IEC operation with helium-3 fuel. Research supported by the Greatbatch Foundation.

SERENA: A suite of four instruments (ELENA, STROFIO, PICAM and MIPA) on board BepiColombo-MPO for particle detection in the Hermean environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orsini, S.; Livi, S.; Torkar, K.; Barabash, S.; Milillo, A.; Wurz, P.; di Lellis, A. M.; Kallio, E.; The Serena Team

2010-01-01

'Search for Exospheric Refilling and Emitted Natural Abundances' (SERENA) is an instrument package that will fly on board the BepiColombo/Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO). It will investigate Mercury's complex particle environment that is composed of thermal and directional neutral atoms (exosphere) caused by surface release and charge-exchange processes, and of ionized particles caused by photo-ionization of neutrals as well by charge exchange and surface release processes. In order to investigate the structure and dynamics of the environment, an in-situ analysis of the key neutral and charged components is necessary, and for this purpose the SERENA instrument shall include four units: two neutral particle analyzers (Emitted Low Energy Neutral Atoms (ELENA) sensor and Start from a Rotating FIeld mass spectrometer (STROFIO)) and two ion spectrometers (Miniature Ion Precipitation Analyzer (MIPA) and Planetary Ion Camera (PICAM)). The scientific merits of SERENA are presented, and the basic characteristics of the four units are described, with a focus on novel technological aspects.

Calculation of low-Z impurity pellet induced fluxes of charge exchange neutral particles escaping from magnetically confined toroidal plasmas.

PubMed

Goncharov, P R; Ozaki, T; Sudo, S; Tamura, N; Tolstikhina, I Yu; Sergeev, V Yu

2008-10-01

Measurements of energy- and time-resolved neutral hydrogen and helium fluxes from an impurity pellet ablation cloud, referred to as pellet charge exchange or PCX experiments, can be used to study local fast ion energy distributions in fusion plasmas. The estimation of the local distribution function f(i)(E) of fast ions entering the cloud requires knowledge of both the fraction F(0)(E) of incident ions exiting the cloud as neutral atoms and the attenuation factor A(E,rho) describing the loss of fast atoms in the plasma. Determination of A(E,rho), in turn, requires the total stopping cross section sigma(loss) of neutral atoms in the plasma and the Jacobian reflecting the measurement geometry and the magnetic surface shape. The obtained functions F(0)(E) and A(E,rho) enter multiplicatively into the probability density for escaping neutral particle kinetic energy. A general calculation scheme has been developed and realized as a FORTRAN code, which is to be applied for the calculation of f(i)(E) from PCX experimental results obtained with low-Z impurity pellets.

Electrostatic wave modulation in collisional pair-ion plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sikdar, Arnab; Adak, Ashish; Ghosh, Samiran; Khan, Manoranjan

2018-05-01

The effects of ion-neutral collision on the electrostatic wave packets in the absence of the magnetic field in a pair-ion plasma have been investigated. Considering a two-fluid plasma model with the help of the standard perturbation technique, two distinct electrostatic modes have been observed, namely, a low-frequency ion acoustic mode and a high-frequency ion plasma mode. The dynamics of the modulated wave is governed by a damped nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Damping of the soliton occurs due to the ion-neutral collision. The analytical and numerical investigation reveals that the ion acoustic mode is both stable and unstable, which propagates in the form of dark solitons and bright solitons, respectively, whereas the ion plasma mode is unstable, propagating in the form of a bright soliton. Results are discussed in the context of the fullerene pair-ion plasma experiments.

Analysis techniques for diagnosing runaway ion distributions in the reversed field pinch

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kim, J., E-mail: jkim536@wisc.edu; Anderson, J. K.; Capecchi, W.

2016-11-15

An advanced neutral particle analyzer (ANPA) on the Madison Symmetric Torus measures deuterium ions of energy ranges 8-45 keV with an energy resolution of 2-4 keV and time resolution of 10 μs. Three different experimental configurations measure distinct portions of the naturally occurring fast ion distributions: fast ions moving parallel, anti-parallel, or perpendicular to the plasma current. On a radial-facing port, fast ions moving perpendicular to the current have the necessary pitch to be measured by the ANPA. With the diagnostic positioned on a tangent line through the plasma core, a chord integration over fast ion density, background neutral density,more » and local appropriate pitch defines the measured sample. The plasma current can be reversed to measure anti-parallel fast ions in the same configuration. Comparisons of energy distributions for the three configurations show an anisotropic fast ion distribution favoring high pitch ions.« less

Ion propulsion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meserole, J. S.; Keefer, Dennis; Ruyten, Wilhelmus; Peng, Xiaohang

1995-01-01

An ion engine is a plasma thruster which produces thrust by extracting ions from the plasma and accelerating them to high velocity with an electrostatic field. The ions are then neutralized and leave the engine as high velocity neutral particles. The advantages of ion engines are high specific impulse and efficiency and their ability to operate over a wide range of input powers. In comparison with other electric thrusters, the ion engine has higher efficiency and specific impulse than thermal electric devices such as the arcjet, microwave, radiofrequency and laser heated thrusters and can operate at much lower current levels than the MPD thruster. However, the thrust level for an ion engine may be lower than a thermal electric thruster of the same operating power, consistent with its higher specific impulse, and therefore ion engines are best suited for missions which can tolerate longer duration propulsive phases. The critical issue for the ion engine is lifetime, since the prospective missions may require operation for several thousands of hours. The critical components of the ion engine, with respect to engine lifetime, are the screen and accelerating grid structures. Typically, these are large metal screens that must support a large voltage difference and maintain a small gap between them. Metallic whisker growth, distortion and vibration can lead to arcing, and over a long period of time ion sputtering will erode the grid structures and change their geometry. In order to study the effects of long time operation of the grid structure, we are developing computer codes based on the Particle-In-Cell (PIC) technique and Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) diagnostic techniques to study the physical processes which control the performance and lifetime of the grid structures.

Spin-orbit coupling and surface magnetism coexisting in spin-dependent low-energy He+-ion surface scattering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suzuki, T. T.; Sakai, O.

2017-04-01

Surface magnetism is analyzed by spin-dependent He+-ion neutralization (the Auger neutralization) in the vicinity of a surface using an electron spin-polarized low-energy He+-ion beam [spin-polarized ion scattering spectroscopy (SP-ISS)]. Recently, spin-orbit coupling (SOC) has been found to act as another mechanism of spin-dependent low-energy He+-ion scattering. Thus, it is crucial for surface magnetism analyses by SP-ISS to separate those two mechanisms. In the present study, we investigated the spin-induced asymmetry in scattering of low-energy He+ ions on ultrathin Au and Sn films as well as the oxygen adsorbate on a magnetized-Fe(100) surface where these two mechanisms may coexist. We found that the Fe surface magnetism immediately disappeared with the growth of those overlayers. On the other hand, we observed no induced spin polarization in the Au and Sn thin films even in the very initial stage of the growth. We also observed that the spin asymmetry of the O adsorbate was induced by the magnetism of the underlying Fe substrate. The present study demonstrates that the two mechanisms of the spin-asymmetric He+-ion scattering (the ion neutralization and SOC) can be separated by an azimuthal-angle-resolved SP-ISS measurement.

Electrostatic attraction between neutral microdroplets by ion fluctuations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheng, Yu-Jane; Tsao, Heng-Kwong

2004-06-01

The interaction between two aqueous droplets containing ions is investigated. The ion-fluctuation correlation gives rise to attraction between two neutral microdroplets, similar to the van der Waals interaction between neutral atoms. Electrostatic attraction consists of contributions from various induced multipole-multipole interactions, including dipole-dipole < P2z >2 r-6 , dipole-quadrupole < P2z > < Q 2zz > r-8 , dipole-octupole < P2z > < O 2zzz > r-10 , and quadrupole-quadrupole interactions < Q 2zz >2 r-10 . The mean-square multipole moments are determined analytically by linear response theory. The fluctuation-driven attraction is so strong at short distance that it may dominate over the Coulomb repulsion between like-charged droplets. These theoretical results are confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations.

Electrostatic attraction between neutral microdroplets by ion fluctuations.

PubMed

Sheng, Yu-Jane; Tsao, Heng-Kwong

2004-06-01

The interaction between two aqueous droplets containing ions is investigated. The ion-fluctuation correlation gives rise to attraction between two neutral microdroplets, similar to the van der Waals interaction between neutral atoms. Electrostatic attraction consists of contributions from various induced multipole-multipole interactions, including dipole-dipole < P(2)(z) >(2) r(-6), dipole-quadrupole < P(2)(z) > < Q (2)(zz ) > r(-8), dipole-octupole < P(2)(z) > < O (2)(zzz ) > r(-10), and quadrupole-quadrupole interactions < Q (2)(zz ) >(2) r(-10). The mean-square multipole moments are determined analytically by linear response theory. The fluctuation-driven attraction is so strong at short distance that it may dominate over the Coulomb repulsion between like-charged droplets. These theoretical results are confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations.

Ion size effects upon ionic exclusion from dielectric interfaces and slit nanopores

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buyukdagli, Sahin; Achim, C. V.; Ala-Nissila, T.

2011-05-01

A previously developed field-theoretic model (Coalson et al 1995 J. Chem. Phys. 102 4584) that treats core collisions and Coulomb interactions on the same footing is investigated in order to understand ion size effects on the partition of neutral and charged particles at planar interfaces and the ionic selectivity of slit nanopores. We introduce a variational scheme that can go beyond the mean-field (MF) regime and couple in a consistent way pore-modified core interactions, steric effects, electrostatic solvation and image-charge forces, and surface charge induced electrostatic potential. Density profiles of neutral particles in contact with a neutral hard wall, obtained from Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are compared with the solutions of mean-field and variational equations. A recently proposed random-phase approximation (RPA) method is tested as well. We show that in the dilute limit, the MF and the variational theories agree well with simulation results, in contrast to the RPA method. The partition of charged Yukawa particles at a neutral dielectric interface (e.g. an air-water or protein-water interface) is investigated. It is shown that as a result of the competition between core collisions that push the ions toward the surface, and repulsive solvation and image forces that exclude them from the interface, a concentration peak of finite size ions sets in close to the dielectric interface. This effect is amplified with increasing ion size and bulk concentration. An integral expression for the surface tension that accounts for excluded volume effects is computed and the decrease of the surface tension with increasing ion size is illustrated. We also characterize the role played by the ion size in the ionic selectivity of neutral slit nanopores. We show that the complex interplay between electrostatic forces, excluded volume effects induced by core collisions and steric effects leads to an unexpected reversal in the ionic selectivity of the pore with varying pore size: while large pores exhibit a higher conductivity for large ions, narrow pores exclude large ions more efficiently than small ones.

Considering ionic state in modeling sorption of pharmaceuticals to sewage sludge.

PubMed

Rybacka, Aleksandra; Andersson, Patrik L

2016-12-01

Information on the partitioning of chemicals between particulate matter and water in sewage treatment plants (STPs) can be used to predict their subsequent environmental fate. However, this information can be challenging to acquire, especially for pharmaceuticals that are frequently present in ionized forms. This study investigated the relationship between the ionization state of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and their partitioning between water and sludge in STPs. We also investigated the underlying mechanisms of sludge sorption by using chemical descriptors based on ionized structures, and evaluated the usefulness of these descriptors in quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR) modeling. K D values were collected for 110 APIs, which were classified as neutral, positive, or negative at pH 7. The models with the highest performance had the R 2 Y and Q 2 values of above 0.75 and 0.65, respectively. We found that the dominant intermolecular forces governing the interactions of neutral and positively charged APIs with sludge are hydrophobic, pi-pi, and dipole-dipole interactions, whereas the interactions of negatively charged APIs with sludge were mainly governed by covalent bonding as well as ion-ion, ion-dipole, and dipole-dipole interactions; hydrophobicity-driven interactions were rather unimportant. Including charge-related descriptors improved the models' performance by 5-10%, underlining the importance of electrostatic interactions. The use of descriptors calculated for ionized structures did not improve the model statistics for positive and negative APIs, but slightly increased model performance for neutral APIs. We attribute this to a better description of neutral zwitterions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of a mass spectrometer for planetary exosphere exploration: from simulations to a flight like design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meyer, Stefan; Tulej, Marek; Wurz, Peter

2017-04-01

The exploration of habitable environments around the gas giants in the Solar System is of major interest in upcoming planetary missions. Exactly this theme is addressed by the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission of ESA, which will characterise Ganymede, Europa and Callisto as planetary objects and potential habitats [1], [2]. We developed a prototype of the Neutral gas and Ion Mass spectrometer (NIM) of the Particle Environment Package (PEP) for the JUICE mission intended for composition measurements of neutral gas and thermal plasma [3]. NIM/PEP will be used to measure the chemical composition of the exospheres of the icy Jovian moons. Besides direct ion measurement, the NIM instrument is able to measure the inflowing neutral gas in two different modes: in neutral mode the gas enters directly the ion source (open source) and in thermal mode, the gas gets thermally accommodated to wall temperature by several collisions inside an equilibrium sphere before entering the ion source (closed source). We started the development of NIM with detailed ion-optical simulations and optimisations using SIMION software. Based on the ion-optical design we developed a prototype of NIM with several iterations. We tested the prototype NIM under realistic mission conditions and thereby successfully verified its required functionality. We will present the development process from ion-optical simulation up to NIM prototype test results and the concluded flight like design. Furthermore, we will provide an insight into the working principle of NIM and its performance, based on measurement data. References: 1) ESA, "JUICE assessment study report (Yellow Book)", ESA/SRE(2011)18, 2012. 2) O. Grasset, M.K. Dougherty, A. Coustenis, E.J. Bunce, C. Erd, D. Titov, M. Blanc, A. Coates, P. Drossart, L.N. Fletcher, H. Hussmann, R. Jaumann, N. Krupp, J.-P. Lebreton, O. Prieto-Ballesteros, P. Tortora, F. Tosi, T. Van Hoolst, "JUpiter Icy moons Explorer (JUICE): An ESA mission to orbit Ganymede and to characterise the Jupiter system", Planet. Space Sci., 2013, 78, pp. 1 - 21. 3) S. Barabash, P. Wurz, P. Brandt, M. Wieser, M. Holmström, Y. Futaana, G. Stenberg, H. Nilsson, A. Eriksson, M. Tulej, A. Vorburger, N. Thomas, C. Paranicas, D.G. Mitchell, G. Ho, B.H. Mauk, D. Haggerty, J.H. Westlake, M. Fränz, N. Krupp, E. Roussos, E. Kallio, W. Schmidt, K. Szego, S. Szalai, K. Khurana, Xianzhe Jia, C. Paty, R.F. Wimmer-Schweingruber, B. Heber, K. Asamura, M. Grande, H. Lammer, T. Zhang, S. McKenna-Lawlor, S.M. Krimigis, T. Sarris, and D. Grodent, "Particle Environment Package (PEP)," proceedings of the European Planetary Science Congress, 8 (2013), EPSC2013-709.

Laboratory Studies of Thermal Energy Charge Transfer of Silicon and Iron Ions in Astrophysical Plasmas

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kwong, Victor H. S.

1997-01-01

The laser ablation/ion storage facility at the UNLV Physics Department is dedicated to the study of atomic processes in low temperature plasmas. Our current program is directed to the study of charge transfer of multiply charged ions and neutrals that are of importance to astrophysics at energies less than 1 eV (about 10(exp 4) K). Specifically, we measure the charge transfer rate coefficient of ions such as N(2+), Si(3+), Si(3+), with helium and Fe(2+) with molecular and atomic hydrogen. All these ions are found in a variety of astrophysical plasmas. Their electron transfer reactions with neutral atoms can affect the ionization equilibrium of the plasma.

Miniature Free-Space Electrostatic Ion Thrusters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartley, Frank T.; Stephens, James B.

2006-01-01

A miniature electrostatic ion thruster is proposed for maneuvering small spacecraft. In a thruster based on this concept, one or more propellant gases would be introduced into an ionizer based on the same principles as those of the device described in an earlier article, "Miniature Bipolar Electrostatic Ion Thruster". On the front side, positive ions leaving an ionizer element would be accelerated to high momentum by an electric field between the ionizer and an accelerator grid around the periphery of the concave laminate structure. On the front side, electrons leaving an ionizer element would be ejected into free space by a smaller accelerating field. The equality of the ion and electron currents would eliminate the need for an additional electron- or ion-emitting device to keep the spacecraft charge-neutral. In a thruster design consisting of multiple membrane ionizers in a thin laminate structure with a peripheral accelerator grid, the direction of thrust could then be controlled (without need for moving parts in the thruster) by regulating the supply of gas to specific ionizer.

The BepiColombo Serena/ELENA instrument: performances and testing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orsini, Stefano; De Angelis, Elisabetta; Selci, Stefano; Di Lellis, Andrea; Leoni, Roberto; Rispoli, Rosanna; Colasanti, Luca; Vertolli, Nello; Mura, Alessandro; Milillo, Anna; D'Alessandro, Marco; Mattioli, Francesco; Maschietti, Daniele; Brienza, Daniele; Scheer, Juergen; Wurz, Peter

2013-04-01

The neutral sensor ELENA (Emitted Low-Energy Neutral Atoms) for the ESA cornerstone BepiColombo mission to Mercury (in the SERENA instrument package) is a new kind of low energetic neutral atoms instrument, mostly devoted to sputtering emission from planetary surfaces, from E ~20 eV up to E~5 keV, within 1-D (4.5°x76°). ELENA is a Time of Flight instrument, based on the novel concept of ultra-sonic oscillating shutter as Start section and MCP detector with 32 discrete anodes as a direct Stop section. ELENA will monitor the emission of neutral atoms from the whole surface of Mercury allowing to investigate the interaction between the environment and the planet, the global particle loss-rate and the remote sensing of the surface properties. In particular, surface release processes are investigated by identifying particles release from the surface via solar wind-induced ion sputtering (<1eV - >100 eV) as well as Hydrogen back-scattered at hundreds eV. The results of ELENA performance test, will be presented: the innovative Shutter system (Start section) operating at requested frequencies (around 43kHz), the ion rejection capability of double deflection system, the Stop detector, the electronic boards, the validation test.

Resonant neutral-particle emission in collisions of electrons with peptide ions in a storage ring.

PubMed

Tanabe, T; Noda, K; Saito, M; Lee, S; Ito, Y; Takagi, H

2003-05-16

Electron-biomolecular ion collisions were studied using an electrostatic storage ring with a merging beam technique for singly protonated peptides (angiotensin I, II, and III). A strong neutral-particle emission at around 6.5 eV was found in addition to neutrals from recombination at low energies. The rates of the high-energy peak greatly decreased with a slight decrease in the number of amino-acid residues from angiotensin I to III. These results suggest that some peptide bonds were selectively cleaved.

Ion beam enhancement in magnetically insulated ion diodes for high-intensity pulsed ion beam generation in non-relativistic mode

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, X. P.; Zhang, Z. C.; Pushkarev, A. I.; Lei, M. K.

2016-01-01

High-intensity pulsed ion beam (HIPIB) with ion current density above Child-Langmuir limit is achieved by extracting ion beam from anode plasma of ion diodes with suppressing electron flow under magnetic field insulation. It was theoretically estimated that with increasing the magnetic field, a maximal value of ion current density may reach nearly 3 times that of Child-Langmuir limit in a non-relativistic mode and close to 6 times in a highly relativistic mode. In this study, the behavior of ion beam enhancement by magnetic insulation is systematically investigated in three types of magnetically insulated ion diodes (MIDs) with passive anode, taking into account the anode plasma generation process on the anode surface. A maximal enhancement factor higher than 6 over the Child-Langmuir limit can be obtained in the non-relativistic mode with accelerating voltage of 200-300 kV. The MIDs differ in two anode plasma formation mechanisms, i.e., surface flashover of a dielectric coating on the anode and explosive emission of electrons from the anode, as well as in two insulation modes of external-magnetic field and self-magnetic field with either non-closed or closed drift of electrons in the anode-cathode (A-K) gap, respectively. Combined with ion current density measurement, energy density characterization is employed to resolve the spatial distribution of energy density before focusing for exploring the ion beam generation process. Consistent results are obtained on three types of MIDs concerning control of neutralizing electron flows for the space charge of ions where the high ion beam enhancement is determined by effective electron neutralization in the A-K gap, while the HIPIB composition of different ion species downstream from the diode may be considerably affected by the ion beam neutralization during propagation.

Interaction of slow highly charged ions with a metal surface covered with a thin dielectric film. The role of the neutralization energy in the nanostructures formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Majkić, M. D.; Nedeljković, N. N.; Dojčilović, R. J.

2017-09-01

We consider the slow highly charged ions impinging upon a metal surface covered with a thin dielectric film, and formation of the surface nanostructures (craters) from the standpoint of the required energy. For the moderate ionic velocities, the size of the surface features depends on the deposited kinetic energy of the projectile and the ionic neutralization energy. The neutralization energy is calculated by employing the recently developed quasi-resonant two-state vector model for the intermediate Rydberg state population and the micro-staircase model for the cascade neutralization. The electron interactions with the ionic core, polarized dielectric and charge induced on the metal surface are modelled by the appropriate asymptotic expressions and the method for calculation of the effective ionic charges in the dielectric is proposed. The results are presented for the interaction of \\text{X}{{\\text{e}}Z+} ions (velocity v=0.25 a.u.; 25) with the metal surface (Co) covered with a thin dielectric film, for model values of dielectric constant inside the interaction region. In the absence of dielectric film, the neutralization energy is lower than the potential (ionization) energy due to the incomplete neutralization. The presence of dielectric film additionally decreases the neutralization energy. We calculate the projectile neutralization energy in the perturbed dielectric (perturbation is caused by the ionic motion and the surface structure formation). We correlate the neutralization energy added to the deposited kinetic energy with the experimentally obtained energy necessary for the formation of the nano-crater of a given depth.

Pickup Ion Velocity Distributions at Titan: Effects of Spatial Gradients

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartle, R. E.; Sittler, E. C.

2004-01-01

The principle source of pickup ions at Titan is its neutral exosphere, extending well above the ionopause into the magnetosphere of Saturn or the solar wind, depending on the moon's orbital position. Thermal and nonthermal processes in the thermosphere generate the distribution of neutral atoms and molecules in the exosphere. The combination of these processes and the range of mass numbers, 1 to over 28, contribute to an exospheric source structure that produces pickup ions with gyroradii that are much larger or smaller than the corresponding scale heights of their neutral sources. The resulting phase space distributions are dependent on the spatial structure of the exosphere as well as that of the magnetic field and background plasma. When the pickup ion gyroradius is less than the source gas scale height, the pickup ion velocity distribution is characterized by a sharp cutoff near the maximum speed, which is twice that of the ambient plasma times the sine of the angle between the magnetic field and the flow velocity. This was the case for pickup H(sup +) ions identified during the Voyager 1 flyby. In contrast, as the gyroradius becomes much larger than the scale height, the peak of the velocity distribution in the source region recedes from the maximum speed. Iri addition, the amplitude of the distribution near the maximum speed decreases. These more beam like distributions of heavy ions were not observed from Voyager 1 , but should be observable by more sensitive instruments on future spacecraft, including Cassini. The finite gyroradius effects in the pickup ion velocity distributions are studied by including in the analysis the possible range of spatial structures in the neutral exosphere and background plasma.

Kinetic modeling of auroral ion outflows observed by the VISIONS sounding rocket

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Albarran, R. M.; Zettergren, M. D.

2017-12-01

The VISIONS (VISualizing Ion Outflow via Neutral atom imaging during a Substorm) sounding rocket was launched on Feb. 7, 2013 at 8:21 UTC from Poker Flat, Alaska, into an auroral substorm with the objective of identifying the drivers and dynamics of the ion outflow below 1000km. Energetic ion data from the VISIONS polar cap boundary crossing show evidence of an ion "pressure cooker" effect whereby ions energized via transverse heating in the topside ionosphere travel upward and are impeded by a parallel potential structure at higher altitudes. VISIONS was also instrumented with an energetic neutral atom (ENA) detector which measured neutral particles ( 50-100 eV energy) presumably produced by charge-exchange with the energized outflowing ions. Hence, inferences about ion outflow may be made via remotely-sensing measurements of ENAs. This investigation focuses on modeling energetic outflowing ion distributions observed by VISIONS using a kinetic model. This kinetic model traces large numbers of individual particles, using a guiding-center approximation, in order to allow calculation of ion distribution functions and moments. For the present study we include mirror and parallel electric field forces, and a source of ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) wave heating, thought to be central to the transverse energization of ions. The model is initiated with a steady-state ion density altitude profile and Maxwellian velocity distribution characterizing the initial phase-space conditions for multiple particle trajectories. This project serves to advance our understanding of the drivers and particle dynamics in the auroral ionosphere and to improve data analysis methods for future sounding rocket and satellite missions.

Kinetic modeling of auroral ion Outflows observed by the VISIONS sounding rocket

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Albarran, R. M.; Zettergren, M. D.; Rowland, D. E.; Klenzing, J.; Clemmons, J. H.

2016-12-01

The VISIONS (VISualizing Ion Outflow via Neutral atom imaging during a Substorm) sounding rocket was launched on Feb. 7, 2013 at 8:21 UTC from Poker Flat, Alaska, into an auroral substorm with the objective of identifying the drivers and dynamics of the ion outflow below 1000km. Energetic ion data from the VISIONS polar cap boundary crossing show evidence of an ion "pressure cooker" effect whereby ions energized via transverse heating in the topside ionosphere travel upward and are impeded by a parallel potential structure at higher altitudes. VISIONS was also instrumented with an energetic neutral atom (ENA) detector which measured neutral particles ( 50-100 eV energy) presumably produced by charge-exchange with the energized outflowing ions. Hence, inferences about ion outflow may be made via remotely-sensing measurements of ENAs. This investigation focuses on modeling energetic outflowing ion distributions observed by VISIONS using a kinetic model. This kinetic model traces large numbers of individual particles, using a guiding-center approximation, in order to allow calculation of ion distribution functions and moments. For the present study we include mirror and parallel electric field forces, and a source of ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) wave heating, thought to be central to the transverse energization of ions. The model is initiated with a steady-state ion density altitude profile and Maxwellian velocity distribution characterizing the initial phase-space conditions for multiple particle trajectories. This project serves to advance our understanding of the drivers and particle dynamics in the auroral ionosphere and to improve data analysis methods for future sounding rocket and satellite missions.

Ion composition at comet 67P near perihelion: Rosetta/ROSINA measurements and modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beth, Arnaud; Altwegg, Kathrin; Balsiger, Hans; Berthelier, Jean-Jacques; Calmonte, Ursina; Combi, Michael R.; De Keyser, Johan; Dhooghe, Frederik; Fiethe, Björn; Fuselier, Stephen; Galand, Marina; Gasc, Sébastien; Gombosi, T. I.; Hansen, Kenneth C.; Hässig, Myrtha; Héritier, Kévin; Kopp, Ernest; Le Roy, Léna; Peroy, Solène; Rubin, Martin; Sémon, Thierry; Tzou, Chia-Yu; Vigren, Erik

2016-10-01

On August 13th, 2015, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko reached its perihelion at 1.24 AU, a milestone for its cometary activity observed by the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft which arrived in August 2014. The Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA)/Comet Pressure Sensor (COPS) instrument onboard Rosetta measured local outgassing rates over 1028 molecules.s-1 in summer 2015. In the meantime, the ROSINA/Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS) instrument measured the ion composition in the coma which was expected to be more diversified than during the early phase of the mission. Indeed, the increase in the cometary activity is expected to trigger new chemical pathways, yielding the formation of new cometary ions, other than the major water ions observed at larger heliocentric distances. Such new ion species can be produced from minor neutral species, such as those with proton affinity higher than that of water. This includes NH4+ whose detection has been recently reported (Beth et al., 2016).In this study, we propose to investigate other ion species during the perihelion period by:- analysing DFMS data to find any signature of substantial ion species,- modeling the ionosphere of 67P by driving the model with the neutral densities measured by DFMS and COPS to support or constrain the absence or the presence of these ion species,- discussing any discrepancy between observations and simulations.

Evolution of Field-Aligned Electron and Ion Densities From Whistler Mode Radio Soundings During Quiet to Moderately Active Period and Comparisons With SAMI2 Simulations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reddy, A.; Sonwalkar, V. S.; Huba, J. D.

2018-02-01

Knowledge of field-aligned electron and ion distributions is necessary for understanding the physical processes causing variations in field-aligned electron and ion densities. Using whistler mode sounding by Radio Plasma Imager/Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (RPI/IMAGE), we determined the evolution of dayside electron and ion densities along L ˜ 2 and L ˜ 3 (90-4,000 km) during a 7 day (21-27 November 2005) geomagnetically quiet to moderately active period. Over this period the O+/H+ transition height was ˜880 ± 60 km and ˜1000 ± 100 km, respectively, at L ˜ 2 and L ˜ 3. The electron density varied in a complex manner; it was different at L ˜ 2 and L ˜ 3 and below and above the O+/H+ transition height. The measured electron and ion densities are consistent with those from Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) and Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and other past measurements, but they deviated from bottomside sounding and International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) 2012 empirical model results. Using SAMI2 (Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) ionosphere model) with reasonably adjusted values of inputs (neutral densities, winds, electric fields, and photoelectron heating), we simulated the evolution of O+/H+ transition height and field-aligned electron and ion densities so that a fair agreement was obtained between the simulation results and observations. Simulation studies indicated that reduced neutral densities (H and/or O) with time limited O+-H charge exchange process. This reduction in neutral densities combined with changes in neutral winds and plasma temperature led to the observed variations in the electron and ion densities. The observation/simulation method presented here can be extended to investigate the role of neutral densities and composition, disturbed winds, and prompt penetration electric fields in the storm time ionosphere/plasmasphere dynamics.

High efficiency direct detection of ions from resonance ionization of sputtered atoms

DOEpatents

Gruen, Dieter M.; Pellin, Michael J.; Young, Charles E.

1986-01-01

A method and apparatus are provided for trace and other quantitative analysis with high efficiency of a component in a sample, with the analysis involving the removal by ion or other bombardment of a small quantity of ion and neutral atom groups from the sample, the conversion of selected neutral atom groups to photoions by laser initiated resonance ionization spectroscopy, the selective deflection of the photoions for separation from original ion group emanating from the sample, and the detection of the photoions as a measure of the quantity of the component. In some embodiments, the original ion group is accelerated prior to the RIS step for separation purposes. Noise and other interference are reduced by shielding the detector from primary and secondary ions and deflecting the photoions sufficiently to avoid the primary and secondary ions.

High efficiency direct detection of ions from resonance ionization of sputtered atoms

DOEpatents

Gruen, D.M.; Pellin, M.J.; Young, C.E.

1985-01-16

A method and apparatus are provided for trace and other quantitative analysis with high efficiency of a component in a sample, with the analysis involving the removal by ion or other bombardment of a small quantity of ion and neutral atom groups from the sample, the conversion of selected neutral atom groups to photoions by laser initiated resonance ionization spectroscopy, the selective deflection of the photoions for separation from original ion group emanating from the sample, and the detection of the photoions as a measure of the quantity of the component. In some embodiments, the original ion group is accelerated prior to the RIS step for separation purposes. Noise and other interference are reduced by shielding the detector from primary and secondary ions and deflecting the photoions sufficiently to avoid the primary and secondary ions.

Singularity and Bohm criterion in hot positive ion species in the electronegative ion sources

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aslaninejad, Morteza; Yasserian, Kiomars

2016-05-15

The structure of the discharge for a magnetized electronegative ion source with two species of positive ions is investigated. The thermal motion of hot positive ions and the singularities involved with it are taken into account. By analytical solution of the neutral region, the location of the singular point and also the values of the plasma parameter such as electric potential and ion density at the singular point are obtained. A generalized Bohm criterion is recovered and discussed. In addition, for the non-neutral solution, the numerical method is used. In contrast with cold ion plasma, qualitative changes are observed. Themore » parameter space region within which oscillations in the density and potential can be observed has been scanned and discussed. The space charge behavior in the vicinity of edge of the ion sources has also been discussed in detail.« less

ECR Plasma Source for Heavy Ion Beam Charge Neutralization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Efthimion, P. C.; Gilson, E.; Grisham, L.; Davidson, R. C.; Yu, S.; Logan, B. G.

2002-11-01

Highly ionized plasmas are being considered as a medium for charge neutralizing heavy ion beams in order to focus beyond the space-charge limit. Calculations suggest that plasma at a density of 1 - 100 times the ion beam density and at a length ˜ 0.1-0.5 m would be suitable for achieving a high level of charge neutralization. An ECR source has been built at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) to support a joint Neutralized Transport Experiment (NTX) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to study ion beam neutralization with plasma. The ECR source operates at 13.6 MHz and with solenoid magnetic fields of 1-10 gauss. The goal is to operate the source at pressures ˜ 10-5 Torr at full ionization. The initial operation of the source has been at pressures of 10-4 - 10-1 Torr. Electron densities in the range of 10^8 - 10^11 cm-3 have been achieved. Low-pressure operation is important to reduce ion beam ionization. A cusp magnetic field has been installed to improve radial confinement and reduce the field strength on the beam axis. In addition, axial confinement is believed to be important to achieve lower-pressure operation. At moderate pressures (> 1 mTorr) the wave damping is collisional, and at low pressures (< 1 mTorr) there is a distinct electron cyclotron resonance. The source has recently been configured to operate with 2.45 GHz microwaves with similar results. At the present operating range the source can simulate the plasma produced by photo-ionization in the target chamber.

ECR plasma source for heavy ion beam charge neutralization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Efthimion, Philip C.; Gilson, Erik; Grisham, Larry; Kolchin, Pavel; Davidson, Ronald C.; Yu, Simon; Logan, B. Grant

2003-01-01

Highly ionized plasmas are being considered as a medium for charge neutralizing heavy ion beams in order to focus beyond the space-charge limit. Calculations suggest that plasma at a density of 1 100 times the ion beam density and at a length [similar]0.1 2 m would be suitable for achieving a high level of charge neutralization. An Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) source has been built at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) to support a joint Neutralized Transport Experiment (NTX) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to study ion beam neutralization with plasma. The ECR source operates at 13.6 MHz and with solenoid magnetic fields of 1 10 gauss. The goal is to operate the source at pressures [similar]10[minus sign]6 Torr at full ionization. The initial operation of the source has been at pressures of 10[minus sign]4 10[minus sign]1 Torr. Electron densities in the range of 108 to 1011 cm[minus sign]3 have been achieved. Low-pressure operation is important to reduce ion beam ionization. A cusp magnetic field has been installed to improve radial confinement and reduce the field strength on the beam axis. In addition, axial confinement is believed to be important to achieve lower-pressure operation. To further improve breakdown at low pressure, a weak electron source will be placed near the end of the ECR source. This article also describes the wave damping mechanisms. At moderate pressures (> 1 mTorr), the wave damping is collisional, and at low pressures (< 1 mTorr) there is a distinct electron cyclotron resonance.

Spatial distribution of Ion Precipitation into the High Latitude Inner Magnetosphere using Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) images over the Declining Phase of Solar Cycle 23

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mackler, D. A.; Jahn, J.; Pollock, C. J.

2013-12-01

Plamasheet particles transported Earthward during times of active magnetic convection can interact with thermospheric neutrals through charge exchange. The resulting ENAs are free to leave the influence of the magnetosphere and can be remotely detected. ENAs associated with low altitude (300-800 km) ion precipitation in the high latitude inner mangetosphere are termed Low Altitude Emissions (LAEs). LAEs are highly non-isotropic in velocity space such that the pitch angle distribution at the time of charge exchange is near 90 degrees. The observed Geomagnetic Emission Cone (GEC) of LAEs can be mapped spatially, showing where energy is deposited during storm/sub-storm times. In this study we present a statistical look at the particulate albedo of LAEs over the declining phase of solar cycle 23. The particulate albedo is defined as the ratio of the emitting energetic neutrals to the precipitating ions. The precipitating ion differential directional flux maps are built up from combining NOAA 14/15/16 TED and DMSP 13/14/15 SSJ4 data. Low altitude ENA signatures are identified manually using IMAGE/MENA images and selected out. The geomagnetic location of each pixel representing a LAE source region in the neutral images is computed assuming an altitude of 650 km. Before taking the ratio of the resulting flux of neutrals and ions, the Magnetic Local Time (MLT) and Invariant Latitude (IL) bin sizes are changed such that each has less than 20% error in counting statistics. The particulate albedo maps are then evaluated over changes in geomagnetic storm activity.

Dissociative recombination and mutual neutralization of heavier molecular ions: C{sub 10}H{sub 8}{sup +}, WF{sub 5}{sup +}, and C{sub n}F{sub m}{sup +}

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wiens, Justin P.; Shuman, Nicholas S.; Viggiano, Albert A., E-mail: afrl.rvborgmailbox@kirtland.af.mil

Dissociative recombination (DR) rate coefficients for the naphthalene cation, C{sub 10}H{sub 8}{sup +}, and WF{sub 5}{sup +}, and mutual neutralization (MN) rate coefficients for these species and five C{sub n}F{sub m}{sup +} ions, were determined at 300 K using variable electron and neutral density attachment mass spectrometry (VENDAMS). DR proceeds at 9 ± 3 × 10{sup −7} cm{sup 3} s{sup −1} for C{sub 10}H{sub 8}{sup +} and at 6.1 ± 1.4 × 10{sup −7} cm{sup 3} s{sup −1} for WF{sub 5}{sup +}. Consistent with previous results, MN for the polyatomic cations with the halide anions Cl{sup −}, Br{sup −}, andmore » I{sup −} exhibits an approximate μ{sup −1/2} reduced mass dependence of the reactant partners, demonstrating that ion collision velocities influence the rate coefficients. This work is an extension of VENDAMS to systems, where low reactant concentrations are necessary to avoid significant reaction of product ions with the neutral precursor, i.e., conditions not suitable for traditional flowing afterglow measurements, as well as to ions of masses > ∼ 100 Da, which are not amenable to the study of DR in magnetic storage rings. Our results expand the sparse literature on DR and MN of heavier ions.« less

RF Plasma Source for Heavy Ion Beam Charge Neutralization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Efthimion, P. C.; Gilson, E.; Grisham, L.; Davidson, R. C.

2003-10-01

Highly ionized plasmas are being employed as a medium for charge neutralizing heavy ion beams in order to focus to a small spot size. Calculations suggest that plasma at a density of 1 - 100 times the ion beam density and at a length 0.1-0.5 m would be suitable for achieving a high level of charge neutralization. An ECR source has been built at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) in support of the joint Neutralized Transport Experiment (NTX) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to study ion beam neutralization with plasma. The ECR source operates at 13.6 MHz and with solenoid magnetic fields of 0-10 gauss. The goal is to operate the source at pressures 10-5 Torr at full ionization. The initial operation of the source has been at pressures of 10-4 - 10-1 Torr. Electron densities in the range of 10^8 - 10^11 cm-3 have been achieved. Recently, pulsed operation of the source has enabled operation at pressures in the 10-6 Torr range with densities of 10^11 cm-3. Near 100% ionization has been achieved. The source has been integrated with NTX and is being used in the experiments. The plasma is approximately 10 cm in length in the direction of the beam propagation. Modifications to the source will be presented that increase its length in the direction of beam propagation.

Fast imaging measurements and modeling of neutral and impurity density on C-2U

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Granstedt, Erik; Deng, B.; Dettrick, S.; Gupta, D. K.; Osin, D.; Roche, T.; Zhai, K.; TAE Team

2016-10-01

The C-2U device employed neutral beam injection and end-biasing to sustain an advanced beam-driven Field-Reversed Configuration plasma for 5+ ms, beyond characteristic transport time-scales. Three high-speed, filtered cameras observed visible light emission from neutral hydrogen and impurities, as well as deuterium pellet ablation and compact-toroid injection which were used for auxiliary particle fueling. Careful vacuum practices and titanium gettering successfully reduced neutral recycling from the confinement vessel wall. As a result, a large fraction of the remaining neutrals originate from charge-exchange between the neutral beams and plasma ions. Measured H/D- α emission is used with DEGAS2 neutral particle modeling to reconstruct the strongly non-axissymmetric neutral distribution. This is then used in fast-ion modeling to more accurately estimate their charge-exchange loss rate. Oxygen emission due to electron-impact excitation and charge-exchange recombination has also been measured using fast imaging. Reconstructed emissivity of O4+ is localized on the outboard side of the core plasma near the estimated location of the separatrix inferred by external magnetic measurements. Tri Alpha Energy.

Comparing the Atmospheric Losses at Io and Europa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dols, V. J.; Bagenal, F.; Crary, F. J.; Cassidy, T.

2017-12-01

At Io and Europa, the interaction of the Jovian plasma with the moon atmosphere leads to a significant loss of atomic/molecular neutrals and ions to space. The processes that lead to atmospheric escape are diverse: atmospheric sputtering, molecular dissociation, molecular ion recombination, Jeans escape etc. Each process leads to neutrals escaping at different velocities (i.e. electron impact dissociation leads to very slow atomic neutrals, sputtering might eject faster molecular neutrals). Some neutrals will be ejected out of the Jovian system; others will form extended neutral clouds along the orbit of the moons. These atomic/molecular extended neutral clouds are probably the main source of plasma for the Jovian magnetosphere. They are difficult to observe directly thus their composition and density are still poorly constrained. A future modeling of the formation of these extended clouds requires an estimate of their atmospheric sources. We estimate the atmospheric losses at Io and Europa for each loss process with a multi-species chemistry model, using a prescribed atmospheric distribution consistent with the observations. We compare the neutral losses at Io and Europa.

Invited review article: the electrostatic plasma lens.

PubMed

Goncharov, Alexey

2013-02-01

The fundamental principles, experimental results, and potential applications of the electrostatic plasma lens for focusing and manipulating high-current, energetic, heavy ion beams are reviewed. First described almost 50 years ago, this optical beam device provides space charge neutralization of the ion beam within the lens volume, and thus provides an effective and unique tool for focusing high current beams where a high degree of neutralization is essential to prevent beam blow-up. Short and long lenses have been explored, and a lens in which the magnetic field is provided by rare-earth permanent magnets has been demonstrated. Applications include the use of this kind of optical tool for laboratory ion beam manipulation, high dose ion implantation, heavy ion accelerator injection, in heavy ion fusion, and other high technology.

High resolution main-ion charge exchange spectroscopy in the DIII-D H-mode pedestal.

PubMed

Grierson, B A; Burrell, K H; Chrystal, C; Groebner, R J; Haskey, S R; Kaplan, D H

2016-11-01

A new high spatial resolution main-ion (deuterium) charge-exchange spectroscopy system covering the tokamak boundary region has been installed on the DIII-D tokamak. Sixteen new edge main-ion charge-exchange recombination sightlines have been combined with nineteen impurity sightlines in a tangentially viewing geometry on the DIII-D midplane with an interleaving design that achieves 8 mm inter-channel radial resolution for detailed profiles of main-ion temperature, velocity, charge-exchange emission, and neutral beam emission. At the plasma boundary, we find a strong enhancement of the main-ion toroidal velocity that exceeds the impurity velocity by a factor of two. The unique combination of experimentally measured main-ion and impurity profiles provides a powerful quasi-neutrality constraint for reconstruction of tokamak H-mode pedestals.

Interactive Ion-Neutral Dynamics in the Low Latitude Evening Ionosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Evonosky, W. R.; Richmond, A. D.; Fang, T. W.; Maute, A. I.

2015-12-01

Neutral winds in the ionosphere drive global electrodynamic phenomena which alter theupper-atmosphere so significantly that they can affect the orbit of satellites andground-to-spacecraft communications. Understanding these winds and what drives them is centralto prediction and risk management associated with such a dynamic upper atmosphere. This studyexamined the relationship between accelerations acting on neutral winds in the ionosphere and theformation of a vertical shear of those winds in low latitudes (between ±30 magnetic) and earlyevening local times (16-22 LT). Accelerations were calculated using variables output by thethermosphere ionosphere electrodynamics general circulation model (TIEGCM) under differentsolar activity and night-time ionization conditions and visualized both spatially and temporally. Ingeneral, with acceleration values averaged along magnetic latitudes between ±30 degrees(inclusive) and only considering medium solar activity conditions, we found that the ionosphereexhibits distinct layering defined by the dominant accelerations in each layer. We also found hintsthat during different night-time ionization levels, ion drag acceleration tends to remain constantwhile ion and neutral velocities change to conserve the difference between them. When consideringspecific latitudes and solar conditions, previously unreported structures appear which involveinteractions between the ion drag and viscous forces.

Miniaturized Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer for CubeSat Atmospheric Measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rodriguez, M.; Paschalidis, N.; Jones, S.; Sittler, E.; Chornay, D.; Uribe, P.; Cameron, T.

2016-01-01

To increase the number of single point in-situ measurements of thermosphere and exosphere ion and neutral composition and density, miniaturized instrumentation is in high demand to take advantage of the increasing platform opportunities available in the smallsat/cubesat industry. The INMS (Ion-Neutral Mass Spectrometer) addresses this need by providing simultaneous measurements of both the neutral and ion environment, essentially providing two instruments in one compact model. The 1.3U volume, 570 gram, 1.8W nominal power INMS instrument makes implementation into cubesat designs (3U and above) practical and feasible. With high dynamic range (0.1-500eV), mass dynamic range of 1-40amu, sharp time resolution (0.1s), and mass resolution of MdM16, the INMS instrument addresses the atmospheric science needs that otherwise would have required larger more expensive instrumentation. INMS-v1 (version 1) launched on Exocube (CalPoly 3U cubesat) in 2015 and INMS-v2 (version 2) is scheduled to launch on Dellingr (GSFC 6U cubesat) in 2017. New versions of INMS are currently being developed to increase and add measurement capabilities, while maintaining its smallsat/cubesat form.

A Global Atmospheric Model of Meteoric Iron

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Feng, Wuhu; Marsh, Daniel R.; Chipperfield, Martyn P.; Janches, Diego; Hoffner, Josef; Yi, Fan; Plane, John M. C.

2013-01-01

The first global model of meteoric iron in the atmosphere (WACCM-Fe) has been developed by combining three components: the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), a description of the neutral and ion-molecule chemistry of iron in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT), and a treatment of the injection of meteoric constituents into the atmosphere. The iron chemistry treats seven neutral and four ionized iron containing species with 30 neutral and ion-molecule reactions. The meteoric input function (MIF), which describes the injection of Fe as a function of height, latitude, and day, is precalculated from an astronomical model coupled to a chemical meteoric ablation model (CABMOD). This newly developed WACCM-Fe model has been evaluated against a number of available ground-based lidar observations and performs well in simulating the mesospheric atomic Fe layer. The model reproduces the strong positive correlation of temperature and Fe density around the Fe layer peak and the large anticorrelation around 100 km. The diurnal tide has a significant effect in the middle of the layer, and the model also captures well the observed seasonal variations. However, the model overestimates the peak Fe+ concentration compared with the limited rocket-borne mass spectrometer data available, although good agreement on the ion layer underside can be obtained by adjusting the rate coefficients for dissociative recombination of Fe-molecular ions with electrons. Sensitivity experiments with the same chemistry in a 1-D model are used to highlight significant remaining uncertainties in reaction rate coefficients, and to explore the dependence of the total Fe abundance on the MIF and rate of vertical transport.

A Lagrangian model for laser-induced fluorescence and its application to measurements of plasma ion temperature and electrostatic waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chu, F.; Skiff, F.

2018-01-01

Extensive information can be obtained on wave-particle interactions and wave fields by a direct measurement of perturbed ion distribution functions using laser-induced fluorescence (LIF). For practical purposes, LIF is frequently performed on metastable states that are produced from neutral gas particles and ions in other electronic states. If the laser intensity is increased to obtain a better LIF signal, then optical pumping can produce systematic effects depending on the collision rates which control metastable population and lifetime. We numerically simulate the ion velocity distribution measurement and wave-detection process using a Lagrangian model for the LIF signal for the case where metastables are produced directly from neutrals. This case requires more strict precautions and is important for discharges with energetic primary electrons and a high density of neutrals. Some of the results also apply to metastables produced from pre-existing ions. The simulations show that optical pumping broadening affects the ion velocity distribution function f0(v) and its first-order perturbation f1(v,t) when the laser intensity is increased above a certain level. The results also suggest that ion temperature measurements are only accurate when the metastable ions can live longer than the ion-ion collision mean free time. For the purposes of wave detection, the wave period has to be significantly shorter than the lifetime of metastable ions for a direct interpretation. It is more generally true that metastable ions may be viewed as test-particles. As long as an appropriate model is available, LIF can be extended to a range of environments.

Molecular dynamics analysis of silicon chloride ion incidence during Si etching in Cl-based plasmas: Effects of ion incident energy, angle, and neutral radical-to-ion flux ratio

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nakazaki, Nobuya; Eriguchi, Koji; Ono, Kouichi

2014-10-01

Profile anomalies and surface roughness are critical issues to be resolved in plasma etching of nanometer-scale microelectronic devices, which in turn requires a better understanding of the effects of ion incident energy and angle on surface reaction kinetics. This paper presents a classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of Si(100) etching by energetic Clx+ (x = 1-2) and SiClx+ (x = 0-4) ion beams with different incident energies Ei = 20-500 eV and angles θi = 0-85°, with and without low-energy neutral Cl radicals (neutral-to-ion flux ratios Γn/Γi = 0 and 100). An improved Stillinger-Weber interatomic potential was used for the Si/Cl system. Numerical results indicated that in Cl+, Cl2+, SiCl3+, and SiCl4+ incidences for θi = 0° and Γn/Γi = 0, the etching occurs in the whole Ei range investigated; on the other hand, in SiCl+ and SiCl2+ incidences, the deposition occurs at low Ei < 300 and 150 eV, respectively, while the etching occurs at further increased Ei. For SiCl+ and SiCl2+, the transition energies from deposition and etching become lowered for Γn/Γi = 100. Numerical results further indicated that in the SiCl+ incidence for Γn/Γi = 0, the etching occurs in the whole θi range investigated for Ei >= 300 eV; on the other hand, for Ei = 100 and 150 eV, the deposition occurs at low θi < 60° and 40°, respectively, while the etching occurs at further increased θi; in addition, for Ei <= 50 eV, the deposition occurs in the whole θi range investigated.

Atomic oxygen beam source for erosion simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cuthbertson, J. W.; Langer, W. D.; Motley, R. W.; Vaughn, J. A.

1991-01-01

A device for the production of low energy (3 to 10 eV) neutral atomic beams for surface modification studies is described that reproduces the flux of atomic oxygen in low Earth orbit. The beam is produced by the acceleration of plasma ions onto a negatively biased plate of high-Z metal; the ions are neutralized and reflected by the surface, retaining some fraction of their incident kinetic energy, forming a beam of atoms. The plasma is generated by a coaxial RF exciter which produces a magnetically-confined (4 kG) plasma column. At the end of the column, ions fall through the sheath to the plate, whose bias relative to the plasma can be varied to adjust the beam energy. The source provides a neutral flux approximately equal to 5 x 10(exp 16)/sq cm at a distance of 9 cm and a fluence approximately equal to 10(exp 20)/sq cm in five hours. The composition and energy of inert gas beams was diagnosed using a mass spectometer/energy analyzer. The energy spectra of the beams demonstrate energies in the range 5 to 15 eV, and qualitatively show expected dependences upon incident and reflecting atom species and potential drop. Samples of carbon film, carbon-based paint, Kapton, mylar, and teflon exposed to atomic O beams show erosion quite similar to that observed in orbit on the space shuttle.

The formation of magnetic cavities in comets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Klopman, Z.; Eviatar, A.; Goldstein, R.

1992-01-01

In this paper a unidimensional model for the formation of magnetic cavities in comets is presented. This model includes ion-neutral friction, dissociative recombination, photoionization, and thermal energetic ion pressure coupled with a nonconstant velocity profile which was chosen to simulate the flow pattern. The model explains the thermal ion population profile. Conditions under which a cavity may not form are discussed. In the paper the roles of the various processes are studied, and it is shown that focusing on ion-neutral friction as the major process in the creation of the cavity is not in general correct. In the last part of the paper, the limitations of the model are delineated.

Radiated and conducted EMI from a 30-cm ion thruster

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whittlesey, A. C.; Peer, W.

1981-01-01

In order to properly assess the interaction of a spacecraft with the EMI environment produced by an ion thruster, the EMI environment was characterized. Therefore, radiated and conducted emissions were measured from a 30-cm mercury ion thruster. The ion thruster beam current varied from zero to 2.0 amperes and the emissions were measured from 5 KHz to 200 MHz. Several different types of antennas were used to obtain the measurements. The various measurements that were made included: magnetic field due to neutralizer/beam current loop; radiated electric fields of thruster and plume; and conducted emissions on arc discharge, neutralizer keeper and magnetic baffle lines.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hill, N.C.; Limbach, P.A.; Shomo, R.E. II

The coupling of an autoneutralizing SF{sup {minus}}{sub 6} fast ion-beam gun to a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT/ICR) mass spectrometer is described. The fast neutral beam provides for secondary-ion-type FT/ICR mass analysis (e.g., production of abundant pseudomolecular (M+H){sup +} ions) of involatile samples without the need for external ion injection, since ions are formed at the entrance to the ICR ion trap. The design, construction, and testing of the hybrid instrument are described. The feasibility of the experiment (for both broadband and high-resolution FT/ICR positive-ion mass spectra) is demonstrated with {ital tetra}-butylammonium bromide and a Tylenol{sup ( )} sample.more » The ability to analyze high molecular weight polymers with high mass resolution is demonstrated for Teflon{sup ( )}. All of the advantages of the fast neutral beam ion source previously demonstrated with quadrupole mass analysis are preserved, and the additional advantages of FT/ICR mass analysis (e.g., high mass resolving power, ion trapping) are retained.« less

κ -distributed protons in the solar wind and their charge-exchange coupling to energetic hydrogen

DOE PAGES

Heerikhuisen, J.; Zirnstein, Eric; Pogorelov, Nikolai

2015-03-16

The interaction between the solar wind and the interstellar medium represents a collision between two plasma flows, resulting in a heliosphere with an extended tail. While the solar wind is mostly ionized material from the corona, the interstellar medium is only partially ionized. The ion and neutral populations are coupled through charge-exchange collisions that operate on length scales of tens to hundreds of astronomical units. About half the interstellar hydrogen flows into the heliosphere where it may charge-exchange with solar wind protons. This process gives rise to a nonthermal proton, known as a pickup ion, which joins the plasma. Inmore » this paper we investigate the effects of approximating the total ion distribution of the subsonic solar wind as a generalized Lorentzian, or κ distribution, using an MHD neutral code. We illustrate the effect different values of the κ parameter have on both the structure of the heliosphere and the energetic neutral atom flux at 1 AU. We find that using a κ distribution in our simulations yields levels of energetic neutral atom flux that are within a factor of about 2 or 3 over the IBEX-Hi range of energies from 0.5 to 6 keV. In conclusion, while the presence of a suprathermal tail in the proton distribution leads to the production of high-energy neutrals, the sharp decline in the charge-exchange cross section around 10 keV mitigates the enhanced transfer of energy from the ions to the neutrals that might otherwise be expected.« less

Effect of mobile ions on the electric field needed to orient charged diblock copolymer thin films

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dehghan, Ashkan; Shi, An-Chang; Schick, M.

We examine the behavior of lamellar phases of charged/neutral diblock copolymer thin films containing mobile ions in the presence of an external electric field. We employ self-consistent field theory and focus on the aligning effect of the electric field on the lamellae. Of particular interest are the effects of the mobile ions on the critical field, the value required to reorient the lamellae from the parallel configuration favored by the surface interaction to the perpendicular orientation favored by the field. We find that the critical field depends strongly on whether the neutral or charged species is favored by the substrates.more » In the case in which the neutral species is favored, the addition of charges decreases the critical electric field significantly. The effect is greater when the mobile ions are confined to the charged lamellae. In contrast, when the charged species is favored by the substrate, the addition of mobile ions stabilizes the parallel configuration and thus results in an increase in the critical electric field. The presence of ions in the system introduces a new mixed phase in addition to those reported previously.« less

Ion energy balance in enhanced-confinement reversed-field pinch plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xing, Z. A.; Nornberg, M. D.; Boguski, J.; Craig, D.; den Hartog, D. J.; McCollam, K.

2017-10-01

Testing the applicability of collisional ion transport theory using tearing suppressed RFP plasma in MST achieved through Pulsed Poloidal Current Drive (PPCD), we find that the ion temperature dynamics in the core to be well-predicted by classical and collisional terms. Prior work demonstrated that impurity ion particle transport in PPCD plasmas is classical. Neoclassical effects on ions in the RFP are small and the stochastic transport is greatly suppressed during PPCD. Recent neutral modelling with DEGAS2 suggests higher core neutral temperatures than expected due to the preferential penetration of higher temperature neutrals generated by charge exchange. Further, investigations through equilibrium reconstruction point to the existence of an inward pinch flow associated with ExB drift. The heat balance model pulls together a wide range of diagnostic data to forward model Ti evolution in PPCD, which is then compared to charge exchange spectroscopy measurements of Ti. Ion power balance is mostly driven by classical effects including compressional heating, electron collisional heating, and charge exchange transport. This understanding provides a good baseline for investigations of anomalous heating in plasmas with tearing mode activity. This work is supported by US DOE.

Luminous phenomena and electromagnetic VHF wave emission originated from earthquake-related radon exhalation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seki, A.; Tobo, I.; Omori, Y.; Muto, J.; Nagahama, H.

2013-12-01

Anomalous luminous phenomena and electromagnetic wave emission before or during earthquakes have been reported (e.g., the 1965 Matsushiro earthquake swarm). However, their mechanism is still unsolved, in spite of many models for these phenomena. Here, we propose a new model about luminous phenomena and electromagnetic wave emission during earthquake by focusing on atmospheric radon (Rn-222) and its daughter nuclides (Po-218 and Po-214). Rn-222, Po-218 and Po-214 are alpha emitters, and these alpha particles ionize atmospheric molecules. A light emission phenomenon, called 'the air luminescence', is caused by de-excitation of the ionized molecules of atmospheric nitrogen due to electron impact ionization from alpha particles. The de-excitation is from the second positive system of neutral nitrogen molecules and the first negative system of nitrogen molecule ion. Wavelengths of lights by these transitions include the visible light wavelength. So based on this mechanism, we proposed a new luminous phenomenon model before or during earthquake: 1. The concentration of atmospheric radon and its daughter nuclides increase anomalously before or during earthquakes, 2. Nitrogen molecules and their ions are excited by alpha particles emitted from Rn-222, Po-218 and Po-214, and air luminescence is generated by their de-excitation. Similarly, electromagnetic VHF wave emission can be explained by ionizing effect of radon and its daughter nuclides. Boyarchuk et al. (2005) proposed a model that electromagnetic VHF wave emission is originated when excited state of neutral clusters changes. Radon gas ionizes atmosphere and forms positively and negatively charged heavy particles. The process of ion hydration in ordinary air can be determined by the formation of complex chemically active structures of the various types of ion radicals. As a result of the association of such hydration radical ions, a neutral cluster, which is dipole quasi-molecules, is formed. A neutral cluster's rotation-rotation transition causes electromagnetic VHF wave emission. We also discuss a possibility of electromagnetic VHF wave emission from excitation of polyatomic molecules by alpha particles from Rn-222 and its daughter nuclides, similar to air luminescence by excitation of nitrogen molecule in the viewpoint of electromagnetic radiation in quantum theory.

Possible impact of multi-electron loss events on the average beam charge state in an HIF target chamber and a neutral beam approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grisham, L. R.

2001-05-01

Experiments were carried out during the early 1980s to assess the obtainable atomic neutralization of energetic beams of negative ions ranging from lithium to silicon. The experiments found (Grisham et al. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 53 (1982) 281; Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Report PPPL-1857, 1981) that, for higher atomic number elements than lithium, it appeared that a substantial fraction of the time more than one electron was being lost in a single collision. This result was inferred from the existence of more than one ionization state in the product beam for even the thinnest line densities at which any electron removal took place. Because of accelerator limitations, these experiments were limited to maximum energies of 7 MeV. However, based upon these results, it is possible that multi-electron loss events may also play a significant role in determining the average ion charge state of the much higher Z and more energetic beams traversing the medium in an heavy ion fusion chamber. This could result in the beam charge state being considerably higher than previously anticipated, and might require designers to consider harder vacuum ballistic focusing approaches, or the development of additional space charge neutralization schemes. This paper discusses the measurements that gave rise for these concerns, as well as a description of further measurements that are proposed to be carried out for atomic numbers and energies per amu which would be closer to those required for heavy ion fusion drivers. With a very low current beam of a massive, but low charge state energetic ion, the charge state distribution emerging from a target gas cell could be measured as a function of line density and medium composition. Varying the line density would allow one to simulate the charge state evolution of the beam as a function of distance into the target chamber. This paper also briefly discusses a possible alternative driver approach using photodetachment-neutralized atomic beams, which could reduce plasma complications far from the target, but which would impose more stringent limitations upon chamber pressure and repetition rate.

Ion transport in proximal colon of the rat. Sodium depletion stimulates neutral sodium chloride absorption.

PubMed Central

Foster, E S; Budinger, M E; Hayslett, J P; Binder, H J

1986-01-01

The model of sodium and chloride transport proposed for the colon is based on studies performed in the distal segment and tacitly assumes that ion transport is similar throughout the colon. In rat distal colon, neutral sodium-chloride absorption accounts for the major fraction of overall sodium absorption and aldosterone stimulates electrogenic, amiloride-sensitive sodium absorption. Since we have demonstrated qualitative differences in potassium transport in proximal and distal segments of rat colon, unidirectional 22Na and 36Cl fluxes were performed under short-circuit conditions across isolated proximal colon of control and sodium-depleted rats with secondary hyperaldosteronism. In the control group, net sodium absorption (JNanet) (7.4 +/- 0.5 mu eq/h . cm2) was greater than Isc (1.4 +/- 0.1 mu eq/h . cm2), and JClnet was 0 in Ringer solution. Residual flux (JR) was -5.2 +/- 0.5 mu eq/h . cm2 consistent with hydrogen ion secretion suggesting that neutral sodium absorption may represent sodium-hydrogen exchange. 1 mM mucosal amiloride, which inhibits sodium-hydrogen exchange in other epithelia, produced comparable decreases in JNanet and JR (4.1 +/- 0.6 and 3.2 +/- 0.6 mu eq/h . cm2, respectively) without a parallel fall in Isc. Sodium depletion stimulated JNanet, JClnet, and Isc by 7.0 +/- 1.4, 6.3 +/- 1.9, and 0.8 +/- 0.2 mu eq/h . cm2, respectively, and 1 mM amiloride markedly inhibited JNanet and JClnet by 6.0 +/- 1.1 and 4.0 +/- 1.6 mu eq/h . cm2, respectively, with only a minimal reduction in Isc. Conclusions: the predominant neutral sodium-absorptive mechanism in proximal colon is sodium-hydrogen exchange. Sodium depletion stimulates electroneutral chloride-dependent sodium absorption (most likely as a result of increasing sodium-hydrogen and chloride-bicarbonate exchanges), not electrogenic chloride-independent sodium transport. The model of ion transport in the proximal colon is distinct from that of the distal colon. PMID:2418060

Measurement of the velocity of neutral fragments by the "correlated ion and neutral time of flight" method combined with "velocity-map imaging"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berthias, F.; Feketeová, L.; Della Negra, R.; Dupasquier, T.; Fillol, R.; Abdoul-Carime, H.; Farizon, B.; Farizon, M.; Märk, T. D.

2017-08-01

In the challenging field of imaging molecular dynamics, a novel method has been developed and implemented that allows the measurement of the velocity of neutral fragments produced in collision induced dissociation experiments on an event-by-event basis. This has been made possible by combining a correlated ion and neutral time of flight method with a velocity map imaging technique. This new method relies on a multiparametric correlated detection of the neutral and charged fragments from collision induced dissociation on one single detector. Its implementation on the DIAM device (Device for irradiation of biomolecular clusters) (Dispositif d'Irradiation d'Agrégats bioMoléculaires) allowed us to measure the velocity distribution of water molecules evaporated from collision induced dissociation of mass- and energy-selected protonated water clusters.

Structure and composition of the neutral upper atmosphere of Mars from the MAVEN NGIMS investigation

PubMed Central

Benna, M.; Elrod, M.; Yelle, R. V.; Bougher, S. W.; Stone, S. W.; Jakosky, B. M.

2015-01-01

Abstract The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer (NGIMS) provides sensitive detections of neutral gas and ambient ion composition. NGIMS measurements of nine atomic and molecular neutral species, and their variation with altitude, latitude, and solar zenith angle are reported over several months of operation of the MAVEN mission. Sampling NGIMS signals from multiple neutral species every several seconds reveals persistent and unexpectedly large amplitude density structures. The scale height temperatures are mapped over the course of the first few months of the mission from high down to midlatitudes. NGIMS measurements near the homopause of 40Ar/N2 ratios agree with those reported by the Sample Analysis at Mars investigation and allow the altitude of the homopause for the most abundant gases to be established. PMID:27667873

Anion receptor compounds for non-aqueous electrolytes

DOEpatents

Lee, Hung Sui; Yang, Xiao-Oing; McBreen, James

2000-09-19

A new family of aza-ether based compounds including linear, multi-branched and aza-crown ethers is provided. When added to non-aqueous battery electrolytes, the new family of aza-ether based compounds acts as neutral receptors to complex the anion moiety of the electrolyte salt thereby increasing the conductivity and the transference number of LI.sup.+ ion in alkali metal batteries.

Aza crown ether compounds as anion receptors

DOEpatents

Lee, Hung Sui; Yang, Xiao-Oing; McBreen, James

1998-08-04

A family of aza-ether based compounds including linear, multi-branched and aza-crown ethers is provided. When added to non-aqueous battery electrolytes, the new family of aza-ether based compounds acts as neutral receptors to complex the anion moiety of the electrolyte salt thereby increasing the conductivity and the transference number of LI.sup.+ ion in alkali metal batteries.

Aza crown ether compounds as anion receptors

DOEpatents

Lee, H.S.; Yang, X.O.; McBreen, J.

1998-08-04

A family of aza-ether based compounds including linear, multi-branched and aza-crown ethers is provided. When added to non-aqueous battery electrolytes, the new family of aza-ether based compounds acts as neutral receptors to complex the anion moiety of the electrolyte salt thereby increasing the conductivity and the transference number of LI{sup +} ion in alkali metal batteries. 3 figs.

Tandem mass spectrometry of isomeric aniline-labeled N-glycans separated on porous graphitic carbon: Revealing the attachment position of terminal sialic acids and structures of neutral glycans.

PubMed

Michael, Claudia; Rizzi, Andreas M

2015-07-15

Quantitative monitoring of changes in the N-glycome upon disease has gained significance in the context of biomarker discovery. Separation and quantification of isobaric glycan isomers can be attained by using high-performance liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (HPLC/ESI-MS). Collision-induced dissociation (CID)-based fragmentation of separated isobaric glycans is evaluated in respect to its potential of providing fragment ions specific for the linkage positions of terminal sialic acids and the presence of intersecting GlcNAc moieties, respectively. N-Glycans were labeled via reductive amination using (12)C6-aniline and (13)C6-aniline as isotope-coded labeling reagents. The differently labeled glycans were merged and separated into various species using a porous graphitic carbon (PGC) stationary phase. Identification of structural features of separated isobaric isomers was performed by CID-based tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) carried out in a quadrupole time-of-flight (QqTOF) or a quadrupole ion-trap (IT) mass spectrometer. Working in the negative ion mode, new diagnostic CID fragment ions could be found that are indicative for the α2,6-type linkage of sialic acids. Other diagnostic ions, identified before as being indicative for the substitution of the 6-antenna, could be confirmed as being of relevance also in the case of aniline labeling. In the positive ion mode, CID fragment ions indicative for the structure of short neutral N-glycans were identified. One new diagnostic ion specific for the linkage position of the terminal sialic acids and one for the presence of bisecting GlcNAc in N-glycans were identified. The aniline label introduced for improved relative quantitation in MS(1) was found not to significantly alter the CID fragmentation patterns that were reported previously by other authors for unlabeled/reduced glycans or for glycans with more polar labels. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Synopsis of Ion Propulsion Development Projects in the United States: SERT 1 to Deep Space I

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sovey, James S.; Rawlin, Vincent K.; Patterson, Michael J.

1999-01-01

The historical background and characteristics of the experimental flights of ion propulsion systems and the major ground-based technology demonstrations were reviewed. The results of the first successful ion engine flight in 1964, SERT I which demonstrated ion beam neutralization, are discussed along with the extended operation of SERT II starting in 1970. These results together with the technology employed on the early cesium engine flights. the Applications Technology Satellite (ATS) series, and the ground-test demonstrations, have provided the evolutionary path for the development of xenon ion thruster component technologies, control systems, and power circuit implementations. In the 1997-1999 period, the communication satellite flights using ion engine systems and the Deep Space I flight confirmed that these auxiliary and primary propulsion systems have advanced to a high-level of flight-readiness.

Investigation of fast ion pressure effects in ASDEX Upgrade by spectral MSE measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reimer, René; Dinklage, Andreas; Wolf, Robert; Dunne, Mike; Geiger, Benedikt; Hobirk, Jörg; Reich, Matthias; ASDEX Upgrade Team; McCarthy, Patrick J.

2017-04-01

High precision measurements of fast ion effects on the magnetic equilibrium in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak have been conducted in a high-power (10 MW) neutral-beam injection discharge. An improved analysis of the spectral motional Stark effect data based on forward-modeling, including the Zeeman effect, fine-structure and non-statistical sub-level distribution, revealed changes in the order of 1% in |B| . The results were found to be consistent with results from the equilibrium solver CLISTE. The measurements allowed us to derive the fast ion pressure fraction to be Δ {{p}\\text{FI}}/{{p}\\text{mhd}}≈ 10 % and variations of the fast ion pressure are consistent with calculations of the transport code TRANSP. The results advance the understanding of fast ion confinement and magneto-hydrodynamic stability in the presence of fast ions.

Ion Propulsion Development Projects in US: Space Electric Rocket Test I to Deep Space 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sovey, James S.; Rawlin, Vincent K.; Patterson, Michael J.

2001-01-01

The historical background and characteristics of the experimental flights of ion propulsion systems and the major ground-based technology demonstrations are reviewed. The results of the first successful ion engine flight in 1964, Space Electric Rocket Test (SERT) I, which demonstrated ion beam neutralization, are discussed along with the extended operation of SERT II starting in 1970. These results together with the technologies employed on the early cesium engine flights, the applications technology satellite series, and the ground-test demonstrations, have provided the evolutionary path for the development of xenon ion thruster component technologies, control systems, and power circuit implementations. In the 1997-1999 period, the communication satellite flights using ion engine systems and the Deep Space 1 flight confirmed that these auxiliary and primary propulsion systems have advanced to a high level of flight readiness.

Soil microbial community responses to acid exposure and neutralization treatment.

PubMed

Shin, Doyun; Lee, Yunho; Park, Jeonghyun; Moon, Hee Sun; Hyun, Sung Pil

2017-12-15

Changes in microbial community induced by acid shock were studied in the context of potential release of acids to the environment due to chemical accidents. The responses of microbial communities in three different soils to the exposure to sulfuric or hydrofluoric acid and to the subsequent neutralization treatment were investigated as functions of acid concentration and exposure time by using 16S-rRNA gene based pyrosequencing and DGGE (Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis). Measurements of soil pH and dissolved ion concentrations revealed that the added acids were neutralized to different degrees, depending on the mineral composition and soil texture. Hydrofluoric acid was more effectively neutralized by the soils, compared with sulfuric acid at the same normality. Gram-negative ß-Proteobacteria were shown to be the most acid-sensitive bacterial strains, while spore-forming Gram-positive Bacilli were the most acid-tolerant. The results of this study suggest that the Gram-positive to Gram-negative bacterial ratio may serve as an effective bio-indicator in assessing the impact of the acid shock on the microbial community. Neutralization treatments helped recover the ratio closer to their original values. The findings of this study show that microbial community changes as well as geochemical changes such as pH and dissolved ion concentrations need to be considered in estimating the impact of an acid spill, in selecting an optimal remediation strategy, and in deciding when to end remedial actions at the acid spill impacted site. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neutralization of space charge forces using ionized background gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Steski, D. B.; Zarcone, M. J.; Smith, K. S.; Thieberger, P.

1996-03-01

The Tandem Van de Graaff at Brookhaven National Laboratory has delivered pulsed gold beam to the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) and AGS Booster since 1992 for relativistic heavy ion physics. There is an ongoing effort to improve the quality and intensity of the negative ion beam delivered to the Tandem from the present Cs sputter sources. Because the beam energy is low (approximately 30 keV) and the current high, there are significant losses due to space charge forces. One of the ways being explored to overcome these losses is to neutralize the space charge forces with ionized background gas. On an ion source test bench, using three different gases (Ar, N2, and Xe), the percentage of current transported from the source to a downstream Faraday cup was increased from 10% to 40% by bleeding in gas. Bleeding in Xe resulted in the best transmission. The time dependence of the neutralization as a function of gas pressure was also observed. This system is presently being transferred to the Negative Ion Injector of the Tandem for use in upcoming heavy ion experiments.

Short intense ion pulses for materials and warm dense matter research

DOE PAGES

Seidl, Peter A.; Persaud, Arun; Waldron, William L.; ...

2015-08-14

We have commenced experiments with intense short pulses of ion beams on the Neutralized Drift Compression Experiment-II at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, by generating beam spots size with radius r<1 mm within 2 ns FWHM and approximately 10 10 ions/pulse. To enable the short pulse durations and mm-scale focal spot radii, the 1.2 MeV Li + ion beam is neutralized in a 1.6-meter drift compression section located after the last accelerator magnet. An 8-Tesla short focal length solenoid compresses the beam in the presence of the large volume plasma near the end of this section before the target. The scientificmore » topics to be explored are warm dense matter, the dynamics of radiation damage in materials, and intense beam and beam-plasma physics including selected topics of relevance to the development of heavy-ion drivers for inertial fusion energy. Finally, we describe the accelerator commissioning and time-resolved ionoluminescence measurements of yttrium aluminum perovskite using the fully integrated accelerator and neutralized drift compression components.« less

Back-streaming ion emission and beam focusing on high power linear induction accelerator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Jun; Chen, Nan; Yu, Haijun; Jiang, Xiaoguo; Wang, Yuan; Dai, Wenhua; Gao, Feng; Wang, Minhong; Li, Jin; Shi, Jinshui

2011-08-01

Ions released from target surfaces by impact of a high intensity and current electron beam can be accelerated and trapped in the beam potential, and further destroy the beam focus. By solving the 2D Poisson equation, we found that the charge neutralization factor of the ions to the beam under space charge limited condition is 1/3, which is large enough to disrupt the spot size. Therefore, the ion emission at the target in a single-pulse beam/target system must be source limited. Experimental results on the time-resolved beam profile measurement have also proven that. A new focus scheme is proposed in this paper to focus the beam to a small spot size with the existence of back-streaming ions. We found that the focal spot will move upstream as the charge neutralization factor increases. By comparing the theoretical and experimental focal length of the Dragon-I accelerator (20 MeV, 2.5 kA, 60 ns flattop), we found that the average neutralization factor is about 5% in the beam/target system.

Crossed, Small-Deflection Energy Analyzer for Wind/Temperature Spectrometer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herrero, Federico A.; Finne, Theodore T.

2010-01-01

Determination of neutral winds and ion drifts in low-Earth-orbit missions requires measurements of the angular and energy distributions of the flux of neutrals and ions entering the satellite from the ram direction. The magnitude and direction of the neutral-wind (or ion-drift) determine the location of the maximum in the angular distribution of the flux. Knowledge of the angle of maximum flux with respect to satellite coordinates (pointing) is essential to determine the wind (or ion-drift) vector. The crossed Small-Deflection Energy Analyzer (SDEA) spectrometer (see Figure 1) occupies minimal volume and consumes minimal power. Designed for upper atmosphere/ionosphere investigations at Earth altitudes above 100 km, the spectrometer operates by detecting the angular and energy distributions of neutral atoms/molecules and ions in two mutually perpendicular planes. In this configuration, the two detection planes actually cross at the spectrometer center. It is possible to merge two SDEAs so they share a common optical axis and alternate measurements between two perpendicular planes, and reduce the number of ion sources from two to one. This minimizes the volume and footprint significantly and reduces the ion source power by a factor of two. The area of the entrance aperture affects the number of ions detected/second and also determines the energy resolution. Thermionic emitters require heater power of about 100 mW to produce 1 mA of electron beam current. Typically, electron energy is about 100 eV and requires a 100-V supply for electron acceleration to supply an additional 100 mW of power. Thus, ion source power is at most 200 mW. If two ion sources were to be used, the ion source power would be, at most, 400 mW. Detector power, deflection voltage power, and microcontroller and other functions require less than 150 mW. A WTS (wind/ temperature spectrometer) with two separate optical axes would consume about 650 mW, while the crossed SDEA described here consumes about 350 mW. The entrance aperture has a diameter of 0.004 in. (0.10 mm) to provide the required energy resolution between 0.05 and 0.15. This design (see Figure 2) provides a WTS occupying a volume less than 40 cm(sup 3), on a footprint of diameter about 1.5 in. (38 mm). The Crossed SDEA offers many advantages in the measurements of neutral wind and ion drifts in the Earth's thermosphere. As such, it will be useful in future commercial satellites dedicated to monitoring the ionosphere with a view to improving the integrity and predictability of GPS operations.

Charge Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Mass Spectrometry of Droplets

PubMed Central

Jorabchi, Kaveh; Westphall, Michael S.; Smith, Lloyd M.

2008-01-01

We propose and evaluate a new mechanism to account for analyte ion signal enhancement in ultraviolet-laser desorption mass spectrometry of droplets in the presence of corona ions. Our new insights are based on timing control of corona ion production, laser desorption, and peptide ion extraction achieved by a novel pulsed corona apparatus. We demonstrate that droplet charging rather than gas-phase ion-neutral reactions is the major contributor to analyte ion generation from an electrically isolated droplet. Implications of the new mechanism, termed charge assisted laser desorption/ionization (CALDI), are discussed and contrasted to those of the laser desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization method (LD-APCI). It is also demonstrated that analyte ion generation in CALDI occurs with external electric fields about one order of magnitude lower than those needed for atmospheric pressure matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization or electrospray ionization of droplets. PMID:18387311

Characterization and Neutralization of Arsenical-Based WWII Era Chemical Munition Fills

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-08-01

Fluorine 2.23 Hydroxyl Radical 2.06 Atomic Oxygen 1.78 Hydrogen Peroxide 1.31 Perhydroxyl Radical 1.25 Permanganate 1.24 Hypobromous Acid 1.17 Chlorine...containing carbon-carbon double bonds, aldehyde groups or hydroxyl groups. As an electrophile , the permanganate ion is strongly attracted to the

Potential mapping with charged-particle beams

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Robinson, J. W.; Tillery, D. G.

1979-01-01

Experimental methods of mapping the equipotential surfaces near some structure of interest rely on the detection of charged particles which have traversed the regions of interest and are detected remotely. One method is the measurement of ion energies for ions created at a point of interest and expelled from the region by the fields. The ion energy at the detector in eV corresponds to the potential where the ion was created. An ionizing beam forms the ions from background neutrals. The other method is to inject charged particles into the region of interest and to locate their exit points. A set of several trajectories becomes a data base for a systematic mapping technique. An iterative solution of a boundary value problem establishes concepts and limitations pertaining to the mapping problem.

Survey of ion plating sources. [conferences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spalvins, T.

1979-01-01

Based on the type of evaporation source, gaseous media and mode of transport, the following is discussed: resistance, electron beam, sputtering, reactive and ion beam evaporation. Ionization efficiencies and ion energies in the glow discharge determine the percentage of atoms which are ionized under typical ion plating conditions. The plating flux consists of a small number of energetic ions and a large number of energetic neutrals. The energy distribution ranges from thermal energies up to a maximum energy of the discharge. The various reaction mechanisms which contribute to the exceptionally strong adherence - formation of a graded sustrate/coating interface are not fully understood, however the controlling factors are evaluated. The influence of process variables on the nucleation and growth characteristics are illustrated in terms of morphological changes which affect the mechanical and tribological properties of the coating.

Fast Potentiometric Analysis of Lead in Aqueous Medium under Competitive Conditions Using an Acridono-Crown Ether Neutral Ionophore.

PubMed

Golcs, Ádám; Horváth, Viola; Huszthy, Péter; Tóth, Tünde

2018-05-03

Lead is a particularly toxic heavy metal that is present above acceptable levels in the water of many countries. This article describes a quick detection method of lead(II) ions using a polyvinyl chloride (PVC)-based ion-selective membrane electrode containing an acridono-crown ether ionophore by potentiometry. The electrochemical cell exhibits a Nernstian response for lead(II) ions between the concentration range of 10 −4 to 10 −2 M, and can be used in the pH range of 4⁻7. The applicability of this sensor was verified by measuring a multicomponent aqueous sample. Under the given conditions, this electrode is suitable for the selective quantitative analysis of lead(II) ions in the presence of many additional metal ions.

Measurement of visible and UV emission from Energetic Neutral Atom Precipitation (ENAP), on Spacelab

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tinsley, B. A.

1980-01-01

The charge exchange of plasmaspheric ions and exospheric H and O and of solar wind ions with exospheric and interplanetary H are sources of precipitating neutrals whose faint emission may be observed by the imaging spectrometric observatory during dark periods of the SL-1 orbit. Measurements of the interactions of these precipitating atoms with the thermosphere are needed to evaluate the heating and ionization effects on the atmosphere as well as the selective loss of i energetic ions from the sources (predominantly the ring current).

Vertical incidence of slow Ne 10+ ions on an LiF surface: Suppression of the trampoline effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wirtz, Ludger; Lemell, Christoph; Reinhold, Carlos O.; Hägg, Lotten; Burgdörfer, Joachim

2001-08-01

We present a Monte Carlo simulation of the neutralization of a slow Ne 10+ ion in vertical incidence on an LiF(1 0 0) surface. The rates for resonant electron transfer between surface F - ions and the projectile are calculated using a classical trajectory Monte Carlo simulation. We investigate the influence of the hole mobility on the neutralization sequence. It is shown that backscattering above the surface due to the local positive charge up of the surface ("trampoline effect") does not take place.

Methods development for separation of inorganic anions, organic acids and bases, and neutral organic compounds by ion chromatography and capillary electrophoresis

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Li, Jie

1999-04-01

A novel anion-exchange resin containing three amine groups was prepared by reaction of a chloromethylated polystyrene-divinylbenzene (PS-DVB) resin with diethylenetriamine. After being protonated by contact with an aqueous acid, this resin can be used for ion chromatographic separation of anions. The charge on the resins can be varied from +1 to +3 by changing the mobile phase pH. The selectivity of the new ion exchangers for various inorganic anions was quite different from that of conventional anion exchangers. The performance of this new anion exchanger was studied by changing the pH and the concentration of the eluent, and several differentmore » eluents were used with some common anions as testing analytes. Conductivity detection and UV-visible detection were applied to detect the anions after separation. The new resin can also be used for HPLC separation of neutral organic compounds. Alkylphenols and alkylbenzenes were separated with this new polymeric resin, and excellent separations were obtained under simple conditions. This report contains Chapter 1: General introduction and Chapter 6: General conclusions.« less

A coupled ion-neutral photochemical model for the Titan atmosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vuitton, V.; Yelle, R. V.; Klippenstein, S. J.; Horst, S. M.; Lavvas, P.

2013-12-01

Recent observations from the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft and the Herschel space observatory drastically increased our knowledge of Titan's chemical composition. The combination of data retrieved by Cassini INMS, UVIS, and CIRS allows deriving the vertical profiles of half a dozen species from 1000 to 100 km, while the HIFI instrument on Herschel reported on the first identification of HNC. Partial data or upper limits are available for almost 20 other CHON neutral species. The INMS and CAPS instruments onboard Cassini also revealed the existence of numerous positive and negative ions in Titan's upper atmosphere. We present the results of a 1D coupled ion-neutral photochemical model intended for the interpretation of the distribution of gaseous species in the Titan atmosphere. The model extends from the surface to the exobase. The atmospheric background, boundary conditions, vertical transport and aerosol opacity are all constrained by the Cassini-Huygens observations. The chemical network includes reactions between hydrocarbons, nitrogen and oxygen bearing species (including some species containing both nitrogen and oxygen, such as NO). It takes into account neutrals and both positive and negative ions with m/z extending up to about 100 u. Ab initio Transition State Theory calculations are performed in order to evaluate the rate coefficients and products for critical reactions. The production of minor nitrogen-bearing species and hydrocarbons is initiated by the dissociation and ionization of N2 and CH4 by solar VUV/EUV photons and associated photoelectrons in the upper atmosphere. We incorporate new high-resolution isotopic photoabsorption and photodissociation cross sections for N2 as well as new photodissociation branching ratios for CH4 and C2H2. The photodissociation of hydrocarbon radicals is taken into account and its impact on the chemistry is discussed for the first time. The presence of oxygen-bearing species is explained by an influx of oxygen originating from Enceladus in the upper atmosphere. The calculated vertical profiles of neutral and ion species generally agree with the existing observational data; some differences are highlighted. We discuss the chemical and physical processes responsible for the production and loss of some key species. We find that the production of neutral species in the upper atmosphere from electron-ion recombination reactions and neutral-neutral radiative association reactions is significant. In the stratosphere, the vertical profile of (cyano)polyynes is extremely sensitive to their heterogeneous loss on aerosols, a process that remains to be constrained experimentally and/or theoretically. This work was performed in the framework of the Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme PIRSES-GA-2009-247509.

Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model With Lower Ionospheric Chemistry: Improved Modeling of Nitric Acid and Active Chlorine During Energetic Particle Precipitation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verronen, P. T.; Andersson, M. E.; Marsh, D. R.; Kovacs, T.; Plane, J. M. C.; Päivärinta, S. M.

2016-12-01

Energetic particle precipitation (EPP) and ion chemistry affect the neutral composition of the polar middle atmosphere. For example, production of odd nitrogen and odd hydrogen during EPP events can decrease ozone by tens of percent. However, the standard ion chemistry parameterizations used in atmospheric models neglect the effects on some important species, such as nitric acid. We present WACCM-D, a variant of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model, which includes a set of lower ionosphere (D-region) chemistry: 307 reactions of 20 positive ions and 21 negative ions. Compared to the Sodankylä Ion and Neutral Chemistry (SIC), a state-of-the-art 1-D model of the D-region chemistry, WACCM-D represents the lower ionosphere well. Comparison of ion concentrations between the models shows that the WACCM-D bias is typically within ±10% or less below 70 km. At 70-90 km, when strong altitude gradients in ionization rates and/or ion concentrations exist, the bias can be larger for some ions but is still within tens of percent. We also compare WACCM-D results for the January 2005 solar proton event (SPE) to those from the standard WACCM and observations from the Aura/MLS and SCISAT/ACE-FTS instruments. The results indicate that WACCM-D improves the modeling of {HNO3}, {HCl}, {ClO}, {OH}, and {NOx} during the SPE. For example, Northern Hemispheric {HNO3} from WACCM-D shows an increase by two orders of magnitude at 40-70 km compared to WACCM, reaching 2.6 ppbv, in agreement with the observations. Based on our results, WACCM-D provides a state-of-the-art global representation of D-region ion chemistry and improves modeling of EPP atmospheric effects considerably.

The Stewart approach--one clinician's perspective.

PubMed

Morgan, T John

2009-05-01

Peter Stewart added controversy to an already troubled subject when he entered the clinical acid-base arena. His approach puts water dissociation at the centre of the acid-base status of body fluids. It is based on six simultaneous equations, incorporating the Laws of Mass Action, Mass Conservation, and Electrical Neutrality. Together with Gibbs-Donnan equilibria, these equations explain the diagnostically important PaCO(2)/pH relationship, and improve understanding of the physiologic basis of traditional acid-base approaches. Spin-offs have included new scanning tools for unmeasured ions, in particular the 'strong ion gap' and 'net unmeasured ions'. The most controversial feature is the designation of pH and bicarbonate concentrations as dependent variables, answerable exclusively to three independent variables. These are the strong ion difference (SID), the total concentration of non-volatile weak acid (A(TOT)), and PCO(2). Aspects of this assertion conflict with traditional renal physiology, and with current models of membrane H(+)/base transporters, oxidative phosphorylation, and proton and bicarbonate ionophores. The debate in this area is ongoing. Meanwhile, Stewart-style diagnostic and decision support systems such as the 'Strong Ion Calculator' and the web-site www.acidbase.org are now appearing.

LADEE/LDEX observations of lunar pickup ion distribution and variability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Poppe, A. R.; Halekas, J. S.; Szalay, J. R.; Horányi, M.; Levin, Z.; Kempf, S.

2016-04-01

We report fortuitous observations of low-energy lunar pickup ion fluxes near the Moon while in the solar wind by the Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX) on board the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE). We describe the method of observation and the empirical calibration of the instrument for ion observations. LDEX observes several trends in the exospheric ion production rate, including a scale height of approximately 100 km, a positive, linear correlation with solar wind flux, and evidence of a slight enhancement near 7-8 h local time. We compare the LDEX observations to both LADEE Neutral Mass Spectrometer ion mode observations and theoretical models. The LDEX data are best fit by total exospheric ion production rates of ≈6 × 103 m-3 s-1 with dominant contributions from Al+, CO+, and Ar+, although the LDEX data suggest that the aluminum neutral density and corresponding ion production rate are lower than predicted by recent models.

Efficient Means of Detecting Neutral Atoms in Space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zinicola, W. N.

2006-12-01

This summer, The Society of Physics Students granted me the opportunity to participate in an internship for The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and The University of Maryland. Our chief interest was analyzing low energy neutral atoms that were created from random interactions of ions in space plasma. From detecting these neutrals one can project a image of what the plasma's composition is, and how this plasma changes through interactions with the solar wind. Presently, low energy neutral atom detectors have poor efficiency, typically in the range of 1%. Our goal was to increase this efficiency. To detect low energy neutrals we must first convert them from neutral molecules to negatively charged ions. Once converted, these "new" negatively charged ions can be easily detected and completely analyzed giving us information about their energy, mass, and instantaneous direction. The efficiency of the detector is drastically affected by the surface used for converting these neutrals. My job was first to create thin metal conversion surfaces. Then, using an X-ray photoelectron spectrometer, analyze atomic surface composition and gather work function values. Once the work function values were known we placed the surfaces in our neutral detector and measured their conversion efficiencies. Finally, a relation between the work function of the metal surface an its conversion efficiency was generated. With this relationship accurately measured one could use this information to help give suggestions on what surface would be the best to increase our detection efficiency. If we could increase the efficiency of these low energy neutral atom detectors by even 1% we would be able to decrease the size of the detector therefore making it cheaper and more applicable for space exploration.* * A special thanks to Dr. Michael Coplan of the University of Maryland for his support and guidance through all my research.

Pickup Ions in the Plasma Environments of Mars, Comets, and Enceladus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cravens, T.; Rahmati, A.; Sakai, S.; Madanian, H.; Larson, D. E.; Lillis, R. J.; Halekas, J. S.; Goldstein, R.; Burch, J. L.; Clark, G. B.; Jakosky, B. M.

2015-12-01

Ions created within a flowing plasma by ionization of neutrals respond to the electric and magnetic fields associated with the flow becoming what are called pick-up ions (PUI). PUI play an important role in many solar system plasma environments and affect the energy and momentum balance of the plasma flow. PUI have been observed during several recent space missions and PUI data will be compared and interpreted using models. Pick-up oxygen ions were observed in the solar wind upstream of Mars by the Solar Energetic Particle (SEP) and Solar Wind Ion Analyzer (SWIA) instruments on NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft. The pick-up oxygen ions are created when atoms in the hot corona are ionized by solar radiation and charge exchange with solar wind protons. The ion fluxes measured by SEP can constrain the oxygen escape rate from Mars. PUI were also been detected at distances of 10 - 100 km from the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko (67P/CG) by plasma instruments (IES and ICA) onboard the Rosetta Orbiter when the comet was at 3 AU. The newly-born cometary ions are accelerated by the solar wind motional electric field but remain un-magnetized, as suggested by pre-encounter models (Rubin et al., 2014). The inner magnetosphere of Saturn and the water plume of the icy satellite Enceladus provide a third example of PUI. H2O+ ions created by ionization of neutral water producing ions that are picked-up by the co-rotating magnetospheric plasma flow. These ions then undergo a complex interaction with the plume gas including collisions that convert most H2O+ ions to H3O+, as measured by the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) onboard the Cassini spacecraft.

High-current plasma contactor neutralizer system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Beattie, J. R.; Williamson, W. S.; Matossian, J. N.; Vourgourakis, E. J.; Burch, J. L.

1989-01-01

A plasma-contactor neutralizer system is described, for the stabilizing the Orbiter's potential during flights of the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science missions. The plasma contactor neutralizer will include a Xe plasma source that can provide steady-state ion-emission currents of up to 1.5 A. The Orbiter's potential will be maintained near that of the surrounding space plasma during electron-beam accelerator firings through a combination of ion emission from the Xe plasma source and electron collection from the ambient space plasma. Configuration diagrams and block diagrams are presented along with the performance characteristics of the system.

Ion neutral mass spectrometer results from the first flyby of Titan.

PubMed

Waite, J Hunter; Niemann, Hasso; Yelle, Roger V; Kasprzak, Wayne T; Cravens, Thomas E; Luhmann, Janet G; McNutt, Ralph L; Ip, Wing-Huen; Gell, David; De La Haye, Virginie; Müller-Wordag, Ingo; Magee, Brian; Borggren, Nathan; Ledvina, Steve; Fletcher, Greg; Walter, Erin; Miller, Ryan; Scherer, Stefan; Thorpe, Rob; Xu, Jing; Block, Bruce; Arnett, Ken

2005-05-13

The Cassini Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) has obtained the first in situ composition measurements of the neutral densities of molecular nitrogen, methane, molecular hydrogen, argon, and a host of stable carbon-nitrile compounds in Titan's upper atmosphere. INMS in situ mass spectrometry has also provided evidence for atmospheric waves in the upper atmosphere and the first direct measurements of isotopes of nitrogen, carbon, and argon, which reveal interesting clues about the evolution of the atmosphere. The bulk composition and thermal structure of the moon's upper atmosphere do not appear to have changed considerably since the Voyager 1 flyby.

Laboratory Experiments Enabling Electron Beam use in Tenuous Space Plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miars, G.; Leon, O.; Gilchrist, B. E.; Delzanno, G. L.; Castello, F. L.; Borovsky, J.

2017-12-01

A mission concept is under development which involves firing a spacecraft-mounted electron beam from Earth's magnetosphere to connect distant magnetic field lines in real time. To prevent excessive spacecraft charging and consequent beam return, the spacecraft must be neutralized in the tenuous plasma environment of the magnetosphere. Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations suggest neutralization can be accomplished by emitting a neutral plasma with the electron beam. Interpretation of these simulations also led to an ion emission model in which ion current is emitted from a quasi-neutral plasma as defined by the space charge limit [1,2]. Experiments were performed at the University of Michigan's Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory (PEPL) to help validate the ion emission model. A hollow cathode plasma contactor was used as a representative spacecraft and charged with respect to the chamber walls to examine the effect of spacecraft charging on ion emission. Retarding Potential Analyzer (RPA) measurements were performed to understand ion flow velocity as this parameter relates directly to the expected space charge limit. Planar probe measurements were also made to identify where ion emission primarily occurred and to determine emission current density levels. Evidence of collisions within the plasma (particularly charge exchange collisions) and a simple model predicting emitted ion velocities are presented. While a detailed validation of the ion emission model and of the simulation tools used in [1,2] is ongoing, these measurements add to the physical understanding of ion emission as it may occur in the magnetosphere. 1. G.L. Delzanno, J.E. Borovsky, M.F. Thomsen, J.D. Moulton, and E.A. MacDonald, J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics 120, 3647, 2015. 2. G.L. Delzanno, J.E. Borovsky, M.F. Thomsen, and J.D. Moulton, J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics 120, 3588, 2015. ________________________________ * This work is supported by Los Alamos National Laboratory.

A Study of Alfven Wave Propagation and Heating the Chromosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tu, J.; Song, P.

2013-12-01

Alfven wave propagation, reflection and heating of the solar atmosphere are studied for a one-dimensional solar atmosphere by self-consistently solving plasma and neutral fluid equations and Maxwell's equations with incorporation of the Hall effect, strong electron-neutral, electron-ion, and ion-neutral collisions. The governing equations are very stiff because of the strong coupling between the charged and neutral fluids. We have developed a numerical model based on an implicit backward difference formula (BDF2) of second order accuracy both in time and space to overcome the stiffness. A non-reflecting boundary condition is applied to the top boundary of the simulation domain so that the wave reflection within the domain due to the density gradient can be unambiguously determined. It is shown that the Alfven waves are partially reflected throughout the chromosphere. The reflection is increasingly stronger at higher altitudes and the strongest reflection occurs at the transition region. The waves are damped in the lower chromosphere dominantly through Joule dissipation due to electron collisions with neutrals and ions. The heating resulting from the wave damping is strong enough to balance the radiation energy loss for the quiet chromosphere. The collisional dissipation of the Alfven waves in the weakly collisional corona is negligible. The heating rates are larger for weaker background magnetic fields. In addition, higher frequency waves are subject to heavier damping. There is an upper cutoff frequency, depending on the background magnetic field, above which the waves are completely damped. At the frequencies below which the waves are not strongly damped, the waves may be strongly reflected at the transition region. The reflected waves interacting with the upward propagating waves may produce power at their double frequencies, which leads to more damping. Due to the reflection and damping, the energy flux of the waves transmitted to the corona is one order of magnitude smaller than that of the driving source.

Development of a targeted adductomic method for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon DNA adducts using online column-switching liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Singh, Rajinder; Teichert, Friederike; Seidel, Albrecht; Roach, Jonathan; Cordell, Rebecca; Cheng, Mai-Kim; Frank, Heinrich; Steward, William P; Manson, Margaret M; Farmer, Peter B

2010-08-30

Human exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from sources such as industrial or urban air pollution, tobacco smoke and cooked food is not confined to a single compound, but instead to mixtures of different PAHs. The interaction of different PAHs may lead to additive, synergistic or antagonistic effects in terms of DNA adduct formation and carcinogenic activity resulting from changes in metabolic activation to reactive intermediates and DNA repair. The development of a targeted DNA adductomic approach using liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) incorporating software-based peak picking and integration for the assessment of exposure to mixtures of PAHs is described. For method development PAH-modified DNA samples were obtained by reaction of the anti-dihydrodiol epoxide metabolites of benzo[a]pyrene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, dibenzo[a,l]pyrene (DB[a,l]P) and dibenz[a,h]anthracene with calf thymus DNA in vitro and enzymatically hydrolysed to 2'-deoxynucleosides. Positive LC/electrospray ionisation (ESI)-MS/MS collision-induced dissociation product ion spectra data showed that the majority of adducts displayed a common fragmentation for the neutral loss of 116 u (2'-deoxyribose) resulting in a major product ion derived from the adducted base. The exception was the DB[a,l]P dihydrodiol epoxide adduct of 2'-deoxyadenosine which resulted in major product ions derived from the PAH moiety being detected. Specific detection of mixtures of PAH-adducted 2'-deoxynucleosides was achieved using online column-switching LC/MS/MS in conjunction with selected reaction monitoring (SRM) of the [M+H](+) to [M+H-116](+) transition plus product ions derived from the PAH moiety for improved sensitivity of detection and a comparison was made to detection by constant neutral loss scanning. In conclusion, different PAH DNA adducts were detected by employing SRM [M+H-116](+) transitions or constant neutral loss scanning. However, for improved sensitivity of detection optimised SRM transitions relating to the PAH moiety product ions are required for certain PAH DNA adducts for the development of targeted DNA adductomic methods. 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The DFMS sensor of ROSINA onboard Rosetta: A computer-assisted approach to resolve mass calibration, flux calibration, and fragmentation issues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dhooghe, Frederik; De Keyser, Johan; Altwegg, Kathrin; Calmonte, Ursina; Fuselier, Stephen; Hässig, Myrtha; Berthelier, Jean-Jacques; Mall, Urs; Gombosi, Tamas; Fiethe, Björn

2014-05-01

Rosetta will rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in May 2014. The Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument comprises three sensors: the pressure sensor (COPS) and two mass spectrometers (RTOF and DFMS). The double focusing mass spectrometer DFMS is optimized for mass resolution and consists of an ion source, a mass analyser and a detector package operated in analogue mode. The magnetic sector of the analyser provides the mass dispersion needed for use with the position-sensitive microchannel plate (MCP) detector. Ions that hit the MCP release electrons that are recorded digitally using a linear electron detector array with 512 pixels. Raw data for a given commanded mass are obtained as ADC counts as a function of pixel number. We have developed a computer-assisted approach to address the problem of calibrating such raw data. Mass calibration: Ion identification is based on their mass-over-charge (m/Z) ratio and requires an accurate correlation of pixel number and m/Z. The m/Z scale depends on the commanded mass and the magnetic field and can be described by an offset of the pixel associated with the commanded mass from the centre of the detector array and a scaling factor. Mass calibration is aided by the built-in gas calibration unit (GCU), which allows one to inject a known gas mixture into the instrument. In a first, fully automatic step of the mass calibration procedure, the calibration uses all GCU spectra and extracts information about the mass peak closest to the centre pixel, since those peaks can be identified unambiguously. This preliminary mass-calibration relation can then be applied to all spectra. Human-assisted identification of additional mass peaks further improves the mass calibration. Ion flux calibration: ADC counts per pixel are converted to ion counts per second using the overall gain, the individual pixel gain, and the total data accumulation time. DFMS can perform an internal scan to determine the pixel gain and related detector aging. The software automatically corrects for these effects to calibrate the fluxes. The COPS sensor can be used for an a posteriori calibration of the fluxes. Neutral gas number densities: Neutrals are ionized in the ion source before they are transferred to the mass analyser, but during this process fragmentation may occur. Our software allows one to identify which neutrals entered the instrument, given the ion fragments that are detected. First, multiple spectra with a limited mass range are combined to provide an overview of as many ion fragments as possible. We then exploit a fragmentation database to assist in figuring out the relation between entering species and recorded fragments. Finally, using experimentally determined sensitivities, gas number densities are obtained. The instrument characterisation (experimental determination of sensitivities, fragmentation patterns for the most common neutral species, etc.) has been conducted by the consortium using an instrument copy in the University of Bern test facilities during the cruise phase of the mission.

Preparation of metallic cation conducting polymers based on sterically hindered phenols containing polymeric systems

DOEpatents

Skotheim, Terje A.; Okamoto, Yoshiyuki; Lee, Hung S.

1989-01-01

The present invention relates to ion-conducting solvent-free polymeric systems characterized as being cationic single ion conductors. The solvent-free polymer electrolytes comprise a flexible polymer backbone to which is attached a metal salt, such as a lithium, sodium or potassium salt, of a sterically hindered phenol. The solid polymer electrolyte may be prepared either by (1) attaching the hindered phenol directly to a flexible polymeric backbone, followed by neutralization of the phenolic OH's or (2) reacting the hindered phenol with a polymer precursor which is then polymerized to form a flexible polymer having phenolic OH's which are subsequently neutralized. Preferably the hindered phenol-modified polymeric backbone contains a polyether segment. The ionic conductivity of these solvent-free polymer electrolytes has been measured to be in the range of 10.sup.-4 to 10.sup.-7 S cm.sup.-1 at room temperature.

Preparation of metallic cation conducting polymers based on sterically hindered phenols containing polymeric systems

DOEpatents

Skotheim, T.A.; Okamoto, Yoshiyuki; Lee, H.S.

1989-11-21

The present invention relates to ion-conducting solvent-free polymeric systems characterized as being cationic single ion conductors. The solvent-free polymer electrolytes comprise a flexible polymer backbone to which is attached a metal salt, such as a lithium, sodium or potassium salt, of a sterically hindered phenol. The solid polymer electrolyte may be prepared either by (1) attaching the hindered phenol directly to a flexible polymeric backbone, followed by neutralization of the phenolic OH's or (2) reacting the hindered phenol with a polymer precursor which is then polymerized to form a flexible polymer having phenolic OH's which are subsequently neutralized. Preferably the hindered phenol-modified polymeric backbone contains a polyether segment. The ionic conductivity of these solvent-free polymer electrolytes has been measured to be in the range of 10[sup [minus]4] to 10[sup [minus]7] S cm[sup [minus]1] at room temperature.

Charge neutralization apparatus for ion implantation system

DOEpatents

Leung, Ka-Ngo; Kunkel, Wulf B.; Williams, Malcom D.; McKenna, Charles M.

1992-01-01

Methods and apparatus for neutralization of a workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer in a system wherein a beam of positive ions is applied to the workpiece. The apparatus includes an electron source for generating an electron beam and a magnetic assembly for generating a magnetic field for guiding the electron beam to the workpiece. The electron beam path preferably includes a first section between the electron source and the ion beam and a second section which is coincident with the ion beam. The magnetic assembly generates an axial component of magnetic field along the electron beam path. The magnetic assembly also generates a transverse component of the magnetic field in an elbow region between the first and second sections of the electron beam path. The electron source preferably includes a large area lanthanum hexaboride cathode and an extraction grid positioned in close proximity to the cathode. The apparatus provides a high current, low energy electron beam for neutralizing charge buildup on the workpiece.

Role of hot oxygen in Venusian ionospheric ion energetics and supersonic antisunward flow

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Knudsen, W.C.

1990-02-01

The column heating rate of the dayside Venus ionospheric ion gas resulting from transfer of energy from the hot oxygen component of the neutral atmosphere is estimated and found equal to that which, when inserted into ionospheric models at the ionopause, raises the calculated temperature to measured values. The transfer of energy is effected through resonant charge exchange between the relatively cold ionospheric O{sup +} ions and the hot oxygen neutrals. The hot oxygen density in the nightside hemisphere does not appear to play a significant role in the nightside ion energetics. The hot oxygen neutral gas flowing across themore » terminator from its dayside source to its nightside sink will exchange momentum with the antisunward flowing ionospheric gas. Although the flow rate of hot oxygen can be estimated only crudely, the estimated rate of deposition and absorption is comparable to that produced by the plasma pressure gradient and should be included in numerical studies of the terminator ionospheric wind.« less

Chemical Reactions Triggered Using Electrons Photodetached from "Clean" Distributions of Anions Deposited in Cryogenic Matrices via Counterion Codeposition.

PubMed

Ludwig, Ryan M; Moore, David T

2014-09-04

Application of matrix isolation spectroscopy to ionic species is typically complicated by the presence of neutral contaminants during matrix deposition. Herein we demonstrate that simultaneous deposition of balanced currents of counterions with mass-selected ions of interest generates "clean" distributions of matrix-isolated metal carbonyl anions, where the only bands appearing in the CO-stretching region of the vibrational spectrum arise from ions. (Neutrals are initially absent.) Photodetachment by mild irradiation with visible light leads to complete conversion of the anions into their corresponding neutral species. The photodetached electrons, in turn, initiate covalent chemistry, inducing C-C bond formation following electron-capture by CO van der Waals dimers to produce trans-OCCO(-). The initial clean distribution of ions enables clear connections to be drawn between the spectral changes occurring at each experimental step, thus demonstrating the potential of the counterion codeposition technique to facilitate detailed studies of chemistry involving ions and electron transfer in cryogenic matrices.

Overestimation of Mach number due to probe shadow

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gosselin, J. J.; Thakur, S. C.; Tynan, G. R.

2016-07-15

Comparisons of the plasma ion flow speed measurements from Mach probes and laser induced fluorescence were performed in the Controlled Shear Decorrelation Experiment. We show the presence of the probe causes a low density geometric shadow downstream of the probe that affects the current density collected by the probe in collisional plasmas if the ion-neutral mean free path is shorter than the probe shadow length, L{sub g} = w{sup 2} V{sub drift}/D{sub ⊥}, resulting in erroneous Mach numbers. We then present a simple correction term that provides the corrected Mach number from probe data when the sound speed, ion-neutral mean free path,more » and perpendicular diffusion coefficient of the plasma are known. The probe shadow effect must be taken into account whenever the ion-neutral mean free path is on the order of the probe shadow length in linear devices and the open-field line region of fusion devices.« less

Local Dynamics of Acid- and Ion-containing Copolymer Melts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Winey, Karen; Middleton, Robert; Tarver, Jacob; Tyagi, Madhusudan; Soles, Christopher; Frischknecht, Amalie

Interest in acid- and ion-containing polymers arises in part from applications as single-ion conductors for selectively transporting a counter ion for battery applications. Structurally, the low dielectric constant of organic polymers and strong ionic interactions leads to ionic aggregation. Here the polymer backbone motion was investigated through quasi-elastic neutron scattering measurements (QENS) and compared with fully atomistic molecular dynamic simulations of precise poly(ethylene-acrylic acid) copolymers and their ionomers (pxAA-y%Li). The effect of carbon spacer length (x =9, 15, 21) between the acid groups and the degree of neutralization (y) with Li on PE backbone dynamics were considered. Systematic slowing in chain dynamics were observed with increasing neutralization where polymer dynamics appear constrained due to anchoring effects. Simulations provide complementary viewpoints indicating a gradient in chain dynamics as a distance away from acid groups. These results indicate that the addition of pendant acid groups inhibit typical PE backbone motion and the neutralized forms strongly suppress the fraction of mobile PE chain.

Low energy ion distribution measurements in Madison Symmetric Torus plasmas

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Titus, J. B., E-mail: jtitus@cepast.famu.edu; Mezonlin, E. D.; Johnson, J. A.

2014-06-15

Charge-exchange neutrals contain information about the contents of a plasma and can be detected as they escape confinement. The Florida A and M University compact neutral particle analyzer (CNPA), used to measure the contents of neutral particle flux, has been reconfigured, calibrated, and installed on the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) for high temperature deuterium plasmas. The energy range of the CNPA has been extended to cover 0.34–5.2 keV through an upgrade of the 25 detection channels. The CNPA has been used on all types of MST plasmas at a rate of 20 kHz throughout the entire discharge (∼70 ms). Plasma parameter scans showmore » that the ion distribution is most dependent on the plasma current. Magnetic reconnection events throughout these scans produce stronger poloidal electric fields, stronger global magnetic modes, and larger changes in magnetic energy all of which heavily influence the non-Maxwellian part of the ion distribution (the fast ion tail)« less

Transition rate diagrams and excitation of titanium in a glow discharge in argon and neon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weiss, Zdeněk; Steers, Edward B. M.; Pickering, Juliet C.

2018-06-01

Emission spectra of titanium in a Grimm-type glow discharge in argon and neon were studied using the formalism of transition rate diagrams. Ti I spectra in argon and neon discharges are similar, without signs of selective excitation, and populations of Ti I levels exhibit a decreasing trend as function of energy, except for some scatter. A major excitation process of Ti II in argon discharge is charge transfer from argon ions to neutral titanium. In neon discharge, a strong selective excitation was observed of Ti II levels at ≈13.3-13.4 eV relative to the Ti I ground state. It was attributed to charge transfer from doubly charged titanium ions to neutral titanium, while the Ti++ ions are produced by charge transfer and ionization of neutral titanium by neon ions. Cascade excitation is important for Ti II levels up to an energy of ≈13 eV relative to the Ti I ground state, both in argon and neon discharges.

Development of a Computationally Efficient, High Fidelity, Finite Element Based Hall Thruster Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jacobson, David (Technical Monitor); Roy, Subrata

2004-01-01

This report documents the development of a two dimensional finite element based numerical model for efficient characterization of the Hall thruster plasma dynamics in the framework of multi-fluid model. Effect of the ionization and the recombination has been included in the present model. Based on the experimental data, a third order polynomial in electron temperature is used to calculate the ionization rate. The neutral dynamics is included only through the neutral continuity equation in the presence of a uniform neutral flow. The electrons are modeled as magnetized and hot, whereas ions are assumed magnetized and cold. The dynamics of Hall thruster is also investigated in the presence of plasma-wall interaction. The plasma-wall interaction is a function of wall potential, which in turn is determined by the secondary electron emission and sputtering yield. The effect of secondary electron emission and sputter yield has been considered simultaneously, Simulation results are interpreted in the light of experimental observations and available numerical solutions in the literature.

High resolution main-ion charge exchange spectroscopy in the DIII-D H-mode pedestal

DOE PAGES

Grierson, B. A.; Burrell, K. H.; Chrystal, C.; ...

2016-09-12

A new high spatial resolution main-ion (deuterium) charge-exchange spectroscopy system covering the tokamak boundary region has been installed on the DIII-D tokamak. Sixteen new edge main-ion charge-exchange recombination sightlines have been combined with nineteen impurity sightlines in a tangentially viewing geometry on the DIII-D midplane with an interleaving design that achieves 8 mm inter-channel radial resolution for detailed profiles of main-ion temperature, velocity, charge-exchange emission, and neutral beam emission. At the plasma boundary, we find a strong enhancement of the main-ion toroidal velocity that exceeds the impurity velocity by a factor of two. Furthermore, the unique combination of experimentally measuredmore » main-ion and impurity profiles provides a powerful quasi-neutrality constraint for reconstruction of tokamak H-mode pedestals.« less

Four-fluid MHD Simulations of the Plasma and Neutral Gas Environment of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Near Perihelion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Zhenguang; Toth, Gabor; Gombosi, Tamas; Jia, Xianzhe; Rubin, Martin; Fougere, Nicolas; Tenishev, Valeriy; Combi, Michael; Bieler, Andre; Hansen, Kenneth; Shou, Yinsi; Altwegg, Kathrin

2016-04-01

The neutral and plasma environment is critical in understanding the interaction of the solar wind and comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (CG), the target of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission. In this study, we have developed a 3-D four-fluid model, which is based on BATS-R-US (Block-Adaptive Tree Solarwind Roe-type Upwind Scheme) within SWMF (Space Weather Modeling Framework) that solves the governing multi-fluid MHD equations and the Euler equations for the neutral gas fluid. These equations describe the behavior and interactions of the cometary heavy ions, the solar wind protons, the electrons, and the neutrals. We simulated the plasma and neutral gas environment of comet CG with SHAP5 model near perihelion and we showed that the plasma environment in the inner coma region have some new features: magnetic reconnection in the tail region, a magnetic pile-up region on the nightside, and nucleus directed plasma flow inside the nightside reconnection region.

VUV absorption spectroscopy measurements of the role of fast neutral atoms in a high-power gap breakdown

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filuk, A. B.; Bailey, J. E.; Cuneo, M. E.; Lake, P. W.; Nash, T. J.; Noack, D. D.; Maron, Y.

2000-12-01

The maximum power achieved in a wide variety of high-power devices, including electron and ion diodes, z pinches, and microwave generators, is presently limited by anode-cathode gap breakdown. A frequently discussed hypothesis for this effect is ionization of fast neutral atoms injected throughout the anode-cathode gap during the power pulse. We describe a newly developed diagnostic tool that provides a direct test of this hypothesis. Time-resolved vacuum-ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy is used to directly probe fast neutral atoms with 1-mm spatial resolution in the 10-mm anode-cathode gap of the SABRE 5 MV, 1 TW applied-B ion diode. Absorption spectra collected during Ar RF glow discharges and with CO2 gas fills confirm the reliability of the diagnostic technique. Throughout the 50-100 ns ion diode pulses no measurable neutral absorption was seen, setting upper limits of (0.12-1.5)×1014 cm-3 for ground-state fast neutral atom densities of H, C, N, O, and F. The absence of molecular absorption bands also sets upper limits of (0.16-1.2)×1015 cm-3 for common simple molecules. These limits are low enough to rule out ionization of fast neutral atoms as a breakdown mechanism. Breakdown due to ionization of molecules is also found to be unlikely. This technique can now be applied to quantify the role of neutral atoms in other high-power devices.

Driven waves in a two-fluid plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roberge, W. G.; Ciolek, Glenn E.

2007-12-01

We study the physics of wave propagation in a weakly ionized plasma, as it applies to the formation of multifluid, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) shock waves. We model the plasma as separate charged and neutral fluids which are coupled by ion-neutral friction. At times much less than the ion-neutral drag time, the fluids are decoupled and so evolve independently. At later times, the evolution is determined by the large inertial mismatch between the charged and neutral particles. The neutral flow continues to evolve independently; the charged flow is driven by and slaved to the neutral flow by friction. We calculate this driven flow analytically by considering the special but realistic case where the charged fluid obeys linearized equations of motion. We carry out an extensive analysis of linear, driven, MHD waves. The physics of driven MHD waves is embodied in certain Green functions which describe wave propagation on short time-scales, ambipolar diffusion on long time-scales and transitional behaviour at intermediate times. By way of illustration, we give an approximate solution for the formation of a multifluid shock during the collision of two identical interstellar clouds. The collision produces forward and reverse J shocks in the neutral fluid and a transient in the charged fluid. The latter rapidly evolves into a pair of magnetic precursors on the J shocks, wherein the ions undergo force-free motion and the magnetic field grows monotonically with time. The flow appears to be self-similar at the time when linear analysis ceases to be valid.

Semiempirical studies of atomic structure. Progress report, 1 July 1991--1 October 1993

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Curtis, L.J.

1993-10-01

Atomic structure/properties of highly ionized many-electron systems are studied using sensitive semiempirical data systematization, experiment, and theory. Measurements are made using fast ion beams, combined with data from laser- and tokamak-produced plasmas, astrophysical sources, and light sources. Results during this 3-y period are discussed under the following headings: Invited review article (decay rates in systems of negative ions to very heavy one-electron ions), fast ion beam lifetime measurements (Pt sequence, neutral carbon, Na sequence), multiplexed decay curve measurements, multiplexed decay curve measurements (lifetimes of alkali-like resonance transitions, spin-forbidden intercombination lines), lifetimes in Ne sequence, lifetimes for H and He sequences,more » data-based semiempirical formulations, calculations, and accelerator studies.« less

Collaborative Research: A Model of Partially Ionized Plasma Flows with Kinetic Treatment of Neutral Atoms and Nonthermal Ions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pogorelov, Nikolai; Zhang, Ming; Borovikov, Sergey

Interactions of flows of partially ionized, magnetized plasma are frequently accompanied by the presence of both thermal and non-thermal (pickup) ion components. Such interactions cannot be modeled using traditional MHD equations and require more advanced approaches to treat them. If a nonthermal component of ions is formed due to charge exchange and collisions between the thermal (core) ions and neutrals, it experiences the action of magnetic field, its distribution function is isotropized, and it soon acquires the velocity of the ambient plasma without being thermodynamically equilibrated. This situation, e. g., takes place in the outer heliosphere - the part ofmore » interstellar space beyond the solar system whose properties are determined by the solar wind interaction with the local interstellar medium. This is also possible in laboratory, at million degrees and above, when plasma is conducting electricity far too well, which makes Ohmic heating ineffective. To attain the target temperatures one needs additional heating eventually playing a dominant role. Among such sources is a so-called neutral particle beam heating. This is a wide-spread technique (Joint European Torus and International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor experiments) based on the injection of powerful beams of neutral atoms into ohmically preheated plasma. In this project we have investigated the energy and density separation between the thermal and nonthermal components in the solar wind and interstellar plasmas. A new model has been developed in which we solve the ideal MHD equations for mixture of all ions and the kinetic Boltzmann equation to describe the transport of neutral atoms. As a separate capability, we can treat the flow of neutral atoms in a multi-component fashion, where neutral atoms born in each thermodynamically distinct regions are governed by the Euler gas dynamic equations. We also describe the behavior of pickup ions either kinetically, using the Fokker–Planck equation, or as a separate fluid. Our numerical simulations have demonstrated that pickup ions play a major role in the interaction of the solar wind and (partially ionized) interstellar medium plasmas. Our teams have investigated the stability of the surface (the heliopause) that separates the solar wind from the local interstellar medium, the transport of galactic cosmic rays, the properties of the heliotail flow, and modifications to the bow wave in front of the heliopause due to charge exchange between the neutral H atoms born in the solar wind and interstellar ions. Modeling results have been validated against observational data, such as obtained by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), and made it possible to shed light on the structure of energetic neutral atom maps created by this spacecraft.. We have also demonstrated that charge-exchange modulated heliosphere is a source of anisotropy of the multi-TeV cosmic ray flux observed in a number of Earth-bound air shower experiments. Newly developed codes are implemented within a Multi-Scale Fluid-Kinetic Simulation Suite (MS-FLUKSS), a publicly available code being developed by our team for over 12 years. MS-FLUKSS scales well up to 160,000 computing cores and has been ported on major supercomputers in the country. Efficient parallelization and data choreography in the continuum simulation modules are provided by Chombo, an adaptive mesh refinement framework managed by Phillip Colella’s team at LBNL. We have implemented in-house, hybrid (MPI+OpenMP) parallelization of the kinetic modules that solve the Boltzmann equation with a Monte Carlo method. Currently, the kinetic modules are being rewritten to take advantage of the modern CPU-GPU supercomputer architecture. The scope of the project allowed us to enhance plasma research and education in such broad, multidis- ciplinary field as physics of partially ionized plasma and its application to space physics and fusion science. Besides the impact on the modeling of complex physical systems, our approach to computational resource management for complex codes utilizing multiple algorithm technologies appears to be a major advance on current approaches. The development of sophisticated resource management will be essential for all future modeling efforts that incorporate a diversity of scales and physical processes. Our effort provided leadership in promoting computational science and plasma physics within the UAH and FIT campuses and, through the training of a broad spectrum of scientists and engineers, foster new technologies across the country.« less

Collaborative Research: A Model of Partially Ionized Plasma Flows with Kinetic Treatment of Neutral Atoms and Nonthermal Ions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pogorelov, Nikolai; Zhang, Ming

Interactions of flows of partially ionized, magnetized plasma are frequently accompanied by the presence of both thermal and non-thermal (pickup) ion components. Such interactions cannot be modeled using traditional MHD equations and require more advanced approaches to treat them. If a nonthermal component of ions is formed due to charge exchange and collisions between the thermal (core) ions and neutrals, it experiences the action of magnetic field, its distribution function is isotropized, and it soon acquires the velocity of the ambient plasma without being thermodynamically equilibrated. This situation, e. g., takes place in the outer heliosphere –- the part ofmore » interstellar space beyond the solar system whose properties are determined by the solar wind interaction with the local interstellar medium. This is also possible in laboratory, at million degrees and above, when plasma is conducting electricity far too well, which makes Ohmic heating ineffective. To attain the target temperatures one needs additional heating eventually playing a dominant role. Among such sources is a so-called neutral particle beam heating. This is a wide-spread technique (Joint European Torus and International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor experiments) based on the injection of powerful beams of neutral atoms into ohmically preheated plasma. In this project we have investigated the energy and density separation between the thermal and nonthermal components in the solar wind and interstellar plasmas. A new model has been developed in which we solve the ideal MHD equations for mixture of all ions and the kinetic Boltzmann equation to describe the transport of neutral atoms. As a separate capability, we can treat the flow of neutral atoms in a multi-component fashion, where neutral atoms born in each thermodynamically distinct region are governed by the Euler gas dynamic equations. We also describe the behavior of pickup ions either kinetically, using the Fokker--Planck equation, or as a separate fluid. Our numerical simulations have demonstrated that pickup ions play a major role in the interaction of the solar wind and (partially ionized) interstellar medium plasmas. Our teams have investigated the stability of the surface (the heliopause) that separates the solar wind from the local interstellar medium, the transport of galactic cosmic rays, the properties of the heliotail flow, and modifications to the bow wave in front of the heliopause due to charge exchange between the neutral H atoms born in the solar wind and interstellar ions. Modeling results have been validated against observational data, such as obtained by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), and made it possible to shed light on the structure of energetic neutral atom maps created by this spacecraft.. We have also demonstrated that charge-exchange modulated heliosphere is a source of anisotropy of the multi-TeV cosmic ray flux observed in a number of Earth-bound air shower experiments. Newly developed codes are implemented within a Multi-Scale Fluid-Kinetic Simulation Suite (MS-FLUKSS), a publicly available code being developed by our team for over 12 years. MS-FLUKSS scales well up to 160,000 computing cores and has been ported on major supercomputers in the country. Efficient parallelization and data choreography in the continuum simulation modules are provided by Chombo, an adaptive mesh refinement framework managed by Phillip Colella's team at LBNL. We have implemented in-house, hybrid (MPI+OpenMP) parallelization of the kinetic modules that solve the Boltzmann equation with a Monte Carlo method. Currently, the kinetic modules are being rewritten to take advantage of the modern CPU-GPU supercomputer architecture. The scope of the project allowed us to enhance plasma research and education in such broad, multidisciplinary field as physics of partially ionized plasma and its application to space physics and fusion science. Besides the impact on the modeling of complex physical systems, our approach to computational resource management for complex codes utilizing multiple algorithm technologies appears to be a major advance on current approaches. The development of sophisticated resource management will be essential for all future modeling efforts that incorporate a diversity of scales and physical processes. Our effort provided leadership in promoting computational science and plasma physics within the UAH and FIT campuses and, through the training of a broad spectrum of scientists and engineers, fostering new technologies across the country.« less

The Big Picture: Imaging of the Global Geospace Environment by the TWINS Mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goldstein, J.; McComas, D. J.

2018-03-01

Encircling our planet at distances of 2.5 to 8 Earth radii is a dynamic plasma population known as the ring current (RC). During geomagnetic storms, the solar wind's interaction with Earth's magnetic field pumps petaJoules of energy into the RC, energizing and transporting particles. To measure the global geospace response, RC imaging is performed by capturing energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) created by charge exchange between geospace ions and the neutral exosphere. The H exosphere is itself imaged via its geocoronal Lyman-α glow. Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers (TWINS) is a stereoscopic ENA and Lyman-α imaging mission that has recorded the deep minimum of solar cycle (SC) 23 and the moderate maximum of SC 24, observing geospace conditions ranging from utterly quiet to major storms. This review covers TWINS studies of the geospace response published during 2013 to 2017. Stereo ENA imaging has revealed new dimensionality and structure of RC ions. Continuous coverage by two imagers has allowed monitoring storms from start to finish. Deconvolution of the low-altitude signal has extended ENA analysis and revealed causal connections between the trapped and precipitating ion populations. ENA-based temperature and composition analyses have been refined, validated, and applied to an unprecedented sequence of solar activity changes in SC 23 and SC 24. Geocoronal imaging has revealed a surprising amount of time variability and structure in the neutral H exosphere, driven by both Sun and solar wind. Global models have been measurably improved. Routine availability of simultaneous in situ measurements has fostered huge leaps forward in the areas of ENA validation and cross-scale studies.

Possibility of deriving the Hermean surface composition through low energy neutral atom detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Milillo, A.; Orsini, S.; Massetti, S.; Mura, A.; de Angelis, E.; Lammer, H.; Wurz, P.; di Lellis, A. M.

2003-04-01

The release processes induced by ion sputtering and/or micrometeoroids impacts induces erosion of the Mercury surface. The sputtered neutrals exhibit spectra peaked at low energies (few eV). Nevertheless, a high-energy neutral signal also emerges, due to these release processes. In principle, the directional neutral signal can be detected, providing information on the local surface composition. In this study, we simulate the neutral signal due to ion sputtering below the cusp regions, assuming a highly anisotropic surface composition. The NPA SERENA / ELENA instrument proposed on board the ESA mission BepiColombo is a nadir-pointing 1-D sensor, able to detect neutral atoms, form tens of eV to about 5 keV with a capability of resolving the major species. The ELENA field-of-view (FOV) is ~ 60 degrees, with the FOV plane perpendicular to the MPO orbital plane. Here, we speculate on the possibility of discriminating composition anisotropies by detecting the high-energy portion of the sputtered signal.

The Final Frontier of pH and the Undiscovered Country Beyond

PubMed Central

Bal, Wojciech; Kurowska, Ewa; Maret, Wolfgang

2012-01-01

The comparison of volumes of cells and subcellular structures with the pH values reported for them leads to a conflict with the definition of the pH scale. The pH scale is based on the ionic product of water, K w = [H+]×[OH−].We used K w [in a reversed way] to calculate the number of undissociated H2O molecules required by this equilibrium constant to yield at least one of its daughter ions, H+ or OH− at a given pH. In this way we obtained a formula that relates pH to the minimal volume VpH required to provide a physical meaning to K w, (where N A is Avogadro’s number). For example, at pH 7 (neutral at 25°C) VpH = 16.6 aL. Any deviation from neutral pH results in a larger VpH value. Our results indicate that many subcellular structures, including coated vesicles and lysosomes, are too small to contain free H+ ions at equilibrium, thus the definition of pH based on K w is no longer valid. Larger subcellular structures, such as mitochondria, apparently contain only a few free H+ ions. These results indicate that pH fails to describe intracellular conditions, and that water appears to be dissociated too weakly to provide free H+ ions as a general source for biochemical reactions. Consequences of this finding are discussed. PMID:23049874

Application of a surfactant-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction method along with central composite design for micro-volume based spectrophotometric determination of low level of Cr(VI) ions in aquatic samples.

PubMed

Sobhi, Hamid Reza; Azadikhah, Efat; Behbahani, Mohammad; Esrafili, Ali; Ghambarian, Mahnaz

2018-05-09

A fast, simple, low cost surfactant-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction method along with central composite design for the determination of low level of Cr(VI) ions in several aquatic samples has been developed. Initially, Cr(VI) ions present in the aqueous sample were readily reacted with 1,5‑diphenylcarbazide (DPC) in acidic medium through complexation. Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), as an anionic surfactant, was then employed as an ion-pair agent to convert the cationic complex into the neutral one. Following on, the whole aqueous phase underwent a dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (DLLME) leading to the transfer of the neutral complex into the fine droplet of organic extraction phase. A micro-volume spectrophotometer was used to determine Cr(VI) concentrations. Under the optimized conditions predicted by the statistical design, the limit of quantification (LOQ) obtained was reported to be 5.0 μg/L, and the calibration curve was linear over the concentration range of 5-100 μg/L. Finally, the method was successfully implemented for the determination of low levels of Cr(VI) ions in various real aquatic samples and the accuracies fell within the range of 83-102%, while the precision varied in the span of 1.7-5.2%. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Sawtooth control in fusion plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graves, J. P.; Angioni, C.; Budny, R. V.; Buttery, R. J.; Coda, S.; Eriksson, L.-G.; Gimblett, C. G.; Goodman, T. P.; Hastie, R. J.; Henderson, M. A.; Koslowski, H. R.; Mantsinen, M. J.; Martynov, An; Mayoral, M.-L.; Mück, A.; Nave, M. F. F.; Sauter, O.; Westerhof, E.; Contributors, JET–EFDA

2005-12-01

Clear observations of early triggering of neo-classical tearing modes by sawteeth with long quiescent periods have motivated recent efforts to control, and in particular destabilize, sawteeth. One successful approach explored in TCV utilizes electron cyclotron heating in order to locally increase the current penetration time in the core. The latter is also achieved in various machines by depositing electron cyclotron current drive or ion cyclotron current drive close to the q = 1 rational surface. Crucially, localized current drive also succeeds in destabilizing sawteeth which are otherwise stabilized by a co-existing population of energetic trapped ions in the core. In addition, a recent reversed toroidal field campaign at JET demonstrates that counter-neutral beam injection (NBI) results in shorter sawtooth periods than in the Ohmic regime. The clear dependence of the sawtooth period on the NBI heating power and the direction of injection also manifests itself in terms of the toroidal plasma rotation, which consequently requires consideration in the theoretical interpretation of the experiments. Another feature of NBI, expected to be especially evident in the negative ion based neutral beam injection (NNBI) heating planned for ITER, is the parallel velocity asymmetry of the fast ion population. It is predicted that a finite orbit effect of asymmetrically distributed circulating ions could strongly modify sawtooth stability. Furthermore, NNBI driven current with non-monotonic profile could significantly slow down the evolution of the safety factor in the core, thereby delaying sawteeth.

The effect of electron collisions on rotational populations of cometary water

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Xie, Xingfa; Mumma, Michael J.

1992-01-01

The e-H2O collisional rate for exciting rotational transitions in cometary water is evaluated for conditions found in Comet Halley during the Giotto spacecraft encounter. In the case of the 0(00)-1(11) rotational transition, the e-H2O collisional rate exceeds that for excitation by neutral-neutral collisions at distances exceeding 3000 km from the cometary nucleus. The estimates are based on theoretical and experimental studies of e-H2O collisions, on ion and electron parameters acquired in situ by instruments on the Giotto and Vega spacecraft, and on results obtained from models of the cometary ionosphere. Thus, the rotational temperature of the water molecule in the intermediate coma may be controlled by collisions with electrons rather than with neutral molecules, and the rotational temperature retrieved from high-resolution IR spectra of water in Comet Halley may reflect electron temperatures rather than neutral gas temperatures in the intermediate coma.

Preliminary measurements of plasma fluctuations in an 8-cm mercury ion thruster

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Serafini, J. S.; Nakanishi, S.

1975-01-01

The rms magnitude, spectra, and cross correlations for the fluctuations in the beam current, the neutralizer keeper current, and the discharge current and voltage were measured for an 8-cm diameter, dished grid ion thruster for a beam current of 72 milliamps. The ratio of the rms magnitude of the fluctuations to the time-mean neutralizer keeper current was found to depend significantly on the neutralizer time-mean keeper current, the flow rate, and keeper hold diameter. The maxima of the spectra of the beam current fluctuations did not depend on the discharge fluctuations. It was found that: (1) the discharge current fluctuations do not directly contribute to the beam current fluctuations; and (2) the neutralizer contributions to the beam fluctuations are small (for good neutralizer-to-beam coupling) but not negligible and appear mostly in the higher frequency range measured.

Formation of charged nanoparticles in hydrocarbon flames: principal mechanisms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Starik, A. M.; Savel'ev, A. M.; Titova, N. S.

2008-11-01

The processes of charged gaseous and particulate species formation in sooting hydrocarbon/air flame are studied. The original kinetic model, comprising the chemistry of neutral and charged gaseous species, generation of primary clusters, which then undergo charging due to attachment of ions and electrons to clusters and via thermoemission, and coagulation of charged-charged, charged-neutral and neutral-neutral particles, is reported. The analysis shows that the principal mechanisms of charged particle origin in hydrocarbon flames are associated with the attachment of ions and electrons produced in the course of chemoionization reactions to primary small clusters and particles and coagulation via charged-charged and charged-neutral particle interaction. Thermal ionization of particles does not play a significant role in the particle charging. This paper was presented at the Third International Symposium on Nonequilibrium Process, combustion, and Atmospheric Phenomena (Dagomys, Sochi, Russia, 25-29 June 2007).

Neutral atom imaging at Mercury

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mura, A.; Orsini, S.; Milillo, A.; Di Lellis, A. M.; De Angelis, E.

2006-02-01

The feasibility of neutral atom detection and imaging in the Hermean environment is discussed in this study. In particular, we consider those energetic neutral atoms (ENA) whose emission is directly related to solar wind entrance into Mercury's magnetosphere. In fact, this environment is characterised by a weak magnetic field; thus, cusp regions are extremely large if compared to the Earth's ones, and intense proton fluxes are expected there. Our study includes a model of H + distribution in space, energy and pitch angle, simulated by means of a single-particle, Monte-Carlo simulation. Among processes that could generate neutral atom emission, we focus our attention on charge-exchange and ion sputtering, which, in principle, are able to produce directional ENA fluxes. Simulated neutral atom images are investigated in the frame of the neutral particle analyser-ion spectrometer (NPA-IS) SERENA experiment, proposed to fly on board the ESA mission BepiColombo/MPO. The ELENA (emitted low-energy neutral atoms) unit, which is part of this experiment, will be able to detect such fluxes; instrumental details and predicted count rates are given.

Ion beam modification of biological materials in nanoscale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yu, L. D.; Anuntalabhochai, S.

2012-07-01

Ion interaction with biological objects in nanoscale is a novel research area stemming from applications of low-energy ion beams in biotechnology and biomedicine. Although the ion beam applications in biotechnology and biomedicine have achieved great successes, many mechanisms remain unclear and many new applications are to be explored. We have carried out some research on exploring the mechanisms and new applications besides attaining ion beam induction of mutation breeding and gene transformation. In the studies on the mechanisms, we focused our investigations on the direct interaction in nanoscale between ions and biological living materials. Our research topics have included the low-energy ion range in DNA, low-energy ion or neutral beam bombardment effect on DNA topological form change and mutation, low-energy ion or neutral beam bombardment effect on the cell envelope and gene transformation, and molecular dynamics simulation of ultra-low-energy ion irradiation of DNA. In the exploration of new applications, we have started experiments on ion irradiation or bombardment, in the nanoscaled depth or area, of human cells for biomedical research. This paper introduces our experiments and reports interesting results.

Hybrid Simulations of Pickup Ions and Ion Cyclotron Waves at Enceladus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cowee, M.; Wei, H.; Tokar, R. L.

2014-12-01

Saturn's moon Enceladus releases tens of kilograms per second of water-group neutrals from its southern plumes. These neutrals are ionized and accelerated by the background co-rotation electric field, producing a local population of pickup ions with a ring distribution in velocity space. This velocity space distribution is highly unstable to the growth of electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves whose amplitudes are generally related to the pickup ion production rate, the mass of the pickup ion, the pickup velocity, and the degree of damping by the background plasma. Observations from the Cassini spacecraft show the amplitudes of the waves generally increase with distance within 2 Enceladus radii of the Moon, consistent with an increasing density of pickup ion source, but then decrease right at the Moon, consistent with zero pickup velocity in the stagnating plasma flow. In order to interpret the observed wave amplitudes in terms of ion production rates at Enceladus, we carry out self-consistent hybrid simulations of the growth of ion cyclotron waves from pickup ions to determine the relationship between wave amplitude and background plasma and ion pickup conditions.

Helicon wave-generated plasmas for negative ion beams for fusion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Furno, Ivo; Agnello, Riccardo; Fantz, U.; Howling, Alan; Jacquier, Remy; Marini, Claudio; Plyushchev, Gennady; Guittienne, Philippe; Simonin, Alain

2017-10-01

In the next generation of fusion reactors, such as DEMO, neutral beam injectors (NBIs) of high energy (0.8-1 MeV) deuterium atoms with high wall-plug efficiency (>50%) will be required to reach burning plasma conditions and to provide a significant amount of current drive. The present NBI system for DEMO assumes that 50 MW is delivered to the plasma by 3 NBIs. In the Siphore NBI concept, negative deuterium ions are extracted from a long, thin ion source 3 m high and 15 cm wide, accelerated and subsequently photo-neutralized. This requires the development of a new generation of negative ion sources. At the Swiss Plasma Center, a novel radio frequency helicon plasma source, based on a resonant network antenna source delivering up to 10 kW at 13.56 MHz, has been developed and is presently under study on the Resonant Antenna Ion Device (RAID). RAID is a linear device (1.9 m total length, 0.4 m diameter) and is equipped with an extensive set of diagnostics for full plasma characterization. In this work, the principles of operation of resonant antennas as helicon sources are introduced. We present absolute spectroscopy, Langmuir probe, and interferometry measurements on helicon plasmas. We characterize the performance of the source in terms of hydrogen/deuterium dissociation and negative ion production as a function of the input power. Furthermore, first results with the helicon birdcage antenna installed on the Cybele negative ion source at CEA-IRFM are presented, as a first step towards the validation of the Siphore concept.

Experimental investigations of low-energy (4 to 40 eV) collisions of O(-)(P2) ions and O(P3) atoms with surfaces

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chutjian, A.; Orient, O. J.; Murad, E.

1990-01-01

Using a newly-developed, magnetically confined source, low-energy, ground state oxygen negative ions and neutral atoms are generated. The energy range is variable, and atom and neutrals have been generated at energies varying from 2 eV to 40 eV and higher. It was found that the interaction of these low-energy species with a solid magnesium fluoride target leads to optical emissions in the (at least) visible and infrared regions of the spectrum. Researchers describe y details of the photodetachment source, and present spectra of the neutral and ion glows in the wavelength range 250 to 850 nm (for O(-)) and 600 to 850 nm (for O), and discuss the variability of the emissions for incident energies between 4 and 40 eV.

Experimental investigations of low-energy (4-40 eV) collisions of O-(2P) ions and O(3P) atoms with surfaces

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Orient, O. J.; Chutjian, A.; Murad, E.

1990-01-01

Using a newly-developed, magnetically confined source, low-energy, ground state oxygen negative ions and neutral atoms are generated. The energy range is variable, and atom and neutrals have been generated at energies varying from 2 eV to 40 eV and higher. It was found that the interaction of these low-energy species with a solid magnesium fluoride target leads to optical emissions in the (at least) visible and infrared regions of the spectrum. Researchers describe y details of the photodetachment source, and present spectra of the neutral and ion glows in the wavelength range 250 to 850 nm (for O/-/) and 600 to 850 nm (for O), and discuss the variability of the emissions for incident energies between 4 and 40 eV.

Particle Environment Package (PEP) for the ESA JUICE mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barabash, Stas; Brandt, Pontus; Wurz, Peter; PEP Team

2016-10-01

PEP is a suite of six (6) sensors arranged in 4 units to measure charged and neutral particles in the Jupiter magnetospheres and at the moons to answer four overarching science questions:1. How does the corotating magnetosphere of Jupiter interact with the complex and diverse environment of Ganymede?2. How does the rapidly rotating magnetosphere of Jupiter interact with the seemingly inert Callisto?3. What are the governing mechanisms and their global impacts of release of material into the Jovian magnetosphere from seemingly inert Europa and active Io?4. How do internal and solar wind drivers cause such energetic, time variable and multi-scale phenomena in the steadily rotating giant magnetosphere of Jupiter?PEP measures positive and negative ions, electrons, exospheric neutral gas, thermal plasma and energetic neutral atoms present in all domains of the Jupiter system over nine decades of energy from < 0.001 eV to > 1 MeV with full angular coverage.PEP provides instantaneous measurements of 3D flow of the ion plasma and composition to understand the magnetosphere and magnetosphere-moon interactions. It also measures instantaneously 3D electron plasma to investigate auroral processes at the moon and Jupiter. Measurements of the angular distributions of energetic electrons at sub-second resolution probe the acceleration mechanisms and magnetic field topology and boundaries.PEP combines global imaging via remote sensing using energetic neutral atoms (ENA) with in-situ measurements and performs global imaging of Europa/Io tori and magnetosphere combined with energetic ion measurements. Using low energy ENAs originating from the particle - surface interaction PEP investigate space weathering of the icy moons by precipitation particles. PEP will first-ever directly sample of the exospheres of Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto with extremely high mass resolution (M/ΔM > 1100).The PEP sensors are (1) an ion mass analyzer, (2) an electron spectrometer, (3) a low energy ENA imager, (4) a high energy ENA and energetic ions imager, (5) an energetic electron sensor, and (6) a neutral gas and ions mass spectrometer.

Comparable stability of Hoogsteen and Watson-Crick base pairs in ionic liquid choline dihydrogen phosphate.

PubMed

Tateishi-Karimata, Hisae; Nakano, Miki; Sugimoto, Naoki

2014-01-08

The instability of Hoogsteen base pairs relative to Watson-Crick base pairs has limited biological applications of triplex-forming oligonucleotides. Hydrated ionic liquids (ILs) provide favourable environments for a wide range of chemical reactions and are known to impact the stabilities of Watson-Crick base pairs. We found that DNA triplex formation was significantly stabilized in hydrated choline dihydrogen phosphate as compared with an aqueous buffer at neutral pH. Interestingly, the stability of Hoogsteen base pairs was found to be comparable with that of Watson-Crick base pairs in the hydrated IL. Molecular dynamics simulations of a DNA triplex in the presence of choline ions revealed that the DNA triplex was stabilized because of the binding of choline ion around the third strand in the grooves. Our finding will facilitate the development of new DNA materials. Our data also indicate that triplex formation may be stabilized inside cells where choline ions and their derivatives are abundant in vivo.

Comparable Stability of Hoogsteen and Watson–Crick Base Pairs in Ionic Liquid Choline Dihydrogen Phosphate

PubMed Central

Tateishi-Karimata, Hisae; Nakano, Miki; Sugimoto, Naoki

2014-01-01

The instability of Hoogsteen base pairs relative to Watson–Crick base pairs has limited biological applications of triplex-forming oligonucleotides. Hydrated ionic liquids (ILs) provide favourable environments for a wide range of chemical reactions and are known to impact the stabilities of Watson–Crick base pairs. We found that DNA triplex formation was significantly stabilized in hydrated choline dihydrogen phosphate as compared with an aqueous buffer at neutral pH. Interestingly, the stability of Hoogsteen base pairs was found to be comparable with that of Watson–Crick base pairs in the hydrated IL. Molecular dynamics simulations of a DNA triplex in the presence of choline ions revealed that the DNA triplex was stabilized because of the binding of choline ion around the third strand in the grooves. Our finding will facilitate the development of new DNA materials. Our data also indicate that triplex formation may be stabilized inside cells where choline ions and their derivatives are abundant in vivo. PMID:24399194

Gravity Waves Near 300 km Over the Polar Caps

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, F. S.; Hanson, W. B.; Hodges, R. R.; Coley, W. R.; Carignan, G. R.; Spencer, N. W.

1995-01-01

Distinctive wave forms in the distributions of vertical velocity and temperature of both neutral particles and ions are frequently observed from Dynamics Explorer 2 at altitudes above 250 km over the polar caps. These are interpreted as being due to internal gravity waves propagating in the neutral atmosphere. The disturbances characterized by vertical velocity perturbations of the order of 100 m/s and horizontal wave lengths along the satellite path of about 500 km. They often extend across the entire polar cap. The associated temperature perturbations indicate that the horizontal phase progression is from the nightside to the dayside. Vertical displacements are inferred to be of the order of 10 km and the periods to be of the order of 10(exp 3) s. The waves must propagate in the neutral atmosphere, but they usually are most clearly recognizable in the observations of ion vertical velocity and ion temperature. By combining the neutral pressure calculated from the observed neutral concentration and temperature with the vertical component of the neutral velocity, an upward energy flux of the order of 0.04 erg/sq cm-s at 250 km has been calculated, which is about equal to the maximum total solar ultraviolet heat input above that altitude. Upward energy fluxes calculated from observations on orbital passes at altitudes from 250 to 560 km indicate relatively little attenuation with altitude.

Numberical simulation of the effects of radially injected barium plasma in the ionosphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Swift, D. W.

1985-01-01

The morphology of the ion cloud in the radial shaped charge barium injection was studied. The shape of the ion cloud that remains after the explosive products and neutral barium clears away was examined. The ion cloud which has the configuration of a rimless wagon wheel is shown. The major features are the 2.5 km radius black hole in the center of the cloud, the surrounding ring of barium ion and the spokes of barium ionization radiating away from the center. The cloud shows no evolution after it emerges from the neutral debris and it is concluded that it is formed within 5 seconds of the event. A numerical model is used to calculate the motion of ions and electrons subject to the electrostatic and lorenz forces.

Millimeter-Wave Time Resolved Studies of the Formation and Decay of CO^+

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oesterling, Lee; Herbst, Eric; de Lucia, Frank

1998-04-01

Since the rate constants for ion-molecule interactions are typically much larger than neutral-neutral interactions, understanding ion-molecule interactions is essential to interpreting radio astronomical spectra from interstellar clouds and modeling the processes which lead to the formation of stars in these regions. We have developed a cell which allows us to study ion-molecule interactions in gases at low temperatures and pressures by using an electron gun technique to create ions. By centering our millimeter-wave source on a rotational resonance and gating the electron beam on and off, we are able to study the time-dependent rotational state distribution of the ion during its formation and decay, and so learn about excitation and relaxation processes as functions of temperature, pressure, electron beam energy, and electron beam current.

Interatomic Coulombic Decay: The Mechanism for Rapid Deexcitation of Hollow Atoms.

PubMed

Wilhelm, Richard A; Gruber, Elisabeth; Schwestka, Janine; Kozubek, Roland; Madeira, Teresa I; Marques, José P; Kobus, Jacek; Krasheninnikov, Arkady V; Schleberger, Marika; Aumayr, Friedrich

2017-09-08

The impact of a highly charged ion onto a solid gives rise to charge exchange between the ion and target atoms, so that a slow ion gets neutralized in the vicinity of the surface. Using highly charged Ar and Xe ions and the surface-only material graphene as a target, we show that the neutralization and deexcitation of the ions proceeds on a sub-10 fs time scale. We further demonstrate that a multiple Interatomic Coulombic Decay (ICD) model can describe the observed ultrafast deexcitation. Other deexcitation mechanisms involving nonradiative decay and quasimolecular orbital formation during the impact are not important, as follows from the comparison of our experimental data with the results of first-principles calculations. Our method also enables the estimation of ICD rates directly.

Compact, maintainable 80-KeV neutral beam module

DOEpatents

Fink, Joel H.; Molvik, Arthur W.

1980-01-01

A compact, maintainable 80-keV arc chamber, extractor module for a neutral beam system immersed in a vacuum of <10.sup.-2 Torr, incorporating a nested 60-keV gradient shield located midway between the high voltage ion source and surrounding grounded frame. The shield reduces breakdown or arcing path length without increasing the voltage gradient, tends to keep electric fields normal to conducting surfaces rather than skewed and reduces the peak electric field around irregularities on the 80-keV electrodes. The arc chamber or ion source is mounted separately from the extractor or ion accelerator to reduce misalignment of the accelerator and to permit separate maintenance to be performed on these systems. The separate mounting of the ion source provides for maintaining same without removing the ion accelerator.

Solar Wind Prediction at Pluto During the New Horizons Flyby: Results From a Two-Dimensional Multi-fluid MHD Model of the Outer Heliosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zieger, B.; Toth, G.; Opher, M.; Gombosi, T. I.

2015-12-01

We adapted the outer heliosphere (OH) component of the Space Weather Modeling Framework, which is a 3-D global multi-fluid MHD model of the outer heliosphere with one ion fluid and four neutral populations, for time-dependent 2-D multi-fluid MHD simulations of solar wind propagation from a heliocentric distance of 1 AU up to 50 AU. We used this model to predict the solar wind plasma parameters as well as the interplanetary magnetic field components at Pluto and along the New Horizons trajectory during the whole calendar year of 2015 including the closest approach on July 14. The simulation is run in the solar equatorial plane in the heliographic inertial frame (HGI). The inner boundary conditions along a circle of 1 AU radius are set by near-Earth solar wind observations (hourly OMNI data), assuming that the global solar wind distribution does not change much during a Carrington rotation (27.2753 days). Our 2-D multi-fluid MHD code evolves one ion fluid and two neutral fluids, which are the primary interstellar neutral atoms and the interstellar neutral atoms deflected in the outer heliosheath between the slow bow shock and the heliopause. Spherical expansion effects are properly taken into account for the ions and the solar magnetic field. The inflow parameters of the two neutral fluids (density, temperature, and velocity components) are set at the negative X (HGI) boundary at 50 AU distance, which are taken from previous 3-D global multi-fluid MHD simulations of the heliospheric interface in a much larger simulation box (1500x1500x1500 AU). The inflow velocity vectors of the two neutral fluids define the so-called hydrogen deflection plane. The solar wind ions and the interstellar neutrals interact through charge exchange source terms included in the multi-fluid MHD equations, so the two neutral populations are evolved self-consistently. We validate our model with the available plasma data from New Horizons as well as with Voyager 2 plasma and magnetic field observations within the heliocentric distance of 50 AU. Our new time-dependent 2-D multi-fluid MHD model is generally applicable for solar wind predictions at any outer planet (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) or spacecraft in the outer heliosphere where charge exchange between solar wind ions and interstellar neutrals play an important role.

Transportation of high-current ion and electron beams in the accelerator drift gap in the presence of an additional electron background

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Karas’, V. I., E-mail: karas@kipt.kharkov.ua; Kornilov, E. A.; Manuilenko, O. V.

2015-12-15

The dynamics of a high-current ion beam propagating in the drift gap of a linear induction accelerator with collective focusing is studied using 3D numerical simulations in the framework of the full system of the Vlasov–Maxwell equations (code KARAT). The ion beam is neutralized by a comoving electron beam in the current density and, partially, in space charge, since the velocities of electrons and ions differ substantially. The dynamics of the high-current ion beam is investigated for different versions of additional neutralization of its space charge. It is established that, for a given configuration of the magnetic field and inmore » the presence of a specially programmed injection of additional electrons from the boundary opposite to the ion injection boundary, the angular divergence of the ion beam almost vanishes, whereas the current of the ion beam at the exit from the accelerator drift gap changes insignificantly and the beam remains almost monoenergetic.« less

Transportation of high-current ion and electron beams in the accelerator drift gap in the presence of an additional electron background

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karas', V. I.; Kornilov, E. A.; Manuilenko, O. V.; Tarakanov, V. P.; Fedorovskaya, O. V.

2015-12-01

The dynamics of a high-current ion beam propagating in the drift gap of a linear induction accelerator with collective focusing is studied using 3D numerical simulations in the framework of the full system of the Vlasov-Maxwell equations (code KARAT). The ion beam is neutralized by a comoving electron beam in the current density and, partially, in space charge, since the velocities of electrons and ions differ substantially. The dynamics of the high-current ion beam is investigated for different versions of additional neutralization of its space charge. It is established that, for a given configuration of the magnetic field and in the presence of a specially programmed injection of additional electrons from the boundary opposite to the ion injection boundary, the angular divergence of the ion beam almost vanishes, whereas the current of the ion beam at the exit from the accelerator drift gap changes insignificantly and the beam remains almost monoenergetic.

Radio frequency sustained ion energy

DOEpatents

Jassby, Daniel L.; Hooke, William M.

1977-01-01

Electromagnetic (E.M.) energy injection method and apparatus for producing and sustaining suprathermal ordered ions in a neutral, two-ion-species, toroidal, bulk equilibrium plasma. More particularly, the ions are produced and sustained in an ordered suprathermal state of existence above the average energy and velocity of the bulk equilibrium plasma by resonant rf energy injection in resonance with the natural frequency of one of the ion species. In one embodiment, the electromagnetic energy is injected to clamp the energy and velocity of one of the ion species so that the ion energy is increased, sustained, prolonged and continued in a suprathermal ordered state of existence containing appreciable stored energy that counteracts the slowing down effects of the bulk equilibrium plasma drag. Thus, selective deuteron absorption may be used for ion-tail creation by radio-frequency excitation alone. Also, the rf can be used to increase the fusion output of a two-component neutral injected plasma by selective heating of the injected deuterons.

Two-fluid Numerical Simulations of Solar Spicules

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kuźma, Błażej; Murawski, Kris; Kayshap, Pradeep

2017-11-10

We aim to study the formation and evolution of solar spicules by means of numerical simulations of the solar atmosphere. With the use of newly developed JOANNA code, we numerically solve two-fluid (for ions + electrons and neutrals) equations in 2D Cartesian geometry. We follow the evolution of a spicule triggered by the time-dependent signal in ion and neutral components of gas pressure launched in the upper chromosphere. We use the potential magnetic field, which evolves self-consistently, but mainly plays a passive role in the dynamics. Our numerical results reveal that the signal is steepened into a shock that propagatesmore » upward into the corona. The chromospheric cold and dense plasma lags behind this shock and rises into the corona with a mean speed of 20–25 km s{sup −1}. The formed spicule exhibits the upflow/downfall of plasma during its total lifetime of around 3–4 minutes, and it follows the typical characteristics of a classical spicule, which is modeled by magnetohydrodynamics. The simulated spicule consists of a dense and cold core that is dominated by neutrals. The general dynamics of ion and neutral spicules are very similar to each other. Minor differences in those dynamics result in different widths of both spicules with increasing rarefaction of the ion spicule in time.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Myers, A.M.; Ruzic, D.N.; Powell, R.C.

An analyzer capable of determining the mass as well as the energy (5--200 eV) of neutral and ion species has been developed from a quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS). The system, which is similar to a retarding grid energy analyzer (RGEA), functions by biasing the rods of a QMS and monitoring the analyzer signal as a function of bias potential. Modulation of the pole bias greatly increases the minimum detectable signal level. Experiments were performed using species generated in a single-grid Kaufman ion gun operated with N{sub 2} or Ar. Results show that the pole bias techniques can provide energy resolutionmore » of 1--2 eV. Ion species from the gun were found to have an energy equal to the sum of the beam and the plasma potentials, with an energy spread between 1 and 3 eV. Fast N{sub 2} and Ar neutral species were measured as a function of discharge voltage (30--80 V), beam acceleration voltage (50--100 V), grid voltage ({minus}20 to +5 V), and pressure (0.5 and 1.5 mTorr). The energy of the fast neutral species was always less than that of the ions. This was consistent with the fast neutrals being formed by a charge-exchange process.« less

Liouville master equation for multielectron dynamics: Neutralization of highly charged ions near a LiF surface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wirtz, Ludger; Reinhold, Carlos O.; Lemell, Christoph; Burgdörfer, Joachim

2003-01-01

We present a simulation of the neutralization of highly charged ions in front of a lithium fluoride surface including the close-collision regime above the surface. The present approach employs a Monte Carlo solution of the Liouville master equation for the joint probability density of the ionic motion and the electronic population of the projectile and the target surface. It includes single as well as double particle-hole (de)excitation processes and incorporates electron correlation effects through the conditional dynamics of population strings. The input in terms of elementary one- and two-electron transfer rates is determined from classical trajectory Monte Carlo calculations as well as quantum-mechanical Auger calculations. For slow projectiles and normal incidence, the ionic motion depends sensitively on the interplay between image acceleration towards the surface and repulsion by an ensemble of positive hole charges in the surface (“trampoline effect”). For Ne10+ we find that image acceleration is dominant and no collective backscattering high above the surface takes place. For grazing incidence, our simulation delineates the pathways to complete neutralization. In accordance with recent experimental observations, most ions are reflected as neutral or even as singly charged negative particles, irrespective of the charge state of the incoming ions.

Assessment of the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon-Diffuse Interstellar Band Proposal

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Salama, Farid; Bakes, F.; Allamandola, L.; Tielens, A. G. G. M.; Witteborn, Fred C. (Technical Monitor)

1995-01-01

The potential link between neutral and/or ionized polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and the diffuse interstellar band (DIB) carriers is examined. Based on the study of the general physical and chemical properties of PAHs, an assessment is made of their possible contribution to the DIB carriers. It is found that, under the conditions reigning in the diffuse interstellar medium, PAHs can be present in the form of neutral molecules as well as positive and/or negative ions. The charge distribution of small PAHs is dominated, however, by two charge states at one time with compact PAHs present only in the neutral and cationic forms. Each PAH has a distinct spectral signature depending on its charge state. Moreover, the spectra of ionized PAHs are always clearly dominated by a single band in the DIB spectral range. In the case of compact PAH ions, the strongest absorption band is of type A (i.e., the band is broad, falls in the high energy range of the spectrum, and possess a large oscillator strength), and seems to correlate with strong and broad DIBs. In the case of non-compact PAH ions, the strongest absorption band is of type I (i.e., the band is narrow, falls in the low energy range of the spectrum, and possess a small oscillator strength), and seems to correlate with weak and narrow DIBs. Potential molecular size and structure constraints for interstellar PAHs are derived by comparing known DIB characteristics to the spectroscopic properties of PAHs. It is found that: (i) Only neutral PAHs larger than about 30 carbon atoms could, if present, contribute to the DIBs. (ii) For compact PAHs, only ions with less than about 250 carbon atoms could, if present, contribute to the DIBs. (iii) The observed distribution of the DIBs between strong/moderate and broad bands on the one hand and weak and narrow bands on the other hand can easily be interpreted in the context of the PAH proposal by a distribution between compact and non-compact PAH ions, respectively. A plausible correlation between PAH charge states and DIB "families" is thus provided by the PAH-DIB proposal. Following this proposal, DIB families would provide tracers of conditions within a cloud which globally determine the relative importance of cations, anions, and neutral species, rather than tracers of a specific species. Observational predictions are given to establish the viability of the PAH hypothesis. It is concluded that small PAH ions are very promising candidates as DIB carriers provided their population is dominated by a finite number (100-200) of species. A key test for the PAH proposal, consisting of laboratory and astronomical investigations of the ultraviolet range, is called for.

Assessment of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-diffuse interstellar band proposal

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Salama, F.; Bakes, E. L.; Allamandola, L. J.; Tielens, A. G.

1996-01-01

The potential link between neutral and/or ionized polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and the diffuse interstellar band (DIB) carriers is examined. Based on the study of the general physical and chemical properties of PAHs, an assessment is made of their possible contribution to the DIB carriers. It is found that, under the conditions reigning in the diffuse interstellar medium, PAHs can be present in the form of neutral molecules as well as positive and/or negative ions. The charge distribution of small PAHs is dominated, however, by two charge states at one time with compact PAHs present only in the neutral and cationic forms. Each PAH has a distinct spectral signature depending on its charge state. Moreover, the spectra of ionized PAHs are always clearly dominated by a single band in the DIB spectral range. In the case of compact PAH ions, the strongest absorption band is of type A (i.e., the band is broad, falls in the high-energy range of the spectrum, and possesses a large oscillator strength), and seems to correlate with strong and broad DIBs. For noncompact PAH ions, the strongest absorption band is of type I (i.e., the band is narrow, falls in the low-energy range of the spectrum, and possesses a small oscillator strength), and seems to correlate with weak and narrow DIBs. Potential molecular size and structure constraints for interstellar PAHs are derived by comparing known DIB characteristics to the spectroscopic properties of PAHs. It is found that (i) only neutral PAHs larger than about 30 carbon atoms could, if present, contribute to the DIBs. (ii) For compact PAHs, only ions with less than about 250 carbon atoms could, if present, contribute to the DIBs. (iii) The observed distribution of the DIBs between strong/moderate and broad bands on the one hand and weak and narow bands on the other can easily be interpreted in the context of the PAH proposal by a distribution of compact and noncompact PAH ions, respectively. A plausible correlation between PAH charge states and DIB "families" is thus provided by the PAH-DIB proposal. Following this proposal, DIB families would reflect conditions within a cloud which locally determine the relative importance of cations, anions, and neutral species, rather than tracers of a specific species. Observational predictions are given to establish the viability of the PAH hypothesis. It is concluded that small PAH ions are very promising candidates as DIB carriers provided their population is dominated by a finite number (100-200) of species. A key test for the PAH proposal, consisting of laboratory and astronomical investigations in the ultraviolet range, is called for.

Ion beam enhancement in magnetically insulated ion diodes for high-intensity pulsed ion beam generation in non-relativistic mode

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhu, X. P.; Surface Engineering Laboratory, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024; Zhang, Z. C.

High-intensity pulsed ion beam (HIPIB) with ion current density above Child-Langmuir limit is achieved by extracting ion beam from anode plasma of ion diodes with suppressing electron flow under magnetic field insulation. It was theoretically estimated that with increasing the magnetic field, a maximal value of ion current density may reach nearly 3 times that of Child-Langmuir limit in a non-relativistic mode and close to 6 times in a highly relativistic mode. In this study, the behavior of ion beam enhancement by magnetic insulation is systematically investigated in three types of magnetically insulated ion diodes (MIDs) with passive anode, takingmore » into account the anode plasma generation process on the anode surface. A maximal enhancement factor higher than 6 over the Child-Langmuir limit can be obtained in the non-relativistic mode with accelerating voltage of 200–300 kV. The MIDs differ in two anode plasma formation mechanisms, i.e., surface flashover of a dielectric coating on the anode and explosive emission of electrons from the anode, as well as in two insulation modes of external-magnetic field and self-magnetic field with either non-closed or closed drift of electrons in the anode-cathode (A-K) gap, respectively. Combined with ion current density measurement, energy density characterization is employed to resolve the spatial distribution of energy density before focusing for exploring the ion beam generation process. Consistent results are obtained on three types of MIDs concerning control of neutralizing electron flows for the space charge of ions where the high ion beam enhancement is determined by effective electron neutralization in the A-K gap, while the HIPIB composition of different ion species downstream from the diode may be considerably affected by the ion beam neutralization during propagation.« less

A computational study of ultrafast acid dissociation and acid-base neutralization reactions. I. The model.

PubMed

Maurer, Patrick; Thomas, Vibin; Rivard, Ugo; Iftimie, Radu

2010-07-28

Ultrafast, time-resolved investigations of acid-base neutralization reactions have recently been performed using systems containing the photoacid 8-hydroxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid trisodium salt (HPTS) and various Bronsted bases. Two conflicting neutralization mechanisms have been formulated by Mohammed et al. [Science 310, 83 (2005)] and Siwick et al. [J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129, 13412 (2007)] for the same acid-base system. Herein an ab initio molecular dynamics based computational model is formulated, which is able to investigate the validity of the proposed mechanisms in the general context of ground-state acid-base neutralization reactions. Our approach consists of using 2,4,6-tricyanophenol (exp. pKa congruent with 1) as a model for excited-state HPTS( *) (pKa congruent with 1.4) and carboxylate ions for the accepting base. We employ our recently proposed dipole-field/quantum mechanics (QM) treatment [P. Maurer and R. Iftimie, J. Chem. Phys. 132, 074112 (2010)] of the proton donor and acceptor molecules. This approach allows one to tune the free energy of neutralization to any desired value as well as model initial nonequilibrium hydration effects caused by a sudden increase in acidity, making it possible to achieve a more realistic comparison with experimental data than could be obtained via a full-QM treatment of the entire system. It is demonstrated that the dipole-field/QM model reproduces correctly key properties of the 2,4,6-tricyanophenol acid molecule including gas-phase proton dissociation energies and dipole moments, and condensed-phase hydration structure and pKa values.

Collisional spreading of Enceladus’ neutral cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cassidy, T. A.; Johnson, R. E.

2010-10-01

We describe a direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) model of Enceladus' neutral cloud and compare its results to observations of OH and O orbiting Saturn. The OH and O are observed far from Enceladus (at 3.95 R S), as far out as 25 R S for O. Previous DSMC models attributed this breadth primarily to ion/neutral scattering (including charge exchange) and molecular dissociation. However, the newly reported O observations and a reinterpretation of the OH observations (Melin, H., Shemansky, D.E., Liu, X. [2009] Planet. Space Sci., 57, 1743-1753, PS&S) showed that the cloud is broader than previously thought. We conclude that the addition of neutral/neutral scattering (Farmer, A.J. [2009] Icarus, 202, 280-286), which was underestimated by previous models, brings the model results in line with the new observations. Neutral/neutral collisions primarily happen in the densest part of the cloud, near Enceladus' orbit, but contribute to the spreading by pumping up orbital eccentricity. Based on the cloud model presented here Enceladus maybe the ultimate source of oxygen for the upper atmospheres of Titan and Saturn. We also predict that large quantities of OH, O and H 2O bombard Saturn's icy satellites.

Modeling and simulation of a beam emission spectroscopy diagnostic for the ITER prototype neutral beam injector.

PubMed

Barbisan, M; Zaniol, B; Pasqualotto, R

2014-11-01

A test facility for the development of the neutral beam injection system for ITER is under construction at Consorzio RFX. It will host two experiments: SPIDER, a 100 keV H(-)/D(-) ion RF source, and MITICA, a prototype of the full performance ITER injector (1 MV, 17 MW beam). A set of diagnostics will monitor the operation and allow to optimize the performance of the two prototypes. In particular, beam emission spectroscopy will measure the uniformity and the divergence of the fast particles beam exiting the ion source and travelling through the beam line components. This type of measurement is based on the collection of the Hα/Dα emission resulting from the interaction of the energetic particles with the background gas. A numerical model has been developed to simulate the spectrum of the collected emissions in order to design this diagnostic and to study its performance. The paper describes the model at the base of the simulations and presents the modeled Hα spectra in the case of MITICA experiment.

Prospects for Alpha Particle Heating in JET in the Hot Ion Regime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cordey, J. G.; Keilhacker, M.; Watkins, M. L.

1987-01-01

The prospects for alpha particle heating in JET are discussed. A computational model is developed to represent adequately the neutron yield from JET plasmas heated by neutral beam injection. This neutral beam model, augmented by a simple plasma model, is then used to determine the neutron yields and fusion Q-values anticipated for different heating schemes in future operation of JET with tritium. The relative importance of beam-thermal and thermal-thermal reactions is pointed out and the dependence of the results on, for example, plasma density, temperature, energy confinement and purity is shown. Full 1½-D transport code calculations, based on models developed for ohmic, ICRF and NBI heated JET discharges, are used also to provide a power scan for JET operation in tritium in the low density, high ion temperature regime. The results are shown to be in good agreement with the estimates made using the simple plasma model and indicate that, based on present knowledge, a fusion Q-value in the plasma centre above unity should be achieved in JET.

Diagnostics of the ITER neutral beam test facility.

PubMed

Pasqualotto, R; Serianni, G; Sonato, P; Agostini, M; Brombin, M; Croci, G; Dalla Palma, M; De Muri, M; Gazza, E; Gorini, G; Pomaro, N; Rizzolo, A; Spolaore, M; Zaniol, B

2012-02-01

The ITER heating neutral beam (HNB) injector, based on negative ions accelerated at 1 MV, will be tested and optimized in the SPIDER source and MITICA full injector prototypes, using a set of diagnostics not available on the ITER HNB. The RF source, where the H(-)∕D(-) production is enhanced by cesium evaporation, will be monitored with thermocouples, electrostatic probes, optical emission spectroscopy, cavity ring down, and laser absorption spectroscopy. The beam is analyzed by cooling water calorimetry, a short pulse instrumented calorimeter, beam emission spectroscopy, visible tomography, and neutron imaging. Design of the diagnostic systems is presented.

Photo ion spectrometer

DOEpatents

Gruen, Dieter M.; Young, Charles E.; Pellin, Michael J.

1989-01-01

A charged particle spectrometer for performing ultrasensitive quantitative analysis of selected atomic components removed from a sample. Significant improvements in performing energy and angular refocusing spectroscopy are accomplished by means of a two dimensional structure for generating predetermined electromagnetic field boundary conditions. Both resonance and non-resonance ionization of selected neutral atomic components allow accumulation of increased chemical information. A multiplexed operation between a SIMS mode and a neutral atomic component ionization mode with EARTOF analysis enables comparison of chemical information from secondary ions and neutral atomic components removed from the sample. An electronic system is described for switching high level signals, such as SIMS signals, directly to a transient recorder and through a charge amplifier to the transient recorder for a low level signal pulse counting mode, such as for a neutral atomic component ionization mode.

Adsorption of Bromine on Gold Nanoclusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salvo, Christopher; Keagy, Josiah; Yarmoff, Jory

Small metal nanoclusters are extremely effective as catalysts, with rates that rival those of enzymes in biological systems. The first step in a catalytic reaction is the adsorption of a precursor molecule. The neutralization of alkali projectiles during low energy ion scattering (LEIS), which is acutely sensitive to the local electrostatic potential a few Å's above the surface, is used here to probe Au nanoclusters grown on SiO2 as they are reacted with Br2. Previous work had demonstrated very efficient neutralization in scattering from small catalytically active Au clusters, which was interpreted as an indication that the bare clusters are negatively charged. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and LEIS show little or no Br signal after exposing SiO2 and Au foil to Br2, suggesting that adsorption does not occur because the Br-Br bond does not break. Dissociative adsorption occurs rapidly, however, when small Au nanoclusters are reacted with Br2. 1.5 keV Na+ ions scattered from the Au clusters show a decrease in the neutralization probability as Br is reacted, indicating that adsorption results in charge being transferred from the cluster to the Br adatom. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under CHE - 1611563.

IBEX-lo Sky Maps of Secondary Interstellar Neutrals Helium and Oxygen

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kucharek, H.; Isenberg, P. A.; Jeewoo, P.; Kubiak, M. A.; Bzowski, M.

2017-12-01

There are several populations of heliospheric energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) generated at the various heliospheric interfaces, the inner heliosheath, outer heliosheath (OHS), and the termination shock (TS). Depending on where and how these ENAs are generated, they belong to different energy regimes. While interstellar neutral (ISN) particles flow through the heliospheric boundary is mostly unimpeded, a substantial fraction of ISN H and O is filtered through charge exchange with ambient plasma ions before reaching the TS. Secondary ISN atoms are generated by the charge exchange reaction between primary ISN atoms and interstellar ions in the outer heliosheath, forming walls of H and O in front of the heliopause (HP). The flowing interstellar plasma encounters the heliopause as an obstacle, which deflects the flow. Thus, secondary neutrals measured at 1 AU carry information about the deflected interstellar plasma and the shape of the heliopause that causes the deflection. Due to very different magnitudes of charge exchange cross sections, the main source of the secondary He is charge exchange with the OHS He+, while that of the secondary O is the charge exchange between interstellar O+ and the OHS H. Therefore, the oxygen results are drastically different from those of helium. Interstellar O+ ions behave in principle like the He+ particles with an over-density due to the plasma deceleration. The high density decelerated oxygen ions just upwind of the heliopause encounter an over-density in neutral hydrogen, the hydrogen wall, allowing frequent charge exchange that produce slow neutral oxygen atoms forming the oxygen wall. Thus, the distribution in the sky maps of secondary He and O carries information on the shape as well as the structures in front of it. To investigate the secondary component of the interstellar neutral in detail we have distinguish between the two secondary component's. We engaged theory and simulations for the primary and secondary components to determine differences of between measurements and model predicted data.

Emergence of kinetic behavior in streaming ultracold neutral plasmas

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McQuillen, P.; Castro, J.; Bradshaw, S. J.

2015-04-15

We create streaming ultracold neutral plasmas by tailoring the photoionizing laser beam that creates the plasma. By varying the electron temperature, we control the relative velocity of the streaming populations, and, in conjunction with variation of the plasma density, this controls the ion collisionality of the colliding streams. Laser-induced fluorescence is used to map the spatially resolved density and velocity distribution function for the ions. We identify the lack of local thermal equilibrium and distinct populations of interpenetrating, counter-streaming ions as signatures of kinetic behavior. Experimental data are compared with results from a one-dimensional, two-fluid numerical simulation.

A survey of bimolecular ion-molecule reactions for use in modeling the chemistry of planetary atmospheres, cometary comae, and interstellar clouds - 1993 supplement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Anicich, V. G.

1993-01-01

This is a supplement to a previous paper (Anicich & Huntress 1986). It is a survey of bimolecular positive ion-molecule reactions with potential importance to the chemistry of planetary atmospheres, cometary comae, and interstellar clouds. This supplement covers the literature from 1986 through 1991, with some additional citations missed in the original survey. Over 200 new citations are included. A table of reactions is listed by reactant ion, and cross-references are provided for both ionic and neutral reactants and also for both ionic and neutral products.

Design of a Prototype Positive Ion Source with Slit Aperture Type Extraction System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharma, Sanjeev K.; Vattilli, Prahlad; Choksi, Bhargav; Punyapu, Bharathi; Sidibomma, Rambabu; Bonagiri, Sridhar; Aggrawal, Deepak; Baruah, Ujjwal K.

2017-04-01

The neutral beam injector group at IPR aims at developing an experimental positive ion source capable of delivering H+ ion beam having energy of 30 - 40 keV and carrying an ion beam current of 5 A. The slit aperture based extraction system is chosen for extracting and accelerating the ions so as to achieve low divergence of the ion beam (< 0.5°). For producing H+ ions a magnetic multi-pole bucket type plasma chamber is selected. We calculated the magnetic field due to cusp magnets and trajectories (orbits) of the primary electrons to investigate the two magnetic configurations i.e. line cusp and checker board. Numerical simulation is also carried out by using OPERA-3D to study the characteristic performance of the slit aperture type extraction-acceleration system. We report here the results of the studies carried out on various aspects of the design of the slit aperture type positive ion source.

Effect of moisture on the field dependence of mobility for gas-phase ions of organophosphorus compounds at atmospheric pressure with field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry.

PubMed

Krylova, N; Krylov, E; Eiceman, G A; Stone, J A

2003-05-15

The electric field dependence of the mobilities of gas-phase protonated monomers [(MH+(H2O)n] and proton-bound dimers [M2H+(H2O)n] of organophosphorus compounds was determined at E/N values between 0 and 140 Td at ambient pressure in air with moisture between 0.1 and 15 000 ppm. Field dependence was described as alpha (E/N) and was obtained from the measurements of compensation voltage versus field amplitude in a planar high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometer. The alpha function for protonated monomers to 140 Td was constant from 0.1 to 10 ppm moisture in air with onset of effect at approximately 50 ppm. The value of alpha increased 2-fold from 100 to 1000 ppm at all E/N values. At moisture values between 1000 and 10 000 ppm, a 2-fold or more increase in alpha (E/N) was observed. In a model proposed here, field dependence for mobility through changes in collision cross sections is governed by the degree of solvation of the protonated molecule by neutral molecules. The process of ion declustering at high E/N values was consistent with the kinetics of ion-neutral collisional periods, and the duty cycle of the waveform applied to the drift tube. Water was the principal neutral above 50 ppm moisture in air, and nitrogen was proposed as the principal neutral below 50 ppm.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Redi, M.H.; Mynick, H.E.; Suewattana, M.

Hamiltonian coordinate, guiding-center code calculations of the confinement of suprathermal ions in quasi-axisymmetric stellarator (QAS) designs have been carried out to evaluate the attractiveness of compact configurations which are optimized for ballooning stability. A new stellarator particle-following code is used to predict ion loss rates and particle confinement for thermal and neutral beam ions in a small experiment with R = 145 cm, B = 1-2 T and for alpha particles in a reactor-size device. In contrast to tokamaks, it is found that high edge poloidal flux has limited value in improving ion confinement in QAS, since collisional pitch-angle scatteringmore » drives ions into ripple wells and stochastic field regions, where they are quickly lost. The necessity for reduced stellarator ripple fields is emphasized. The high neutral beam ion loss predicted for these configurations suggests that more interesting physics could be explored with an experiment of less constrained size and magnetic field geometry.« less

Systematization of the mass spectra for speciation of inorganic salts with static secondary ion mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Van Ham, Rita; Van Vaeck, Luc; Adams, Freddy C; Adriaens, Annemie

2004-05-01

The analytical use of mass spectra from static secondary ion mass spectrometry for the molecular identification of inorganic analytes in real life surface layers and microobjects requires an empirical insight in the signals to be expected from a given compound. A comprehensive database comprising over 50 salts has been assembled to complement prior data on oxides. The present study allows the systematic trends in the relationship between the detected signals and molecular composition of the analyte to be delineated. The mass spectra provide diagnostic information by means of atomic ions, structural fragments, molecular ions, and adduct ions of the analyte neutrals. The prediction of mass spectra from a given analyte must account for the charge state of the ions in the salt, the formation of oxide-type neutrals from oxy salts, and the occurrence of oxidation-reduction processes.

Single event mass spectrometry

DOEpatents

Conzemius, Robert J.

1990-01-16

A means and method for single event time of flight mass spectrometry for analysis of specimen materials. The method of the invention includes pulsing an ion source imposing at least one pulsed ion onto the specimen to produce a corresponding emission of at least one electrically charged particle. The emitted particle is then dissociated into a charged ion component and an uncharged neutral component. The ion and neutral components are then detected. The time of flight of the components are recorded and can be used to analyze the predecessor of the components, and therefore the specimen material. When more than one ion particle is emitted from the specimen per single ion impact, the single event time of flight mass spectrometer described here furnis This invention was made with Government support under Contract No. W-7405-ENG82 awarded by the Department of Energy. The Government has certain rights in the invention.

Optical observations on the CRIT-II Critical Ionization Velocity Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stenbaek-Nielsen, H. C.; Wescott, E. M.; Haerendel, G.; Valenzuela, A.

1990-01-01

A rocket borne Critical Ionization Velocity (CIV0 experiment was carried out from Wallops Island at dusk on May 4, 1989. Two barium shaped charges were released below the solar terminator (to prevent photoionization) at altitudes near 400 km. The ambient ionospheric electron density was 50,000/cu cm. The neutral barium jet was directed upward and at an angle of nominally 45 degrees to B which gives approximately 3 x 10 to the 23rd neutrals with super critical velocity. Ions created by a CIV process in the region of the neutral jet would travel up along B into sunlight where they can be detected optically. Well defined ion clouds (max. brightness 750 R) were observed in both releases. An ionization rate of 0.8 percent/sec (125 sec ionization time constant) can account for the observed ion cloud near the release field line, but the ionization rate falls off with increasing distance from the release. It is concluded that a CIV process was present in the neutral jet out to about 50 km from the release, which is significantly further than allowed by current theories.

Long-pulse power-supply system for EAST neutral-beam injectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Zhimin; Jiang, Caichao; Pan, Junjun; Liu, Sheng; Xu, Yongjian; Chen, Shiyong; Hu, Chundong; NBI Team

2017-05-01

The long-pulse power-supply system equipped for the 4 MW beam-power ion source is comprised of three units at ASIPP (Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences): one for the neutral-beam test stand and two for the EAST neutral-beam injectors (NBI-1 and NBI-2, respectively). Each power supply system consists of two low voltage and high current DC power supplies for plasma generation of the ion source, and two high voltage and high current DC power supplies for the accelerator grid system. The operation range of the NB power supply is about 80 percent of the design value, which is the safe and stable operation range. At the neutral-beam test stand, a hydrogen ion beam with a beam pulse of 150 s, beam power of 1.5 MW and beam energy of 50 keV was achieved during the long-pulse testing experiments. The result shows that the power-supply system meets the requirements of the EAST-NBIs fully and lays a basis for achieving plasma heating.

Helium escape from the Earth's atmosphere - The charge exchange mechanism revisited

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lie-Svendsen, O.; Rees, M. H.; Stamnes, K.

1992-01-01

We have studied the escape of neutral helium from the terrestrial atmosphere through exothermic charge exchange reactions between He(+) ions and the major atmospheric constituents N2, O2 and O. Elastic collisions with the neutral background particles were treated quantitatively using a recently developed kinetic theory approach. An interhemispheric plasma transport model was employed to provide a global distribution of He(+) ions as a function of altitude, latitude and local solar time and for different levels of solar ionization. Combining these ion densities with neutral densities from an MSIS model and best estimates for the reaction rate coefficients of the charge exchange reactions, we computed the global distribution of the neutral He escape flux. The escape rates show large diurnal and latitudinal variations, while the global average does not vary by more than a factor of three over a solar cycle. We find that this escape mechanism is potentially important for the overall balance of helium in the Earth's atmosphere. However, more accurate values for the reaction rate coefficients of the charge exchange reactions are required to make a definitive assessment of its importance.

Understanding charge transfer of Li+ and Na+ ions scattered from metal surfaces with high work function

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Lin; Wu, Wen-Bin; Liu, Pin-Yang; Xiao, Yun-Qing; Li, Guo-Peng; Liu, Yi-Ran; Jiang, Hao-Yu; Guo, Yan-Ling; Chen, Xi-Meng

2016-08-01

For Li+ and Na+ ions scattered from high work function metal surfaces, efficient neutralization is observed, and it cannot be explained by the conventional free electron model. In order to explain these experimental data, we investigate the velocity-dependent neutral fraction with the modified Brako-Newns (BN) model. The calculated results are in agreement with the experimental data. We find that the parallel velocity effect plays an important role in neutralizing the Li+ and Na+ ions for large angle scattering. The nonmonotonic velocity behavior of neutral fraction is strongly related to the distance-dependent coupling strength between the atomic level and metal states. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11405078 and 11474140), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (Grant Nos. lzujbky-2014-169 and lzujbky-2015-244), the Project sponsored by the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, the State Education Ministry, and the National Students’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program (Grant Nos. 201410730069 and 201510730078).

Simulation of diatomic gas-wall interaction and accommodation coefficients for negative ion sources and accelerators.

PubMed

Sartori, E; Brescaccin, L; Serianni, G

2016-02-01

Particle-wall interactions determine in different ways the operating conditions of plasma sources, ion accelerators, and beams operating in vacuum. For instance, a contribution to gas heating is given by ion neutralization at walls; beam losses and stray particle production-detrimental for high current negative ion systems such as beam sources for fusion-are caused by collisional processes with residual gas, with the gas density profile that is determined by the scattering of neutral particles at the walls. This paper shows that Molecular Dynamics (MD) studies at the nano-scale can provide accommodation parameters for gas-wall interactions, such as the momentum accommodation coefficient and energy accommodation coefficient: in non-isothermal flows (such as the neutral gas in the accelerator, coming from the plasma source), these affect the gas density gradients and influence efficiency and losses in particular of negative ion accelerators. For ideal surfaces, the computation also provides the angular distribution of scattered particles. Classical MD method has been applied to the case of diatomic hydrogen molecules. Single collision events, against a frozen wall or a fully thermal lattice, have been simulated by using probe molecules. Different modelling approximations are compared.

Global Profiling and Novel Structure Discovery Using Multiple Neutral Loss/Precursor Ion Scanning Combined with Substructure Recognition and Statistical Analysis (MNPSS): Characterization of Terpene-Conjugated Curcuminoids in Curcuma longa as a Case Study.

PubMed

Qiao, Xue; Lin, Xiong-hao; Ji, Shuai; Zhang, Zheng-xiang; Bo, Tao; Guo, De-an; Ye, Min

2016-01-05

To fully understand the chemical diversity of an herbal medicine is challenging. In this work, we describe a new approach to globally profile and discover novel compounds from an herbal extract using multiple neutral loss/precursor ion scanning combined with substructure recognition and statistical analysis. Turmeric (the rhizomes of Curcuma longa L.) was used as an example. This approach consists of three steps: (i) multiple neutral loss/precursor ion scanning to obtain substructure information; (ii) targeted identification of new compounds by extracted ion current and substructure recognition; and (iii) untargeted identification using total ion current and multivariate statistical analysis to discover novel structures. Using this approach, 846 terpecurcumins (terpene-conjugated curcuminoids) were discovered from turmeric, including a number of potentially novel compounds. Furthermore, two unprecedented compounds (terpecurcumins X and Y) were purified, and their structures were identified by NMR spectroscopy. This study extended the application of mass spectrometry to global profiling of natural products in herbal medicines and could help chemists to rapidly discover novel compounds from a complex matrix.

Simulation of diatomic gas-wall interaction and accommodation coefficients for negative ion sources and accelerators

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sartori, E., E-mail: emanuele.sartori@igi.cnr.it; Serianni, G.; Brescaccin, L.

2016-02-15

Particle-wall interactions determine in different ways the operating conditions of plasma sources, ion accelerators, and beams operating in vacuum. For instance, a contribution to gas heating is given by ion neutralization at walls; beam losses and stray particle production—detrimental for high current negative ion systems such as beam sources for fusion—are caused by collisional processes with residual gas, with the gas density profile that is determined by the scattering of neutral particles at the walls. This paper shows that Molecular Dynamics (MD) studies at the nano-scale can provide accommodation parameters for gas-wall interactions, such as the momentum accommodation coefficient andmore » energy accommodation coefficient: in non-isothermal flows (such as the neutral gas in the accelerator, coming from the plasma source), these affect the gas density gradients and influence efficiency and losses in particular of negative ion accelerators. For ideal surfaces, the computation also provides the angular distribution of scattered particles. Classical MD method has been applied to the case of diatomic hydrogen molecules. Single collision events, against a frozen wall or a fully thermal lattice, have been simulated by using probe molecules. Different modelling approximations are compared.« less

Liouville master equation for multi-electron dynamics during ion-surface interactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wirtz, L.; Reinhold, C. O.; Lemell, C.; Burgdorfer, J.

2003-05-01

We present a simulation of the neutralization of highly charged ions in front of a LiF(100) surface including the close-collision regime above the surface. Our approach employs a Monte-Carlo solution of the Liouville master equation for the joint probability density of the ionic motion and the electronic population of the projectile and the target surface. It includes single as well as double particle-hole (de)excitation processes and incorporates electron correlation effects through the conditional dynamics of population strings. The input in terms of elementary one- and two-electron transfer rates is determined from CTMC calculations as well as quantum mechanical Auger calculations. For slow projectiles and normal incidence, the ionic motion depends sensitively on the interplay between image acceleration towards the surface and repulsion by an ensemble of positive hole charges in the surface (``trampoline effect"). For Ne10+ ions we find that image acceleration dominates and no collective backscattering high above the surface takes place. For grazing incidence, our simulation delineates the pathways to complete neutralization. In accordance with recent experimental observations, most ions are reflected as neutrals or even as singly charged negative particles, irrespective of the charge state of the incoming ion.

Ion Cloud Modeling

DTIC Science & Technology

1977-11-11

neutral collision time is discussed in Section 4.4. The chemical formulation for the barium thermite is based on the reaction of 2.5 moles of barium...per mole of cupric oxide according to the formula 2.5Ba + CuO - BaO + Cu + 1.5Ba. 23 In addition, 1.8% of the thermite weight was barium azide. 5 As a...constant value, tf . Generally at? 1 but if VD1 >> U 2 ,the value of atf * can be much less than 1 . In this case of rapid descent of the ion cloud, its

The Neutralization of Ion-Rocket Beams

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kaufman, Harold R.

1961-01-01

The experimental ion-beam behavior obtained without neutralizers is compared with both simple collision theory and plasma-wave theory. This comparison indicates that plasma waves play an important part in beam behavior, although the present state of plasma-wave theory does not permit more than a qualitative comparison. The theories of immersed-emitter and electron-trap neutralizer operation are discussed; and, to the extent permitted by experimental data, the theory is compared with experimental results. Experimental data are lacking completely at the present time for operation in space. The results that might be expected in space and the means of simulating such operation in Earth-bound facilities, however, are discussed.

Development of a systematic approach to rapid classification and identification of notoginsenosides and metabolites in rat feces based on liquid chromatography coupled triple time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Xing, Rong; Zhou, Lijun; Xie, Lin; Hao, Kun; Rao, Tai; Wang, Qian; Ye, Wei; Fu, Hanxu; Wang, Xinwen; Wang, Guangji; Liang, Yan

2015-03-31

The present work contributes to the development of a powerful technical platform to rapidly identify and classify complicated components and metabolites for traditional Chinese medicines. In this process, notoginsenosides, the main active ingredients in Panaxnotoginseng, were chosen as model compounds. Firstly, the fragmental patterns, diagnostic product ions and neutral loss of each subfamily of notoginsenosides were summarized by collision-induced dissociation analysis of representative authentic standards. Next, in order to maximally cover low-concentration components which could otherwise be omitted from previous diagnostic fragment-ion method using only single product ion of notoginsenosides, a multiple product ions filtering strategy was proposed and utilized to identify and classify both non-target and target notoginsenosides of P.notoginseng extract (in vitro). With this strategy, 13 protopanaxadiol-type notoginsenosides and 30 protopanaxatriol-type notoginsenosides were efficiently extracted. Then, a neutral loss filtering technique was employed to trace prototype components and metabolites in rats (in vivo) since diagnostic product ions might shift therefore become unpredictable when metabolic reactions occurred on the mother skeleton of notoginsenosides. After comparing the constitute profiles in vitro with in vivo, 62 drug-related components were identified from rat feces, and these components were classified into 27 prototype compounds and 35 metabolites. Lastly, all the metabolites were successfully correlated to their parent compounds based on chemicalome-metabolome matching approach which was previously built by our group. This study provided a generally applicable approach to global metabolite identification for the complicated components in complex matrices. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

BepiColombo Serena/ELENA instrument:development and testing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orsini, S.; De Angelis, E.; Selci, S.; Di Lellis, A. M.:; Leoni, R.; Rispoli, R.; Colasanti, L.; Vertolli, N.; Scheer, J.; Mura, A.; Milillo, A.; Wurz, P.; D'Alessandro, M.; Maschietti, D.; Mattioli, F.; Cibella, S.; Brienza, D.; lo Spazio, Compagnia Generale per

2012-04-01

ELENA is a TOF sensor, based on a novel concept ultra-sonic oscillating shutter (Start section) which is operated at frequencies up to 50 kHz; a MCP detector is used as a Stop section. It is aimed to detect neutral atoms in the range 10 eV - 5 keV, within 70° FOV, perpendicular to the S/C orbital plane. ELENA will monitor the emission of neutral atoms from the whole surface of Mercury thanks to the spacecraft motion. The major scientific objectives are the interaction between the environment and the planet, the global particle loss-rate and the remote sensing of the surface properties. In particular, surface release processes are investigated by identifying particles release from the surface, via solar wind-induced ion sputtering (<1eV - >100 eV) as well as Hydrogen back-scattered at hundreds eV. In particular, the capability to detect non-thermal low energy neutral species is crucial for the sensor ELENA (Emitted Low-Energy Neutral Atoms), part of the package SERENA (Search for Exospheric Refilling and Emitted Natural Abundances) on board the BepiColombo mission to Mercury to be launched in 2014. The instrument is now validated and tested to reach its performances: the up-graded shutter system (Start section) has been operated for the first time with neutral atom beam and tested at high frequency, the Stop section has been calibrated investigating the region of very low energy detection efficiency, the electronics boards and the entire acquisition chain has been appointed and tested with ion beam. The first results of all the ELENA capability will be presented.

DETERMINATION OF ION AND NEUTRAL LOSS COMPOSITIONS AND DECONVOLUTION OF PRODUCT ION MASS SPECTRA USING AN ORTHOGONAL ACCELERATION, TIME-OF-FLIGHT MASS SPECTROMETER AND AN ION CORRELATION PROGRAM

EPA Science Inventory

Exact masses of monoisotopic ions and the relative isotopic abundances (RIAs) of ions greater in mass by 1 and 2 Da than the monoisotopic ion are independent and complementary physical properties useful for istinguishing among ion compositions possible for a given nominal mass. U...

Energetic neutral atoms measured by the interstellar boundary explorer (IBEX): evidence for multiple heliosheath populations

DOE PAGES

Desai, M. I.; Allegrini, F. A.; Bzowski, M.; ...

2013-12-13

Energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) provide powerful diagnostics about the origin of the progenitor ion populations and the physical mechanisms responsible for their production. In this paper, we extend the work of Desai et al. and Fuselier et al. and combine and compare ENA spectra from the first 3 yr of observations by the IBEX-Hi and -Lo ENA imagers along the lines-of-sight (LOSs) from the inner heliosphere through to the locations of Voyager 1 and 2 with results from an updated physics-based model of the three-dimensional heliosphere and its constituent ion populations. Our resultsmore » show that (1) IBEX ENA fluxes and spectra above ~0.7 keV measured along the LOSs of the Voyagers are consistent with several models in which the parent pickup ion (PUI) populations originate in the inner heliosheath, and (2) a significant fraction of lower energy ENAs between ~0.1-0.5 keV may originate from interstellar neutral gas charge-exchanging with a non-thermalized (hot) population of PUIs in the outer heliosheath beyond the heliopause. Here we discuss the implications of ENAs observed by IBEX originating from distinct parent populations as well as from two distinct locations in the heliospheric interface. In conclusion, these results indicate that ENA spectral measurements at various energies can be used to remotely probe distinct physical processes operating in vastly different regions of the distant heliosphere.« less

Energetic Neutral Atoms Measured by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX): Evidence for Multiple Heliosheath Ion Populations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Desai, M. I.; Allegrini, F.; Bzowski, M.; Dayeh, M. A.; Funsten, H. O.; Fuselier, S.; Kubiak, M. A.; McComas, D. J.; Pogorelov, N. V.; Schwadron, N.; Sokol, J. M.; Zank, G. P.; Zirnstein, E. J.

2013-12-01

Energetic Neutral Atoms (ENAs) observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) provide powerful diagnostics about the origin of the progenitor ion populations and the physical mechanisms responsible for their production. In this paper, we extend the work of Desai et al. (2012) and Fuselier et al. (2012) and combine and compare ENA spectra from the first three years of observations by the IBEX-Hi and -Lo ENA imagers along the lines-of-sights (LOS) from the inner heliosphere through to the locations of Voyager 1 and 2 with results from an updated physics-based model of the 3D heliosphere and its constituent ion populations. Our results show that (1) IBEX ENA fluxes and spectra above ~0.7 keV measured along the LOS of the Voyagers are consistent with several models in which the parent pickup (PUI) populations originate in the inner heliosheath, and (2) a significant fraction of lower-energy ENAs between ~0.1-0.5 keV may originate from interstellar neutral gas charge-exchanging with a non-thermalized (hot) population of PUIs in the outer heliosheath beyond the heliopause. We discuss the implications of ENAs observed by IBEX originating from distinct parent populations as well as from two distinct locations in the heliospheric interface. These results indicate that ENA spectral measurements at various energies can be used to remotely probe distinct physical processes operating in vastly different regions of the distant heliosphere.

Energetic Neutral Atoms Measured by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX): Evidence for Multiple Heliosheath Populations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Desai, M. I.; Allegrini, F. A.; Bzowski, M.; Dayeh, M. A.; Funsten, H.; Fuselier, S. A.; Heerikhuisen, J.; Kubiak, M. A.; McComas, D. J.; Pogorelov, N. V.; Schwadron, N. A.; Sokół, J. M.; Zank, G. P.; Zirnstein, E. J.

2014-01-01

Energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) observed by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) provide powerful diagnostics about the origin of the progenitor ion populations and the physical mechanisms responsible for their production. In this paper, we extend the work of Desai et al. and Fuselier et al. and combine and compare ENA spectra from the first 3 yr of observations by the IBEX-Hi and -Lo ENA imagers along the lines-of-sight (LOSs) from the inner heliosphere through to the locations of Voyager 1 and 2 with results from an updated physics-based model of the three-dimensional heliosphere and its constituent ion populations. Our results show that (1) IBEX ENA fluxes and spectra above ~0.7 keV measured along the LOSs of the Voyagers are consistent with several models in which the parent pickup ion (PUI) populations originate in the inner heliosheath, and (2) a significant fraction of lower energy ENAs between ~0.1-0.5 keV may originate from interstellar neutral gas charge-exchanging with a non-thermalized (hot) population of PUIs in the outer heliosheath beyond the heliopause. We discuss the implications of ENAs observed by IBEX originating from distinct parent populations as well as from two distinct locations in the heliospheric interface. These results indicate that ENA spectral measurements at various energies can be used to remotely probe distinct physical processes operating in vastly different regions of the distant heliosphere.

Ferroelectric Plasma Sources for Ion Beam Neutralization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stepanov, A.; Gilson, E. P.; Grisham, L. R.; Davidson, R. C.

2014-10-01

A 40 keV Ar+ beam with a dimensionless perveance of 4 ×10-4 is propagated through a Ferroelectric Plasma Source (FEPS) to determine the effects of charge neutralization on the transverse beam profile. Neutralization is established 5 μs after the FEPS is triggered, and lasts between 10 and 35 μs. When the beam is fully neutralized, the profile has a Gaussian shape with a half-angle divergence of 0.87°, which is attributed to ion optics. The effects of the resistance and capacitance in the pulser circuit on the FEPS discharge are studied. The electron current emitted by the FEPS is calculated from measurements of the forward and return currents in the circuit. Electron emission typically begins 0.5 μs after the driving pulse, lasting for tens of μs, which is similar to the duration of ion beam neutralization. The total emitted charge does not depend significantly on the resistance, but depends strongly on the storage capacitance. Lowering the capacitance from 141 nF to 47 nF results in a near-complete shut-off of charge emission, although the amplitude of the applied voltage pulse is as high as when high-density plasma is produced. Overall, the data suggest that ferroelectric effects are significant in the physics of the FEPS discharge.

Generalized Jeans' Escape of Pick-Up Ions in Quasi-Linear Relaxation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moore, T. E.; Khazanov, G. V.

2011-01-01

Jeans escape is a well-validated formulation of upper atmospheric escape that we have generalized to estimate plasma escape from ionospheres. It involves the computation of the parts of particle velocity space that are unbound by the gravitational potential at the exobase, followed by a calculation of the flux carried by such unbound particles as they escape from the potential well. To generalize this approach for ions, we superposed an electrostatic ambipolar potential and a centrifugal potential, for motions across and along a divergent magnetic field. We then considered how the presence of superthermal electrons, produced by precipitating auroral primary electrons, controls the ambipolar potential. We also showed that the centrifugal potential plays a small role in controlling the mass escape flux from the terrestrial ionosphere. We then applied the transverse ion velocity distribution produced when ions, picked up by supersonic (i.e., auroral) ionospheric convection, relax via quasi-linear diffusion, as estimated for cometary comas [1]. The results provide a theoretical basis for observed ion escape response to electromagnetic and kinetic energy sources. They also suggest that super-sonic but sub-Alfvenic flow, with ion pick-up, is a unique and important regime of ion-neutral coupling, in which plasma wave-particle interactions are driven by ion-neutral collisions at densities for which the collision frequency falls near or below the gyro-frequency. As another possible illustration of this process, the heliopause ribbon discovered by the IBEX mission involves interactions between the solar wind ions and the interstellar neutral gas, in a regime that may be analogous [2].

VUV absorption spectroscopy measurements of the role of fast neutral atoms in a high-power gap breakdown

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Filuk, A. B.; Bailey, J. E.; Cuneo, M. E.

The maximum power achieved in a wide variety of high-power devices, including electron and ion diodes, z pinches, and microwave generators, is presently limited by anode-cathode gap breakdown. A frequently discussed hypothesis for this effect is ionization of fast neutral atoms injected throughout the anode-cathode gap during the power pulse. We describe a newly developed diagnostic tool that provides a direct test of this hypothesis. Time-resolved vacuum-ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy is used to directly probe fast neutral atoms with 1-mm spatial resolution in the 10-mm anode-cathode gap of the SABRE 5 MV, 1 TW applied-B ion diode. Absorption spectra collected duringmore » Ar RF glow discharges and with CO{sub 2} gas fills confirm the reliability of the diagnostic technique. Throughout the 50--100 ns ion diode pulses no measurable neutral absorption was seen, setting upper limits of (0.12--1.5)x10{sup 14}cm{sup -3} for ground-state fast neutral atom densities of H, C, N, O, and F. The absence of molecular absorption bands also sets upper limits of (0.16--1.2)x10{sup 15}cm{sup -3} for common simple molecules. These limits are low enough to rule out ionization of fast neutral atoms as a breakdown mechanism. Breakdown due to ionization of molecules is also found to be unlikely. This technique can now be applied to quantify the role of neutral atoms in other high-power devices.« less

Challenges in the determination of the interstellar flow longitude from the pickup ion cutoff

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taut, A.; Berger, L.; Möbius, E.; Drews, C.; Heidrich-Meisner, V.; Keilbach, D.; Lee, M. A.; Wimmer-Schweingruber, R. F.

2018-03-01

Context. The interstellar flow longitude corresponds to the Sun's direction of movement relative to the local interstellar medium. Thus, it constitutes a fundamental parameter for our understanding of the heliosphere and, in particular, its interaction with its surroundings, which is currently investigated by the Interstellar Boundary EXplorer (IBEX). One possibility to derive this parameter is based on pickup ions (PUIs) that are former neutral ions that have been ionized in the inner heliosphere. The neutrals enter the heliosphere as an interstellar wind from the direction of the Sun's movement against the partially ionized interstellar medium. PUIs carry information about the spatial variation of their neutral parent population (density and flow vector field) in their velocity distribution function. From the symmetry of the longitudinal flow velocity distribution, the interstellar flow longitude can be derived. Aim. The aim of this paper is to identify and eliminate systematic errors that are connected to this approach of measuring the interstellar flow longitude; we want to minimize any systematic influences on the result of this analysis and give a reasonable estimate for the uncertainty. Methods: We use He+ data measured by the PLAsma and SupraThermal Ion Composition (PLASTIC) sensor on the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory Ahead (STEREO A) spacecraft. We analyze a recent approach, identify sources of systematic errors, and propose solutions to eliminate them. Furthermore, a method is introduced to estimate the error associated with this approach. Additionally, we investigate how the selection of interplanetary magnetic field angles, which is closely connected to the pickup ion velocity distribution function, affects the result for the interstellar flow longitude. Results: We find that the revised analysis used to address part of the expected systematic effects obtains significantly different results than presented in the previous study. In particular, the derived uncertainties are considerably larger. Furthermore, an unexpected systematic trend of the resulting interstellar flow longitude with the selection of interplanetary magnetic field orientation is uncovered.

VUV Dissociative Photoionization of Quinoline in the 7-26 eV Photon Energy Range

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leach, Sydney; Jochims, Hans-Werner; Baumgärtel, Helmut; Champion, Norbert

2018-05-01

The dissociative photoionization of quinoline was studied by photoionization mass spectrometry and ion yield measurements over a synchrotron photon excitation energy range 7-26 eV. The ionic and neutral products were identified with the aid of thermochemical calculations that, in some cases, led to deeper understanding of photodissociation pathways and the determination of upper limits of heats of formation of ionic and neutral dissociation products. A detailed comparison between the 20 eV photon excitation and 70 eV electron impact mass spectra, coupled with estimation of thermochemical appearance energies, leads to assignment of the dissociative ionization cation and neutral products for each detected ion. Reaction schemes for formation of these products are proposed in a number of cases. Ion intensities in the photon and electron impact mass spectra were used to consider extending a rule of charge retention in simple bond cleavage to more complex cases of dissociative ionization.

Modulation of terrestrial ion escape flux composition /by low-altitude acceleration and charge exchange chemistry/

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moore, T. E.

1980-01-01

Motivated by recent observations of highly variable hot plasma composition in the magnetosphere, control of the ionospheric escape flux composition by low-altitude particle dynamics and ion chemistry has been investigated for an e(-), H(+), O(+) ionosphere. It is found that the fraction of the steady state escape flux which is O(+) can be controlled very sensitively by the occurrence of parallel or transverse ion acceleration at altitudes below the altitude where the neutral oxygen density falls rapidly below the neutral hydrogen density and the ionospheric source of O(+) tends to be rapidly converted by charge exchange to H(+). The acceleration is required both to overcome the gravitational confinement of O(+) and to violate charge exchange equilibrium so that the neutral hydrogen atmosphere appears 'optically' thin to escaping O(+). Constraints are placed on the acceleration processes, and it is shown that O(+) escape is facilitated by observed ionospheric responses to magnetic activity.

Origin of CH+ in diffuse molecular clouds. Warm H2 and ion-neutral drift

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Valdivia, Valeska; Godard, Benjamin; Hennebelle, Patrick; Gerin, Maryvonne; Lesaffre, Pierre; Le Bourlot, Jacques

2017-04-01

Context. Molecular clouds are known to be magnetised and to display a turbulent and complex structure where warm and cold phases are interwoven. The turbulent motions within molecular clouds transport molecules, and the presence of magnetic fields induces a relative velocity between neutrals and ions known as the ion-neutral drift (vd). These effects all together can influence the chemical evolution of the clouds. Aims: This paper assesses the roles of two physical phenomena which have previously been invoked to boost the production of CH+ under realistic physical conditions: the presence of warm H2 and the increased formation rate due to the ion-neutral drift. Methods: We performed ideal magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations that include the heating and cooling of the multiphase interstellar medium (ISM), and where we treat dynamically the formation of the H2 molecule. In a post-processing step we compute the abundances of species at chemical equilibrium using a solver that we developed. The solver uses the physical conditions of the gas as input parameters, and can also prescribe the H2 fraction if needed. We validate our approach by showing that the H2 molecule generally has a much longer chemical evolution timescale compared to the other species. Results: We show that CH+ is efficiently formed at the edge of clumps, in regions where the H2 fraction is low (0.3-30%) but nevertheless higher than its equilibrium value, and where the gas temperature is high (≳ 300 K). We show that warm and out of equilibrium H2 increases the integrated column densities of CH+ by one order of magnitude up to values still 3-10 times lower than those observed in the diffuse ISM. We balance the Lorentz force with the ion-neutral drag to estimate the ion-drift velocities from our ideal MHD simulations. We find that the ion-neutral drift velocity distribution peaks around 0.04 km s-1, and that high drift velocities are too rare to have a significant statistical impact on the abundances of CH+. Compared to previous works, our multiphase simulations reduce the spread in vd, and our self-consistent treatment of the ionisation leads to much reduced vd. Nevertheless, our resolution study shows that this velocity distribution is not converged: the ion-neutral drift has a higher impact on CH+ at higher resolution. On the other hand, our ideal MHD simulations do not include ambipolar diffusion, which would yield lower drift velocities. Conclusions: Within these limitations, we conclude that warm H2 is a key ingredient in the efficient formation of CH+ and that the ambipolar diffusion has very little influence on the abundance of CH+, mainly due to the small drift velocities obtained. However, we point out that small-scale processes and other non-thermal processes not included in our MHD simulation may be of crucial importance, and higher resolution studies with better controlled dissipation processes are needed.

Supersonic Bare Metal Cluster Beams. Technical Progress Report, March 16, 1984 - April 1, 1985

DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

Smalley, R. E.

1985-01-01

There have been four major areas of concentration for the study of bare metal cluster beams: neutral cluster, chemical reactivity, cold cluster ion source development (both positive and negative), bare cluster ion ICR (ion cyclotron resonance) development, and photofragmentation studies of bare metal cluster ions.