Electron-beam-sustained discharge revisited - light emission from combined electron beam and microwave excited argon at atmospheric pressure

A novel kind of electron beam sustained discharge is presented in which a 12keV electron beam is combined with a 2.45GHz microwave power to excite argon gas at atmospheric pressure in a continuous mode of operation. Optical emission spectroscopy is performed over a wide wavelength range from the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) to the near infrared (NIR). Several effects which modify the emission spectra compared to sole electron beam excitation are observed and interpreted by the changing plasma parameters such as electron density, electron temperature and gas temperature.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

Ion-beam excitation of liquid argon

The scintillation light of liquid argon has been recorded wavelength and time resolved with very good statistics in a wavelength interval ranging from 118 nm through 970 nm. Three different ion beams, protons, sulfur ions and gold ions, were used to excite liquid argon. Only minor differences were observed in the wavelength-spectra obtained with the different incident particles. Light emission in the wavelength range of the third excimer continuum was found to be strongly suppressed in the liquid phase. In time-resolved measurements, the time structure of the scintillation light can be directly attributed to wavelength in our studies, as no wavelength shifter has been used. These measurements confirm that the singlet-to-triplet intensity ratio in the second excimer continuum range is a useful parameter for particle discrimination, which can also be employed in wavelength-integrated measurements as long as the sensitivity of the detector system does not rise steeply for wavelengths longer than 190 nm. Using our values for the singlet-to-triplet ratio down to low energies deposited a discrimination threshold between incident protons and sulfur ions as low as ∼2.5 keV seems possible, which represents the principle limit for the discrimination of these two species in liquid argon

Microwave coupling in EBT reactor

For a typical size ELMO Bumpy Torus (EBT) reactor (approx. 1000 MWe), microwave frequencies required lie in the range of 60 to 110 GHz at power levels of 50 to 75 MW. As the frequency rises, the unloaded cavity (i.e., without plasma) quality factor Q decreases. Because of the short wavelengths of microwave heating power and the large cavity dimensions of a reactor, it is possible to apply quasi-optical principles in the efficient coupling of power to the plasma. The use of a confocal Fabry-Perot resonator with spherical mirrors is discussed; these serve to confine the microwave power to the region occupied by the plasma. The potential advantages of these resonators include high efficiency utilization of microwave power, minimal thermal burden on the cryopumping system, and significant benefit in preventing microwave leakage from the device. An estimation of the unloaded cavity quality factor Q and the design considerations of Fabry-Perot resonator are given