229 research outputs found
Numerical and experimental studies of the carbon etching in EUV-induced plasma
We have used a combination of numerical modeling and experiments to study
carbon etching in the presence of a hydrogen plasma. We model the evolution of
a low density EUV-induced plasma during and after the EUV pulse to obtain the
energy resolved ion fluxes from the plasma to the surface. By relating the
computed ion fluxes to the experimentally observed etching rate at various
pressures and ion energies, we show that at low pressure and energy, carbon
etching is due to chemical sputtering, while at high pressure and energy a
reactive ion etching process is likely to dominate
Plasma probe characteristics in low density hydrogen pulsed plasmas
Probe theories are only applicable in the regime where the probe's
perturbation of the plasma can be neglected. However, it is not always possible
to know, a priori, that a particular probe theory can be successfully applied,
especially in low density plasmas. This is especially difficult in the case of
transient, low density plasmas. Here, we applied probe diagnostics in
combination with a 2D particle-in-cell model, to an experiment with a pulsed
low density hydrogen plasma. The calculations took into account the full
chamber geometry, including the plasma probe as an electrode in the chamber. It
was found that the simulations reproduce the time evolution of the probe IV
characteristics with good accuracy. The disagreement between the simulated and
probe measured plasma density is attributed to the limited applicability of
probe theory to measurements of low density pulsed plasmas. Indeed, in the case
studied here, probe measurements would lead to a large overestimate of the
plasma density. In contrast, the simulations of the plasma evolution and the
probe characteristics do not suffer from such strict applicability limits.
These studies show that probe theory cannot be justified through probe
measurements
Dynamics of lane formation in driven binary complex plasmas
The dynamical onset of lane formation is studied in experiments with binary
complex plasmas under microgravity conditions. Small microparticles are driven
and penetrate into a cloud of big particles, revealing a strong tendency
towards lane formation. The observed time-resolved lane formation process is in
good agreement with computer simulations of a binary Yukawa model with Langevin
dynamics. The laning is quantified in terms of the anisotropic scaling index,
leading to a universal order parameter for driven systems.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, movies available at
http://www.mpe.mpg.de/pke/lane-formation
Dissociative recombination and electron-impact de-excitation in CH photon emission under ITER divertor-relevant plasma conditions
For understanding carbon erosion and redeposition in nuclear fusion devices,
it is important to understand the transport and chemical break-up of
hydrocarbon molecules in edge plasmas, often diagnosed by emission of the CH
A^2\Delta - X^2\Pi Ger\"o band around 430 nm. The CH A-level can be excited
either by electron-impact or by dissociative recombination (D.R.) of
hydrocarbon ions. These processes were included in the 3D Monte Carlo impurity
transport code ERO. A series of methane injection experiments was performed in
the high-density, low-temperature linear plasma generator Pilot-PSI, and
simulated emission intensity profiles were benchmarked against these
experiments. It was confirmed that excitation by D.R. dominates at T_e < 1.5
eV. The results indicate that the fraction of D.R. events that lead to a CH
radical in the A-level and consequent photon emission is at least 10%.
Additionally, quenching of the excited CH radicals by electron impact
de-excitation was included in the modeling. This quenching is shown to be
significant: depending on the electron density, it reduces the effective CH
emission by a factor of 1.4 at n_e=1.3*10^20 m^-3, to 2.8 at n_e=9.3*10^20
m^-3. Its inclusion significantly improved agreement between experiment and
modeling
How to make large, void free dust clusters in dusty plasma under microgravity
Collections of micrometer sized solid particles immersed in plamsa are used
to mimic many systems from solid state and fluid physics, due to their strong
electrostatic interaction, their large inertia, and the fact that they are
large enough to be visualized with ordinary optics. On Earth, gravity restricts
the so called dusty plasma systems to thin, two-dimensional layers, unless
special experimental geometries are used, involving heated or cooled electrons,
and/or the use of dielectric materials.In micro-gravity experiments, the
formation of a dust-free void breaks the isotropy of three-dimensional dusty
plasma systems. In order to do real three-dimensional experiments, this void
has somehow to be closed. In this paper, we use a fully self-consistent fluid
model to study the closure of a void in a micro-gravity experiment, by lowering
the driving potential. The analysis goes beyond the simple description of the
virtual void, which describes the formation of a void without taking the dust
into account. We show that self-organization plays an important role in void
formation and void closure, which also allows a reversed scheme, where a
discharge is run at low driving potentials and small batches of dust are added.
No hysteresis is found this way. Finally, we compare our results to recent
experiments and find good agreement,but only when we do not take
charge-exchange collisions into account
Experimental and computational characterization of a modified GEC cell for dusty plasma experiments
A self-consistent fluid model developed for simulations of micro- gravity
dusty plasma experiments has for the first time been used to model asymmetric
dusty plasma experiments in a modified GEC reference cell with gravity. The
numerical results are directly compared with experimental data and the
experimentally determined dependence of global discharge parameters on the
applied driving potential and neutral gas pressure is found to be well matched
by the model. The local profiles important for dust particle transport are
studied and compared with experimentally determined profiles. The radial forces
in the midplane are presented for the different discharge settings. The
differences between the results obtained in the modified GEC cell and the
results first reported for the original GEC reference cell are pointed out
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