Heating of a magnetized high density hydrogen plasma column around the ICR frequency

\u3cp\u3eA single and double loop antenna system are investigated in the ICR frequency range (5-25 MHz) to enable control of the plasma temperature in a 1-10 cm diameter, 10 \u3csup\u3e20\u3c/sup\u3em \u3csup\u3e-3\u3c/sup\u3e hydrogen plasma column in B=0.8T Wave propagation is evaluated on basis of damping lengths derived from the dispersion relation. The antenna is numerically analyzed with the TOPCYL code. Simulation results are compared with measured loading resistances and good agreement was found for the vacuum and saltwater column cases. Hydrogen plasma loading resistances determined from network analyzer measurements are typically higher than those predicted from simulation. This points to coupling of RF power to additional loss mechanisms. High RF power operation (1 kW) of the antenna increased the power deposited on the plasma endplate and accelerated the plasma, but the plasma temperature near the endplate remained constant.\u3c/p\u3

Heating of a magnetized high density hydrogen plasma column around the ICR frequency

\u3cp\u3eA single and double loop antenna system are investigated in the ICR frequency range (5-25 MHz) to enable control of the plasma temperature in a 1-10 cm diameter, 10 \u3csup\u3e20\u3c/sup\u3em \u3csup\u3e-3\u3c/sup\u3e hydrogen plasma column in B=0.8T Wave propagation is evaluated on basis of damping lengths derived from the dispersion relation. The antenna is numerically analyzed with the TOPCYL code. Simulation results are compared with measured loading resistances and good agreement was found for the vacuum and saltwater column cases. Hydrogen plasma loading resistances determined from network analyzer measurements are typically higher than those predicted from simulation. This points to coupling of RF power to additional loss mechanisms. High RF power operation (1 kW) of the antenna increased the power deposited on the plasma endplate and accelerated the plasma, but the plasma temperature near the endplate remained constant.\u3c/p\u3

Non-oxidative methane coupling to C\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e hydrocarbons in a microwave plasma reactor

\u3cp\u3eNon-oxidative methane activation is carried out in a microwave plasma reactor for coupling to higher hydrocarbons. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to measure absolute concentrations of the major hydrocarbon species. Hydrogen concentration was also independently inferred from pressure-based change in molar flow measurements. By closing both the carbon and hydrogen balance, from stoichiometry of the reactions, the amount of deposits was obtained as well. Additionally, core gas temperatures up to 2500 K were measured with Raman scattering when nitrogen acted as probing molecule in sample mixture discharges. At low gas temperatures, ethane and ethylene were significant products based on plasma chemistry, with ethane selectivities reaching up to 60%. At higher gas temperatures, thermal effects become stronger shifting the selectivity toward acetylene and deposits, resembling more with equilibrium calculations. The energy efficiency of the methane conversion reached up to 15% from which 10% represented coupling efficiency to higher hydrocarbons. It is concluded that there is an interplay between plasma and thermal chemistry where plasma generates radicals and final distribution is set by thermodynamics.\u3c/p\u3

Development and testing of a fast fourier transform high dynamic-range spectral diagnostics for millimeter wave characterization

A fast Fourier transform (FFT) based wide range millimeter wave diagnostics for spectral characterization of scattered millimeter waves in plasmas has been successfully brought into operation. The scattered millimeter waves are heterodyne downconverted and directly digitized using a fast analog-digital converter and a compact peripheral component interconnect computer. Frequency spectra are obtained by FFT in the time domain of the intermediate frequency signal. The scattered millimeter waves are generated during high power electron cyclotron resonance heating experiments on the TEXTOR tokamak and demonstrate the performance of the diagnostics and, in particular, the usability of direct digitizing and Fourier transformation of millimeter wave signals. The diagnostics is able to acquire 4 GHz wide spectra of signals in the range of 136-140 GHz. The rate of spectra is tunable and has been tested between 200 000 spectra/s with a frequency resolution of 100 MHz and 120 spectra/s with a frequency resolution of 25 kHz. The respective dynamic ranges are 52 and 88 dB. Major benefits of the new diagnostics are a tunable time and frequency resolution due to postdetection, near-real time processing of the acquired data. This diagnostics has a wider application in astrophysics, earth observation, plasma physics, and molecular spectroscopy for the detection and analysis of millimeter wave radiation, providing high-resolution spectra at high temporal resolution and large dynamic range