Electron Temperature Research Articles

Non-uniformity of fluctuation characteristics inside an edge magnetic island in Heliotron J

Non-uniform fluctuation characteristics are observed within an edge magnetic island in Heliotron J. The island possesses a long connection length comparable to the confined region. These fluctuations are measured using a Langmuir probe. The island’s presence is confirmed through the plasma response, observed in the modulation amplitude of electron temperature and its phase delay relative to the heat source in a heat modulation experiment. Within the island, the electron density is notably high, accompanied by distinct profiles of electron temperature and electric field, likely attributable to the magnetic island. Contrary to expectations, density fluctuations within the edge magnetic island are not locally minimized, despite the reduced gradient of the profile within the island. Statistical analysis shows a suppression of intermittent transport inside the island, while intermittent fluctuations increase towards the exterior. A further analysis to segregate turbulence-driving and spreading factors reveals that both turbulence-driven and spreading contributions are comparably significant inside the island. Additionally, the non-uniform turbulence results in a spatially structured fluctuation-driven particle flux. Overall, the experimental findings indicate that fluctuation characteristics exhibit notable non-uniformity both inside and near the island. This non-uniformity potentially complicates heat transport and may lead to three-dimensional, asymmetric transport within and at the periphery of the islands.

Gyro-kinetic simulations of trapped electron collision effects on low-frequency drift-wave instabilities in tokamak plasmas

Low-frequency drift-wave instabilities play a crucial role in the radial transport of present-day tokamaks, and trapped electron collisions can significantly influence these instabilities. In this paper, the effects of trapped electron collisions on these instabilities are investigated based on linear gyro-kinetic simulations. The basic numerical techniques including dispersion relation integral method and orthogonal basis function expansion are presented in detail with necessary benchmark work. The results demonstrate that in medium gradients, the increase of trapped electron proportions promotes the growth rate and radial heat transport largely for quasi-linear trapped electron modes (TEMs) and ion temperature gradient (ITG) modes. Moreover, trapped electron collisions have strong stabilizing effects, especially for TEMs driven by electron temperature gradients. Two distinctive branches, namely Mode #1 and #2, are investigated in steep gradients. Both behave in a varied instability nature during different ranges of the normalized wave vector k^θ . Mode #1 mainly induces radial heat transport during k^θ<0.5 and is significantly suppressed by the collisions. Mode #2 mainly induces radial heat transport during 0.4<k^θ<0.8 , and is largely enhanced by the collisions. When the collisionality is large enough, Mode #2 has stronger transport capacity than the other. Mode #2 at the medium wave vector, known as dissipative TEM, may provide the mechanism of the edge coherent mode observed in EAST H-mode plasmas, wherein collisionality plays an important role in the mode excitation.

Measurement of 2p-3d absorption in a hot molybdenum plasma

Measurement of 2<i>p</i>-3<i>d</i> absorption in a hot molybdenum plasma

Electron-electron scattering limits thermal conductivity of metals underextremely high electron temperatures.

We report on the thermal transport properties of noble metals (gold, silver and copper) under conditions&#xD;of extremely high electron temperatures (that are on the order of the Fermi energy). We perform parameterfree&#xD;density functional theory calculations of the electron temperature-dependent electron-phonon coupling,&#xD;electronic heat capacities, and thermal conductivities to elucidate the strong role played by the excitation of&#xD;the low lying d-bands on the transport properties of the noble metals. Our calculations show that, although&#xD;the three metals have similar electronic band structures, the changes in their electron-phonon coupling at&#xD;elevated electron temperatures are drastically different; while electron-phonon coupling decreases in gold,&#xD;it increases in copper and, it remains relatively unperturbed for silver with increasing electron temperatures&#xD;of up to ∼60,000 K (or 5 eV). We attribute this to the varying contributions from acoustic and longitudinal&#xD;phonon modes to the electron-phonon coupling in the three metals. Although their electron-phonon&#xD;coupling changes with electron temperature, the thermal conductivity trends with electron temperature are&#xD;similar for all three metals. For instance, the thermal conductivities for all three metals reach their maximum&#xD;values (on par with the room-temperature values of some of the most thermally conductive semiconductors)&#xD;at electron temperatures of ∼6,000 K, and thereafter monotonically decrease due to the enhanced effect of&#xD;electron-electron scattering for electronic states that are further away from the Fermi energy. As such, only&#xD;accounting for electron-phonon coupling and neglecting electron-electron scattering can lead to large overpredictions&#xD;of the thermal conductivities at extremely high electron temperatures. Our results shed light&#xD;on the microscopic understanding of the electronic scattering mechanisms and thermal transport in noble&#xD;metals under conditions of extremely high electron temperatures and, as such, are significant for a plethora&#xD;of applications such as in plasmonic devices that routinely leverage hot electron transport.

Whistler-mode waves in the tail of Mercury's magnetosphere: A numerical study

Context : Mercury presents a highly dynamic, small magnetosphere in which magnetic reconnection plays a fundamental role. Aim : We aim to model the global characteristics of magnetic reconnection in the Hermean environment. In particular, we focus on waves observed during the third BepiColombo flyby. Method : In this work, we used two fully kinetic three-dimensional (3D) simulations carried out with the iPIC3D code, which models the interaction of the solar wind with the Hermean magnetosphere. For the simulations, we used southward solar wind conditions that allow for a maximum magnetic coupling between the solar wind and the planet. Results : Our simulations show that a significant wave activity, triggered by magnetic reconnection, develops near the diffusion region in the magnetotail and propagates at large scales in the night-side magnetosphere. We see an increase in electron temperature close to the diffusion region and we specifically observe narrowband whistler waves developing near the reconnection region. These waves propagate nearly parallel to the magnetic field at frequency $f ce $. In addition to the electromagnetic component, these waves also exhibit an electrostatic one. Furthermore, we observe a strong electron temperature anisotropy, suggesting it plays a role as the source of these waves.

Properties of the ionization region in a magnetron plasma at gas-aggregation-source-relevant pressure regime explored using a global model

Abstract A global (volume averaged) model is developed for the ionization region of a gas aggregation source (GAS) plasma. The case of using argon gas and a copper target is considered. The model describes the densities of thermal and hot electrons, argon and copper ions, copper atoms and argon atoms in different excited states, the temperature of thermal electrons, the kinetic energies of the ions with which they bombard the target, the sheath width near the target cathode and the energy fluxes by different plasma species to a planar probe in the ionization region. Also, the fraction of input power is estimated which is dissipated to energize the thermal electrons in the ionization region. The gas discharge properties are analysed for different pressures and discharge currents under conditions corresponding to the experimental conditions (Gauter S et al 2018 J. Appl. Phys. 124 073301). The calculated pressure- and current-dependences for the GAS properties are used to explain the measured dependences for the deposition rate and the energy flux. It is found that the deposition rate increases with increasing discharge current because of the growth of currents of copper atoms and ions. With increasing pressure, the rate decreases due to drop of the densities of copper atoms and ions because of decreasing the kinetic energies of the ions with which they bombard the target. The model indicates that in the gas-aggregation-source relevant pressure regime, the energy flux by ions dominates over the energy fluxes of other plasma species.

Microscopic structure of electromagnetic whistler wave damping by kineticmechanisms in hot magnetized Vlasov plasmas

Abstract Electromagnetic transverse perturbations propagating parallel to the external magnetic field in a&amp;#xD;warm electron plasma, specifically the warm electron whistler waves, are simulated in κ distributed&amp;#xD;electrons. The Vlasov-Maxwell phase-space continuum simulations are applied to the stable and&amp;#xD;unstable (i.e., isotropic and anisotropic) VDFs including those with energetic tail, i.e., κ distribution.&amp;#xD;The variation of real frequency from both numerical solution of dispersion relation and simulations&amp;#xD;show limited sensitivity to electron temperature in low wave-number regime as compared to high&amp;#xD;wave number regime, however the opposite holds for the imaginary frequency or the decay rate. For&amp;#xD;large amplitude, nonlinear cases, simulated with anisotropic κ distributions the very low anisotropy&amp;#xD;cases find the growth rate increasing with increasing the κ while this trend reverses for higher&amp;#xD;anisotropy. The phase-space portraits of the these cases show that after the linear damping phase&amp;#xD;of the evolution, the particles are trapped in the wave magnetic field leading to the wave amplitudes&amp;#xD;oscillating about a mean value which follow the theoretical analysis [1].

Electronic heat conductivity in a two-temperature state

Heat transport in solids is governed by two fundamental contributions, atomic and electronic. The electronic energy transport in transient excited states is a defining factor in the problem of ultrafast material irradiation. Here, we calculate the electronic heat conductivity at elevated electron temperatures up to 40,000 K. We apply the novel combined method of tight binding formalism to calculate the electron-phonon contribution to the electronic heat conductivity, and the linear response theory (in the single-pole Ritchie-Howie loss function approximation) for its electron-electron counterpart, implemented in the hybrid code XTANT-3. It allows us to evaluate the electronic heat conductivity in a wide range of materials – fcc metals: Al, Ca, Ni, Cu, Sr, Y, Zr, Rh, Pd, Ag, Ir, Pt, Au, and Pb; hcp metals: Mg, Sc, Ti, Co, Zn, Tc, Ru, Cd, Hf, Re, and Os; bcc metals: V, Cr, Fe, Nb, Mo, Ba, Ta, and W; other metals: Sn, Ga, In, Mn, Te, and Se; semimetal graphite; semiconductors – group IV: Si, Ge, and SiC; group III-V: AlAs, AlP, GaP, GaAs, and GaSb; oxides: ZnO, TiO2, and Cu2O; and others: PbI2, ZnS, and B4C.

On the distribution function of electron spectra from hot laser plasmas

The emission of electrons from hot plasmas generated in the interaction of ultra-short (and ultra-high intensity) laser pulses with matter is often characterized by the so-called ‘hot electron temperature’. In this article it is shown that this number is not unambiguous. The reason is the following: to assign a temperature to an electron spectrum, it is necessary to describe the spectrum with a distribution function. However, different types of distribution functions are in use, e.g. the Boltzmann or Maxwell distribution, leading to different electron temperatures in spite of providing nearly the same form of the electron spectrum. For this reason, the main characteristics of all these distribution functions are presented in this article and compared. Depending on the distribution function used, the value of the hot electron temperature varies by up to 30% and in extreme cases by more than a factor of four. This fact should always be kept in mind when comparing values of hot electron temperatures. In addition, the reasons for using equilibrium distributions to describe the characteristics of laser-produced electrons—although probably no thermodynamic equilibrium is prevailing—are discussed.

Numerical study on the effects of discharge parameters on vacuum arc plasma

Studying the characteristics of vacuum arc plasma within a wide range of discharge parameters is vital for its applications. In this study, specific parameters of vacuum discharge, such as cathode temperature ranging from 6000 to 8000K , emitted electron temperature spanning from 0.69 to 2.5eV , and arc burning voltage within the range of 16−30V , have been selected to analyze the effects of these parameters on the cathode erosion, cathode potential drop (CPD), and ion velocity. A validated one-dimensional spherical PIC–DSMC cathode spot model is employed to simulate the generation and expansion of vacuum arc plasma. The results indicate that increasing the cathode temperature and the emitted electron temperature enhance the cathode eroded mass. However, this mass diminishes as the arc voltage increases due to more Cu ions and Cu atoms returning to the cathode under high CPD and charge exchange collisions, respectively. The cathode current density remains nearly constant within the explored range of cathode temperature, but increases with shifting the emitted electron temperature and arc voltage. A higher cathode current density, coupled with the positive cathode plasma resistance, induces a higher CPD that significantly surpasses the cathode sheath voltage. Furthermore, a higher ion velocity is observed at increased arc voltage due to the higher cathode current density, which generates stronger electron friction for accelerating ions. These findings could be valuable in designing a suitable arc voltage for vacuum electric thrusters to enhance thrust.

Ab initio-simulated optical response of hot electrons in gold and ruthenium

Optical femtosecond pump-probe experiments allow to measure the dynamics of ultrafast heating of metals with high accuracy. However, the theoretical analysis of such experiments is often complicated because of the indirect connection of the measured signal and the desired temperature transients. Establishing such a connection requires an accurate model of the optical constants of a metal, depending on both the electron temperature T e and the lattice temperature T l . In this paper, we present first-principles simulations of the two-temperature scenario with T e ≫ T l , showing the optical response of hot electrons to laser irradiation in gold and ruthenium. Comparing our simulations with the Kubo-Greenwood approach, we discuss the influence of electron-phonon and electron-electron scattering on the intraband contribution to optical constants. Applying the simulated optical constants to the analysis of ultrafast heating of ruthenium thin films we highlight the importance of the latter scattering channel to understand the measured heating dynamics.

RFX-mod2 diagnostic capability enhancements for the exploration of multi-magnetic-configurations

Abstract The RFX-mod2 device, the upgraded version of the previous RFX-mod with a modified magnetic boundary, is presently under realization and will start to be operated in 2025. Significant upgrades of the diagnostic capabilities have been proposed and are under development. These include a largely increased number of in-vessel magnetic and electrostatic sensors, a new fast reciprocating manipulator for the exploration of the edge plasma in a wide range of experimental conditions, the improved Thomson scattering and soft X-ray diagnostics system for a detailed determination of the behavior of the electron temperature profile, new dedicated systems for the space and time resolved analysis of X-ray spectra and neutron rate, a reflectometric diagnostic for real-time determination of plasma position, two diagnostics devoted to the imaging of light impurities and influxes behavior along with arrays of halo current sensors. These diagnostic upgrades will be accompanied by a significant effort to improve the control of the electron density and of the impurity influxes by means of proper treatment of plasma facing components with in-vessel fixed electrodes distributed over the first wall. The described advancements will allow a deeper understanding of physics phenomena in the wide variety of magnetic configurations, including the tokamak, the reversed-field pinch and the Ultra-low q, which can be produced in RFX-mod2 thanks to its flexibility and unique MHD control capabilities.

Spectroscopic Measurement of Atmospheric-pressure Non-equilibrium Ar Plasma Using Continuum and Line Spectra

Abstract A robust method for determining the electron temperature and density of atmospheric-pressure non-equilibrium argon plasmas is reported. The methodology is based on the analysis of the continuum and line spectra of the plasma. Assuming that the electron energy distribution function (EEDF) is expressed as a two-temperature generalized EEDF (GEEDF), the gamma value of the GEEDF is determined through a grid search of the continuum spectrum analysis given by the bremsstrahlung process, which minimizes the mean-squared logarithmic error (MSLE). In addition, the relationship between the gamma value and the electron temperature and density is determined. Utilizing this relationship, the electron temperature and density are determined by minimizing the MSLE between the excited-state densities obtained from the line spectrum analysis and numerically calculated using the collisional-radiative model. This methodology yielded results that satisfied both continuum and line spectrum analyses. In addition, the same analysis was conducted either by continuum spectrum analysis or by line spectrum alone to compare the results.&amp;#xD;

Effect of single and double pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy towards steel alloy in different gaseous media

In recent years, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique showed its promising for material analysis, quality control, forensic science, and environmental safety monitoring. Besides, due to its rapid measurement capability and minimal sample-preparation requirements, it is a widely recognized elemental analysis approach used in a variety of study domains. The current work compares spatially resolved single (SP) and double pulse (DP), especially orthogonal DP, setups for LIBS to examine and enhance the limit of detection (LOD) in duplex stainless steels alloy. Using the Boltzmann plot method and the Stark broadening mechanism, the electron temperature and density of local arc plasma are highlighted due to single pulse and orthogonal pre-pulse double pulse configurations. With delay time, the circumstances of arc plasma's local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) of emission spectral lines are investigated. The experimental results show that there are significant increases in the spectral intensities of the Fe lines in double pulse LIBS under Ar-gas compared to those under He-gas. Internal standardization was used to create calibration curves for the spectral lines of Cr, Cu, and Mn in the alloy sample for the both studied media. It demonstrated that argon outperforms helium in determining the elemental composition of steel alloys. Furthermore, LOD for SP-LIBS and DP-LIBS in both media were calculated, which showed a higher detection LOD for DP-LIBS in the presence of Ar-gas compared to that in He-gas.

Core electron temperature turbulence and transport during sawtooth oscillations in the DIII-D tokamak

Sawteeth are one of the concerning instabilities in ITER and future burning plasma experiments. Sawtooth dynamics and its interaction with broadband plasma turbulence has been a challenge for predictive simulations of core transport in future fusion devices. This study provides new observations of core turbulence behavior during sawtooth oscillations in DIII-D hydrogen L-mode neutral beam injection heated plasmas in an inner wall limited configuration. A strong correlation of electron temperature and density turbulence levels with the sawtooth oscillation phase has been observed at locations inside the T e inversion radius and/or safety factor q = 1 magnetic surface. The T e turbulence amplitude in the core during the sawtooth ramp exhibits a critical T e gradient behavior inside but not near the T e inversion radius/q = 1 magnetic surface. The most unstable mode calculated from the trapped gyro-landau fluid turbulence simulations reveal a change from low-k ion-type to low-k electron-type modes from pre- to post- sawtooth crash time periods.

Flexural and acoustic phonon-drag thermopower and electron energy loss rate in silicene

We have performed a comprehensive numerical and analytical examination of two crucial transport aspects in silicene: the phonon-drag thermopower, Sp , and the electron’s energy loss rate, Fe . Specifically, our investigation is centered on their responses to out-of-plane flexural phonons and in-plane acoustic phonons in silicene, a two-dimensional allotrope of silicon as a function of electron temperature, T, and electron concentration, n, upto the room temperature. It is found that the calculated quantities have a non-monotonic dependence for the phonon modes for both parameters (T and n) considered while analytical results predict definite dependencies up to the complete low-temperature Bloch–Gruneisen (BG) regime. To provide a more comprehensive picture, we contrast the complete numerical outcomes with the approximated analytical BG results, revealing a convergence within a specific range of temperature and carrier concentration. In light of this convergence, we put forth suggestions to elucidate the underlying factors responsible for this behavior. A comparison based on the magnitude of the calculated quantities can be made from the figures between the two considered phonon modes, which clearly shows that the out-of-plane flexural phonons are effective throughout the considered temperature range. This observation leads us to posit that the dominating contribution of the out-of-plane flexural phonon modes hinges upon the deformation potential constant and phonon energy associated with the phonon mode. Our study carries significant implications for estimating the electrical and thermal properties of silicene and provides valuable insights for the development of devices based on silicene-based technologies.

Infrared photodetection in graphene-based heterostructures: bolometric and thermoelectric effects at the tunneling barrier

Graphene/hBN/graphene tunnel devices offer promise as sensitive mid-infrared photodetectors but the microscopic origin underlying the photoresponse in them remains elusive. In this work, we investigated the photocurrent generation in graphene/hBN/graphene tunnel structures with localized defect states under mid-IR illumination. We demonstrate that the photocurrent in these devices is proportional to the second derivative of the tunnel current with respect to the bias voltage, peaking during tunneling through the hBN impurity level. We revealed that the origin of the photocurrent generation lies in the change of the tunneling probability upon radiation-induced electron heating in graphene layers, in agreement with the theoretical model that we developed. Finally, we show that at a finite bias voltage, the photocurrent is proportional to either of the graphene layers heating under the illumination, while at zero bias, it is proportional to the heating difference. Thus, the photocurrent in such devices can be used for accurate measurements of the electronic temperature, providing a convenient alternative to Johnson noise thermometry.

Complexity of many-body interactions in transition metals via machine-learned force fields from the TM23 data set

This work examines challenges associated with the accuracy of machine-learned force fields (MLFFs) for bulk solid and liquid phases of d-block elements. In exhaustive detail, we contrast the performance of force, energy, and stress predictions across the transition metals for two leading MLFF models: a kernel-based atomic cluster expansion method implemented using sparse Gaussian processes (FLARE), and an equivariant message-passing neural network (NequIP). Early transition metals present higher relative errors and are more difficult to learn relative to late platinum- and coinage-group elements, and this trend persists across model architectures. Trends in complexity of interatomic interactions for different metals are revealed via comparison of the performance of representations with different many-body order and angular resolution. Using arguments based on perturbation theory on the occupied and unoccupied d states near the Fermi level, we determine that the large, sharp d density of states both above and below the Fermi level in early transition metals leads to a more complex, harder-to-learn potential energy surface for these metals. Increasing the fictitious electronic temperature (smearing) modifies the angular sensitivity of forces and makes the early transition metal forces easier to learn. This work illustrates challenges in capturing intricate properties of metallic bonding with current leading MLFFs and provides a reference data set for transition metals, aimed at benchmarking the accuracy and improving the development of emerging machine-learned approximations.

Modification of the temporal laser source term in two-temperature model

Simulations on the interaction between laser pulses with materials during pulsed laser ablation require information on the characteristics of both laser and material. While details on material properties are extensively studied, the temporal profile of the laser source term is rarely studied and is generally assumed to be Gaussian. This article explores the effects of non-Gaussian temporal laser source terms (TLSTs) in simulating the heat diffusion within a metal upon irradiation of femtosecond pulsed lasers. We employed the Two-Temperature Model (TTM) to simulate the temperature evolution on the surface of copper upon irradiation of a 100-fs laser pulse with different TLSTs at different laser repetition modes (single-shot, burst, and biburst). We used a constant total fluence of 3J/cm 2 in all cases and subsequently calculated the ablation depths based on the resulting temperature values. Our results show that non-Gaussian TLSTs generate lower electron and lattice temperatures, resulting in shallower crater depths compared to a Gaussian TLST. However, under burst and biburst modes, particularly with higher subpulse number repetition time, the results of non-Gaussian TLSTs approximate those of Gaussian TLSTs. To initiate laser ablation in such cases, higher laser fluence might be required. Our work on non-Gaussian temporal profiles in TTM simulations can be applied to other computational methods in describing laser-matter interaction.

Interatomic Potential For Carbon Based Quantum‐Technology Applications

AbstractTo optimize parameters for laser processing of quantum‐technology relevant materials, such as diamond, precise atomistic simulations of the light‐matter interaction on large scales (on the order of atoms) are essential. Classical empirical interatomic potentials are commonly employed for simulating such a large number of atoms, however they fail to accurately capture all relevant effects of light‐matter interaction. Conversely, ab initio methods like Density Functional Theory (DFT) can effectively incorporate quantum properties arising from photon excitations, but their applicability is limited to small systems containing at most approximately atoms. Consequently, bridging the gap between achieving DFT precision and handling millions of atoms necessitates the development of innovative classes of interatomic potentials. In this paper, the construction of a highly accurate interatomic potential for diamond is presented, derived from an extensive dataset of DFT calculations. The parameters of the interatomic potential depend on the electronic temperature (). The findings demonstrate that this newly developed interatomic potential can aptly describe the laser processing of diamond for nanophotonic applications, achieving accuracy comparable to ab initio methods for large systems.