Plasma and Beam Physics Commons^™

Hybrid Plasmonic Nanoantennas: Fabrication, Characterization, And Application, Shengjie Zhai

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

As optical counterpart of microwave antennas, plasmonic nanoantennas are important nanoscale devices for converting propagating optical radiation into confined/enhanced electromagnetic fields. Presently, nanoantennas, with a typical size of 200-500 nm, have found their applications in bio-sensing, bio-imaging, energy harvesting, and disease cure and prevention. With the device feature size of next generation IC goes down to 22 nm or smaller, and biological/chemical sensing reaches the Gene’s level, the sizes of the corresponding nanoantennas have to be scaled down to sub-100nm level. In the literature, these sub-100nm nanoantennas are referred as deep subwavelength nanoantennas as size of such miniaturized nanoantennas is …

Plasmonic And Photonic Designs For Light Trapping In Thin Film Solar Cells, Liming Ji

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Thin film solar cells are promising to realize cheap solar energy. Compared to conventional wafer cells, they can reduce the use of semiconductor material by 90%. The efficiency of thin film solar cells, however, is limited due to insufficient light absorption. Sufficient light absorption at the bandgap of semiconductor requires a light path more than 10x the thickness of the semiconductor. Advanced designs for light trapping are necessary for solar cells to absorb sufficient light within a limited volume of semiconductor. The goal is to convert the incident light into a trapped mode in the semiconductor layer.

In this dissertation, …

Threshold Effects In Strong-Field Ionization: Energy Shifts And Rydberg Structures, Katarzyna Krajewska, Ilya I. Fabrikant, Anthony F. Starace

Anthony F. Starace Publications

The behavior of strong-field ionization rates of neutral atoms in the vicinity ofmultiphoton ionization thresholds is analyzed using formal collision theory.Our approach,which accounts nonperturbatively for effects of an intense laser field, shows that the ionization rates have a nearly constant behavior below and above each multiphoton threshold and that between such thresholds there are an apparently finite number of rapid oscillations due to resonances with laser-field-modified Rydberg states. This pattern is typical for any atomic target, as we illustrate specifically for hydrogen and neon atoms. The flat behavior of the ionization yield near multiphoton thresholds gives the appearance of an …

Intrinsic Rotation Of Toroidally Confined Magnetohydrodynamics, Jorge A. Morales, Wouter J. T. T. Bos, Kai Schneider, David C. Montgomery

Dartmouth Scholarship

The spatiotemporal self-organization of viscoresistive magnetohydrodynamics in a toroidal geometry is studied. Curl-free toroidal magnetic and electric fields are imposed. It is observed in our simulations that a flow is generated, which evolves from dominantly poloidal to toroidal when the Lundquist numbers are increased. It is shown that this toroidal organization of the flow is consistent with the tendency of the velocity field to align with the magnetic field. Up-down asymmetry of the geometry causes the generation of a nonzero toroidal angular momentum.

Investigation Of Diode Pumped Alkali Laser Atmospheric Transmission Using Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy, Christopher A. Rice

Theses and Dissertations

A field deployable, tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) device fiber coupled to a pair of 12.5" Ritchey-Chretien telescopes was used to study atmospheric propagation for open path lengths of 100 m to 1,000 m to estimate atmospheric transmission at key High Energy Laser (HEL) wavelengths. The potassium (K) version of the Diode Pumped Alkali Laser (DPAL) operates in between two of the sharp oxygen rotational features in the PP and the PQ branches. Initial experiments were performed in the vicinity of molecular oxygen X3Σ-g to b1Σ+g electronic transition lines near the potassium emission line at 770 nm. More than …

Analysis Of Cornell Electron-Positron Storage Ring Test Accelerator's Double Slit Visual Beam Size Monitor, Robert Campbell

Physics

In the past year, a double slit interferometer was installed to measure the horizontal beam size in the Cornell Electron-Positron Storage Ring Test Accelerator (CesrTA) at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. To better understand the systematics of this device, a replica of the CesrTA instrument was assembled at California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo. From the prototype, it was found that the device will produce a calculated beam size that agrees with measurements as long as it is optimized with the proper double slits for a small range of beam sizes.

Commissioning Of The Asta Laser Lab With Uv Pulse Length Characterization, Daniel Kelley, Jeff Corbett

STAR Program Research Presentations

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at SLAC depends on a photocathode electron gun to provide the linear accelerator with the raw material – electrons – used for making X-ray laser pulses. The photocathode used in the LCLS Injector is a clean copper plate in high vacuum. When the cathode is struck with high energy UV light, electrons are liberated from its surface and then accelerated down the linac with radio-frequency electric fields. These fast-moving bunches of electrons are directed through an undulator magnet to radiate X-ray light.

Although scientists have been using photocathode techniques at SLAC for 25 years, …

Intense And Highly Energetic Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Jet Arrays, John Furmanski

All Theses

This thesis documents the efforts taken to produce highly ionized and concentrated atmospheric pressure plasma using an arrayed atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) system. The honeycomb-shaped array features seven plasma jets operating in close enough proximity to one another to exhibit jet-to-jet coupling behavior. Optimal gas flow rates for the system were determined and intense plasma plumes composed of argon and/or helium are generated. Optical emission spectroscopy was employed to observe the charged particles responsible for the emissions of each gas discharge and APPJ operation mode. Plasma etching of indium tin oxide glass was conducted to verify the highly energetic …

Basic Research On The Characteristics Of A Constricted Pulsed Glow Discharge, Sean Daniel Andersen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In certain plasma discharge experiments, it has been observed that under specific conditions a plasma glow discharge column tends to seek the central location of the discharge electrodes away from the electrode edges and chamber walls. Further, the column appears to have the properties of a stabilized equilibrium plasma pinch in a glow (non-arc-like) state. This is unusual since, normally field enhancements occur on edges resulting in arc-like discharge breakdown. Also, the column of plasma that protrudes from the anode emits highly intense, non-uniform light that is uncharacteristically bright for a glow discharge.

The main purpose of this thesis is …

Identifying Signatures Of Plasma Waves And Reconnection Associated With Kelvin-Helmholtz Activity, Thomas Wesley Moore

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The magnetopause marks the boundary between the shocked solar wind and magnetospheric plasma. Understanding the dynamics of the plasma processes at the magnetopause boundary is crucial to the study of plasma transport into the magnetosphere. Previous studies have shown that there exists a temperature asymmetry in the plasma sheet. During northward IMF, the cold component ions are 30-40% hotter in the dawn flank plasma sheet compared to the dusk flank. However, the mechanisms responsible are still not entirely clear. Recent work has shown that reconnection in Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices can transport plasma into the magnetosphere. Previous studies have also shown that …

An Extension To Particle Polarizability To Predict Coupling Behavior In Periodic Nanoplasmonic Arrays, Drew Dejarnette

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Plasmonic nanoparticles organized in arrays interact to create spectral patterns which are amplified by individual particle polarizability. It was hypothesized that particle polarizability could be used as a predictor of spectral behavior from far-field interactions within the array. Inter-particle coupling produced an extraordinary peak in extinction efficiency at wavelengths equal to or larger than the single particle plasmon resonance peak. Interactions that produced constructive coupling were found to mimic changes in the particle polarizability model. Testing of the hypothesis was performed using the coupled dipole approximation with parametric characterization of array geometries, giving specific particle size and lattice constant combinations …

Application Of Chebyshev Formalism To Identify Nonlinear Magnetic Field Components In Beam Transport System, Michael Spata

Physics Theses & Dissertations

An experiment was conducted at Jefferson Lab's Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility to develop a beam-based technique for characterizing the extent of the nonlinearity of the magnetic fields of a beam transport system. Horizontally and vertically oriented pairs of air-core kicker magnets were simultaneously driven at two different frequencies to provide a time-dependent transverse modulation of the beam orbit relative to the unperturbed reference orbit. Fourier decomposition of the position data at eight different points along the beamline was then used to measure the amplitude of these frequencies. For a purely linear transport system one expects to find solely the …

Gaussian Beam Steering On A Target Plane Via High Speed Orthogonal Mirror-Mounted Galvanometers, Keith Gresiak

Physics

No abstract provided.

Ion Acceleration In A Helicon Source Due To The Self-Bias Effect, Matt Wiebold, Yung-Ta Sung, John E. Scharer

Physics Faculty Publications

Time-averaged plasma potential differences up to 165 V over several hundred Debye lengths are observed in low pressure (p_n < 1 mTorr) expanding argon plasmas in the Madison Helicon eXperiment (MadHeX). The potential gradient leads to ion acceleration greater than that predicted by ambipolar expansion, exceeding E_i≈7 kT_e in some cases. RF power up to 500 W at 13.56 MHz is supplied to a half-turn, double-helix antenna in the presence of a nozzle magnetic field, adjustable up to 1 kG. A retarding potential analyzer (RPA) measures the ion energy distribution function (IEDF) and a swept emissive probe measures the plasma potential. Single and double probes measure the electron density and temperature. Two distinct mode hops, the capacitive-inductive (E-H) and inductive-helicon (H-W) transitions, …

Magnetic Field Amplification In Electron Phase-Space Holes And Related Effects, R. A. Treumann, W. Baumjohann

Dartmouth Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Case Studies In Many-Body Physics, Ana Samolov

Physics Theses & Dissertations

The many-body problem refers to any physical problem made of more than two interacting particles. With increasing number of particles in a system, their coupling and entanglement becomes more complex, and there is no general analytic solution even for a three-body classical or quantum systems. However, some of the most fascinating phenomena in nature are products of collective effects. Therefore, significant efforts have been made in both experiment and theory to unravel some specific many-body problems. If we look at still unanswered physics questions we see that for most of these problems addressing the many-body interactions is a key issue. …

Collisional Dynamics, Lasing And Stimulated Raman Scattering In Optically Pumped Cesium And Potassium Vapors, Kirk C. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores collisional dynamics, lasing and stimulated Raman scattering in cesium and potassium vapors. The spin orbit mixing and quenching cross sections of several buffer gas species are measured. The ne-structure mixing cross sections for He, CH₄ and C₂H₆ are 14±3, 35±6 and 73±10 °A², respectively. The ²P_3/2 state is quenched more rapidly than the ²P_1/2 state. A pulsed blue laser operating via direct excitation of the cesium 7²P_3/2 state is demonstrated. A theoretical model is extended and compared with experimental results. The maximum output …

Spectral And Spatial Coherent Emission Of Thermal Radiation From Metal-Semiconductor Nanostructures, Shane N. Mcconnell

Theses and Dissertations

The spectral and spatial radiative properties of coherent thermal emission in the mid- and far-IR through the use of micro and nano-structured metal-semiconductor materials were designed and demonstrated experimentally. Using an implementation of the Rigorous Coupled Wave Analysis and Computer Simulation Technology (CST), two structures were designed to selectively emit at mid- and far-IR wavelengths, a 1-D truncated multilayer resonator and a 3-D hybrid photonic crystal (PC)-multilayer. A High Impulse Power Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS) deposition technique was used to fabricate two silver-germanium-silver (Ag-Ge-Ag) resonating structures with layer thicknesses of 6-240-160 nm for one sample and 6-700-200 nm for the other. …

Preconditioning Visco-Resistive Mhd For Tokamak Plasmas, Daniel R. Reynolds, Ravi Samtaney, Hilari C. Tiedeman

Mathematics Research

No abstract provided.

Electronic Detection Of Ultra Cold Neutral Plasma, Nirakar Poudel

Honors Theses

The project was started with an objective to investigate the effect of radio fre- quency absorption in Ultra Cold Neutral Plasmas (UNPs). The plasma oscillation is density dependent and can be excited by using external radio frequency field. A homodyne circuit is used to detect direct absorption of the radio frequency waves. The radio frequency waves are applied to conducting meshes which lie on either side of the plasma. The meshes are effectively a capacitor, which together with inherent circuit resistance constitute a high pass filter. A small part of the gain and phase shift of the filter depend on …

Observation And Identification Of Metastable Excited States In Ultrafast Laser-Ionized Pyridine, David B. Foote, Timothy D. Scarborough, Cornelis J. Uiterwaal

C.J.G.J. Uiterwaal Publications

We report on the fragmentation of ionized pyridine (C₅H₅N) molecules by focused 50 fs, 800 nm laser pulses. Such ionization produces several metastable ionic states that fragment within the field-free drift region of a reflectron- type time of flight mass spectrometer, with one particular metastable dissociation being the leading fragmentation process. Because the time of flight is no longer dependent in a simple way on the mass of the ion, the metastable decay is manifested as an unfocused peak on the mass spectrum that appears at a time of flight not corresponding to an integer mass. …

Beam Dynamics Studies For Transverse Electromagnetic Mode Type Rf Deflectors, Shahid Ahmed, Geoffrey A. Krafft, Kirsten Deitrick, Subashini U. De Silva, Jean R. Delayen, Mike Spata, Michael Tiefenback, Alicia Hofler, Kevin Beard

Physics Faculty Publications

We have performed three-dimensional simulations of beam dynamics for transverse electromagnetic mode (TEM) type rf deflectors: normal and superconducting. The compact size of these cavities as compared to the conventional TM₁₁₀ type structures is more attractive particularly at low frequency. Highly concentrated electromagnetic fields between the parallel bars provide strong electrical stability to the beam for any mechanical disturbance. An array of six 2-cell normal conducting cavities or a single cell superconducting structure is enough to produce the required vertical displacement at the target point. Both the normal and superconducting structures show very small emittance dilution due to the …

Contamination Effects On Fixed-Bias Langmuir Probes, C.T. Steigies, A. Barjatya

Publications

Langmuir probes are standard instruments for plasma density measurements on many sounding rockets. These probes can be operated in swept-bias as well as in fixed-bias modes. In swept-bias Langmuir probes, contamination effects are frequently visible as a hysteresis between consecutive up and down voltage ramps. This hysteresis, if not corrected, leads to poorly determined plasma densities and temperatures. With a properly chosen sweep function, the contamination parameters can be determined from the measurements and correct plasma parameters can then be determined. In this paper, we study the contamination effects on fixed-bias Langmuir probes, where no hysteresis type effect is seen …

Multipacting Analysis Of High-Velocity Superconducting Spoke Resonators, C. S. Hopper, J. R. Delayen

Physics Faculty Publications

Some of the advantages of superconducting spoke cavities are currently being investigated for the high-velocity regime. When determining a final, optimized geometry, one must consider the possible limiting effects multipacting could have on the cavity. We report on the results of analytical calculations and numerical simulations of multipacting electrons in superconducting spoke cavities and methods for reducing their impact.

Superconducting Spoke Cavities For Electron And High-Velocity Proton Linacs, J. R. Delayen

Physics Faculty Publications

Spoke resonantors are currently under development for many proton machines but these structures are also considered for high beta electron linacs as well. These structures compare well to traditional elliptical cavities.

Evidence For The Onset Of Color Transparency In Ρ0 Electroproduction Off Nuclei, L. El Fassi, L. Zana, H. Hafidi, M. Holtrop, B. Mustapha, W. K. Brooks, H. Hakobyan, Z. Zheng, K. P. Adhikari, D. Adikaram, M. J. Amaryan, H. Baghdasaryan, S. Bültmann, G. E. Dodge, C. E. Hyde, A. Klein, S. E. Kuhn, M. Mayer, H. Seraydaryan, L. B. Weinstein

Physics Faculty Publications

We have measured the nuclear transparency of the incoherent diffractive A( e , e ′ ρ⁰ ) process in ¹²C and ⁵⁶Fe targets relative to ²H using a 5 GeV electron beam. The nuclear transparency, the ratio of the produced ρ⁰ ʼs on a nucleus relative to deuterium, which is sensitive to ρA interaction, was studied as function of the coherence length (lc), a lifetime of the hadronic fluctuation of the virtual photon, and the four-momentum transfer squared (Q²). While the transparency for both ¹²C and ⁵⁶Fe …