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Full-Text Articles in Plasma and Beam Physics
Plasma-Laser Wakefield Acceleration, Jonathan Babu
Plasma-Laser Wakefield Acceleration, Jonathan Babu
Physics
Many texts detailing the derivations and science of Wakefield Acceleration are aimed at graduate and doctorate level scholars, and these may seem intimidating to new physics students. This paper is meant to be an introduction to the nature of plasmas, lasers, laser-plasma interactions, and Laser Wakefield Acceleration (LWFA), with sources given where extra detail may be required. I recognize that this paper is not meant to be an all-encompassing review on the nature of the topics, as these topics are complex and subject of entire textbooks. Instead, I aim to provide an introduction to these topics to a college-level scholar …
Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy, Connor Drake
Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy, Connor Drake
Physics
The goal of this work is to use a Neodymium-Doped Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (Nd:YAG) Laser, spectrometer, and computer to create a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) system. LIBS utilizes a focused, high-powered, pulsed laser whose peak electric field ionizes materials at the beam focal point, creating localized plasma. The plasma state includes broken molecular bonds, atom/electron-ionization, and excited electrons, which on the macroscopic level is a loud “snap” and a bright spark. In this project, a fiber optic cable is used to capture light emitted from the spark, and direct it into a spectrometer which tallies the number of photons …