Discharged-Produced Plasmas

An electrical breakdown occurs when a high voltage source is applied to two electrodes separated by an insulating layer. Electrically discharged sources are potentially the simplest and least expensive alternative for production of high energy photons. Such devices employ high-voltage, high- current discharge pulses to form high temperature plasma in gaseous media such as Li vapor, D, Xe, Sn, etc. The “pinch plasma” is produced by magnetically imploding a cylindrical gas column.   

The focus of the discharged produced plasma laboratory at CMUXE is to investigate the basic physics of short-lived electrical discharges and plasmas, and to develop technological applications for these plasmas. The CMUXE laboratory executes this through a combination of state-of-art modeling (HEIGHTS package) and experimental investigations. Some applications of discharged based plasmas are high energy photon sources for EUV lithography and microscopy, as a neutron source etc.

For further details contact: hassanein@purdue.edu or jtripat@purdue.edu