Dense Plasma Focus as a TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM FOR SCIENTIFIC AND POTENTIAL INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS

A.E. Abdou

Associate Professor

Director of the Nanotechnology Program

Zewail City of Science and Technology

Egypt

The dense magnetized plasma generated in the Dense Plasma Focus DPF devices composes one of the most interesting and important fields of study in plasma physics. The DPFs are very efficient sources of fusion products and ionizing radiation that can be investigated intensively for a diverse set of applications in areas of science, technology and industry which includes but not limited to: dense magnetized plasma physics, astrophysics, pulsed power technology, plasma diagnostics, short lived radioisotope production, fast neutron activation analysis, IED and special nuclear material detection, neutron and x-ray radiography, material testing under extreme conditions, nanoparticle deposition, Extreme Ultraviolet EUV production, etc. Nearly fifty years of experiments have demonstrated the ability of (even table-top) DPF devices to produce nuclear fusion reactions in magnetically pinched plasmas.

The DPF devices were independently discovered by J. Mather¹ and N. V. Filippov² in the early 60’s. Although the device was invented nearly fifty years ago, there is still very interesting physics to be studied in those types of devices that will add to the fundamental understanding of basic plasma physics and fusion research. Some of those still open questions are the formation of current filamentation and their rule in pinch stability, the anomalous resistivity and its rule in the neutron generation, the physics of hot spots, the debated mechanism of neutron production, etc.

A compact, 2.5 kJ, powerful, nanosecond, combined neutron and x-ray DPF source facility was designed, installed and characterized. Such a facility may be built and operated at relatively low cost when compared to nuclear reactors or linear accelerator based sources.

The initial results and the characterization of the radiation output from the machine will be presented along with its potential usage in scientific and industrial applications in this presentation.

Professor: Ali Abdou received a B.S. degree in nuclear engineering from the Alexandria University, Egypt in 1992, M.Sc. in Nuclear Engineering in 2002, M.Sc. in Computational Sciences in 2003 and Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering in 2005 all from the University of Wisconsin Madison, USA. Professor Abdou has over 20 years of experience in the nuclear science and engineering, plasma processing and nanofabrication fields. He participated in the design, pre-operation, inauguration and operation of Egypt’s second test and research nuclear reactor ETRR-2 from 1994 to 1999. He is licensed radiation protection and health physicist from Argentinean ENRN and Egyptian NRC in 1996 and 1997 respectively. From 1992-1994 he was teaching assistant at the Air Defense College in Alexandria and American University in Cairo. From 1994 to 1999 he was nuclear engineer at the Nuclear Research Center, Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority and INVAP S.E. Argentina. From 1999 to 2005 he was a graduate assistant the department of nuclear engineering, University of Wisconsin Madison, USA where he did his PhD in High Temperature Plasma and Nuclear Fusion. From 2005 to 2009, he was working as Senior Process Development Engineer at Portland Technology Development, Intel Corporation in the area of plasma etching and semiconductor nanofabrication. He was responsible for the process development of shallow trench isolation for 65nm, 45nm and 32nm nodes. He has wide expertise in plasma processing techniques used in the fabrication and characterization of semiconductor nano/micro structures. In early 2009, he joined the department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Kansas State University, USA as an assistant professor of nuclear engineering where he did extensive research in dense magnetized plasmas and their applications in science and engineering. In 2013 he joined Zewail City of Science and Technology as Associate Professor and director of the nanotechnology program where he developed the nanotechnology program curriculum and participated in establishing the state of the art nanotechnology institute that houses a cleanroom facility (20 million dollars class-100), smart and nanomaterial synthesis, material characterization, and microscopy centers.

He is elected member of the International Scientific Committee (ISC) of the International Center for Dense Magnetized Plasma (ICDMP) in Warsaw, Poland under the auspices of UNISCO (http://www.icdmp.pl/isc-dmp), the Asian African Association for Plasma Training (AAAPT) (http://www.aaapt.org/member-institutes),  a reviewer for IEEE Transaction on Plasma Sciences, IEEE Transaction on Nanotechnology, Journal of Computer Physics Communication, International Journal of Energy Research, Journal of Fusion Energy,  the USA Department of Energy (DOE), National Science Foundation (NSF), and Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP).

His current research interests include: high temperature plasma, low temperature plasma, development of compact, nano-second multi-radiation sources, plasma nanoscience, semiconductor nanofabrication, optical emission spectroscopy and x-ray emission from plasmas. Prof. Abdou has authored or co-authored around 60 research publications.