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This thesis is a theoretical model and experimental study of the physics of a low pressure (5-50 mtorr), low electron temperature (1-10 eV), high density (10¹⁷-10¹⁸m³ ) inductively coupled plasma. This type of plasma is similar to those much used in plasma etching, deposition, and other plasma aided materials processing of devices [I-5]. A two-dimensional, electromagnetic, finite-element model has been set up to simulate the operation of the inductively coupled plasma using the external coil configuration used in the experimental work. Given fixed external RF coil current and voltage and the measured plasma density profile, Maxwell's equations and magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) fluid equations are used to calculate the self-consistent electromagnetic field. A number of predictions are presented and compared with experiments. A symmetric, cylindrical inductively coupled discharge system has been set up. A single turn loop magnetic probe has been used to measure electromagnetic (EM) field in the discharge chamber. A Langmuir double probe has been designed to measure the plasma density and electron temperature. An emissive probe was used to measure the time averaged plasma potential, while a capacitive probe was used to measure the RF component of the plasma potential. A retarding field energy analyser has been used to measure the total ion flux flowing to the vessel on the midplane. Experimental results show that (1) the inductively coupled plasma is well confined inside the induction coil in the pressure range of 5-50 mtorr and RF power range of 10-400 W; (2) the measured electrostatic RF field (<1.0 V/cm ) in the whole discharge chamber is negligible, compared with the large induction RF field, which is in the order of 10 V/cm; (3) the RF power is coupled into the discharge through the nonlinear electron motion and corresponding collision processes; (4) it has been shown that the induction-field-ionization, electrostatic-field-modulation and various collision processes together influence the velocity distribution function of ions at the boundary surfaces.

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published_or_final_version / Physics / Master / Master of Philosophy

Spectroscopic investigations have been carried out on an argon inductively coupled plasma operating at non-atmospheric pressure. The relationship between torch pressure and a number of plasma operating characteristics was explored for torch pressures between 100 and 3000 torr. The plasma operating characteristics examined include observed analyte emission intensities, electron densities, ion to atom ratios, and the deviation of plasma conditions from local thermodynamic equilibrium. The effect of pressure on the observed analyte emission intensities was found to include factors in addition to the change in density of species within the torch. Emission lines originating from ions and atoms with high ionization potentials (greater than 7 eV) increased in intensity with increasing torch pressure, in excess of that predicted by the increase in density of species present. Conversely, emission lines originating from atoms of low ionization potential decreased in intensity with increasing torch pressure despite the increase in density. The results of the spatial determination of electron densities and ion to atom ratios indicate that excitation conditions within the central channel of the plasma are shifted towards conditions of local thermodynamic equilibrium as the pressure within the torch is increased. In addition, it is possible to obtain improved limits of detection by optimizing the torch pressure for the analyte element of interest.

Frequency domain analysis tools have been developed to analyse simultaneous multi-point measurements of developed space plasma turbulence. The Coherence Length technique enables the scale length for plasma wave structures to be measured from magnetic field measurements. The coherence length defines a length scale for the measurement of wave phenomena. Single satellite measurements can be used, the technique becoming more reliable with higher numbers of satellites. The technique is used to identify coherence lengths for waves observed in the magnetic field near the bow shock by the dual AMPTE-UKSIAMPTE-IRM satellites, and for mirror wave structures observed in the magnetic field in the magnetosheath by the dual ISEE-lIISEE-2 satellites. The Transfer Function Estimation technique enables the transfer of energy between plasma waves to be measured, from simultaneous dual-point measurements, resulting in linear growth / damping rates and second-order wave coupling. The technique is improved by replacing the Least Squares method for inversion with Regularisation. The technique is applied to simultaneous magnetic field measurements near the bow shock by the AMPTE-UKSIAMPTE-IRM satellites, where a linear instability in the wave field is identified, which is attributed to an ion anisotropy instability, and accompanying sequence of second-order three-wave coupling processes is also identified, which dissipates the energy from the linear instability. The Wave vector Determination technique enables the identification of wave vectors from simultaneous four-point measurements. The availability of four-point measurements means that the reliance on Minimum Variance Analysis, and that of only being able to use magnetic field measurements, is removed, the wave vector can be determined unambiguously directly from the magnetic field measurements. The technique can identify between waves of different frequency, and waves at the same frequency but propagating in different directions. The technique is applied to simultaneous observations of the electric field by the four-point ii Cluster II satellites, enabling the determination of the wave vector and the identification of a mirror mode structure, solely from the electric field measurements. Chapter 1 introduces the solar-terrestrial environment, briefly describing exploration of this environment by man-made satellites and listing some aims of the analysis of data collected by the satellites. Chapter 2 elaborates on what is meant by data analysis; Spectral Transforms are introduced and described, with a comparison made between Fourier Transforms and Wavelet Transforms, before a review is made of current data analysis techniques for satellite data. Chapter 3 defines and focuses attention on the objectives of this thesis, which are addressed in the following three chapters. Chapter 4 investigates the coherence length of plasma waves through use of the Wavelet Transform and the Fourier Shift Theorem. Chapter 5 makes estimates of wave Transfer Functions, replacing an established Least Squares inversion technique with a Regularisation inversion. Chapter 6 uses a method to determine wave propagation directions, from multi-satellite data, that has not been applied before due to the lack of availability of suitable data sets. Chapter 7 summarises the preceding chapters. The Appendices contain reprints of papers resulting from, and relating to, this research.

Criteria for the confinement of plasmas consisting of a positive and negative component in Penning type traps with nested electric potential wells are presented. Computational techniques for the self-consistent calculation of potential and plasma density distributions are developed. Analyses are presented of the use of nested well Penning traps for several applications. The analyses include: calculations of timescales relevant to the applications, e.g. reaction, confinement and relaxation timescales, self-consistent computations, and consideration of other physical phenomenon important to the applications. Possible applications of a nested well penning trap include production of high charge state ions, studies of high charge state ions, and production of antihydrogen. In addition the properties of a modified Penning trap consisting of an electric potential well applied along a radial magnetic field are explored.

This work describes the oxidation of organic compounds in an argon/water continuous flow plasma reactor. Water insoluble materials such as alkanes and alkenes, in particular n-pentane to n-octane, 1-hexene, cyclohexane and cyclohexene have been functionalized with different functional groups: hydroxy-group, hydroperoxy-group, oxo-group and double bond. Fragmented alcohols, aldehydes and carboxylic acids have also been observed. A detailed set of radical reactions, for the attack of n-hexane and its derivatives by the hydroxyl radical, have been proposed and are supported by quantum mechanical calculations. Electron impact reactions are considered as complementary pathways. A comprehensive network of reaction pathways has been generated, which proofed to be sufficient to predict correctly the majority of the observed products for starting materials of other chain lengths or related alkenes. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2015. / November 12, 2015. / Hydrocarbon, Hydrogen peroxide, Hydroperoxide, Hydroxyl Radical, Oxidation, Plasma Reactor / Includes bibliographical references. / Igor V. Alabugin, Professor Directing Dissertation; Bruce R. Locke, University Representative; Gregory B. Dudley, Committee Member; Timothy Logan, Committee Member.

Feedback control has become a crucial tool in the research on magnetic confinement of plasmas for achieving controlled nuclear fusion. This thesis presents a novel plasma feedback control system that, for the first time, employs a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) for microsecond-latency, real-time control computations. This novel application area for GPU computing is opened up by a new system architecture that is optimized for low-latency computations on less than kilobyte sized data samples as they occur in typical plasma control algorithms. In contrast to traditional GPU computing approaches that target complex, high-throughput computations with massive amounts of data, the architecture presented in this thesis uses the GPU as the primary processing unit rather than as an auxiliary of the CPU, and data is transferred from A-D/D-A converters directly into GPU memory using peer-to-peer PCI Express transfers. The described design has been implemented in a new, GPU-based control system for the High-Beta Tokamak -- Extended Pulse (HBT-EP) device. The system is built from commodity hardware and uses an NVIDIA GeForce GPU and D-TACQ A-D/D-A converters providing a total of 96 input and 64 output channels. The system is able to run with sampling periods down to 4 μs and latencies down to 8 μs. The GPU provides a total processing power of 1.5 x 10^12 floating point operations per second. To illustrate the performance and versatility of both the general architecture and concrete implementation, a new control algorithm has been developed. The algorithm is designed for the control of multiple rotating magnetic perturbations in situations where the plasma equilibrium is not known exactly and features an adaptive system model: instead of requiring the rotation frequencies and growth rates embedded in the system model to be set a priori, the adaptive algorithm derives these parameters from the evolution of the perturbation amplitudes themselves. This results in non-linear control computations with high computational demands, but is handled easily by the GPU based system. Both digital processing latency and an arbitrary multi-pole response of amplifiers and control coils is fully taken into account for the generation of control signals. To separate sensor signals into perturbed and equilibrium components without knowledge of the equilibrium fields, a new separation method based on biorthogonal decomposition is introduced and used to derive a filter that performs the separation in real-time. The control algorithm has been implemented and tested on the new, GPU-based feedback control system of the HBT-EP tokamak. In this instance, the algorithm was set up to control four rotating n=1 perturbations at different poloidal angles. The perturbations were treated as coupled in frequency but independent in amplitude and phase, so that the system effectively controls a helical n=1 perturbation with unknown poloidal spectrum. Depending on the plasma's edge safety factor and rotation frequency, the control system is shown to be able to suppress the amplitude of the dominant 8 kHz mode by up to 60% or amplify the saturated amplitude by a factor of up to two. Intermediate feedback phases combine suppression and amplification with a speed up or slow down of the mode rotation frequency. Increasing feedback gain results in the excitation of an additional, slowly rotating 1.4 kHz mode without further effects on the 8 kHz mode. The feedback performance is found to exceed previous results obtained with an FPGA- and Kalman-filter based control system without requiring any tuning of system model parameters. Experimental results are compared with simulations based on a combination of the Boozer surface current model and the Fitzpatrick-Aydemir model. Within the subset of phenomena that can be represented by the model as well as determined experimentally, qualitative agreement is found.

Experimental studies of MHD modes, including dynamics and stability, using a biased electrode for rotation control on the High Beta Tokamak –- Extended Pulse (HBT-EP) are presented. When the probe is inserted into the edge of the plasma and a voltage applied, the rotation of long-wavelength kink instabilities is strongly modified. A large poloidal plasma flow results at the edge, measured with a bi-directional Mach probe with changes in edge kink mode rotation at different biases. This poloidal plasma rotation cannot fully account for the large mode rotation frequency on HBT-EP. By including the electron fluid motion, the mode rotation predictions agree with measurements, indicating that the modes travel with the electron fluid. A GPU-based digital feedback system is used to adjust the probe voltage in real time for controlling both the plasma flow and mode rotation. This active mode rotation control is desirable because it allows for MHD stabilization, as well as studies under conditions of varying mode rotation rates. Mode dynamics were studied using various diagnostics to understand how plasma conditions fluctuate during mode activity and to understand the interaction of the bias probe with the plasma during this activity. Phase-dependent mode behavior was observed, especially at slow mode rotation, which might be attributed to an intrinsic error field or a nonlinear interaction between the bias probe and the mode. Applied resonant magnetic perturbations were used to study the dynamic response of a stable plasma with different mode rotations. At slower rotation, the plasma had a greater response to the perturbations and the plasma reached a saturated response with large perturbations, similar to previous results. At large positive biases, the probe current induces a torque that opposes the natural direction of mode rotation. By applying a sufficiently large torque, a transition is induced into a fast rotation state (both mode and plasma rotation). High poloidal shear flows at the edge were measured in this state, similar to conditions in H-mode plasmas on other devices. The bias required to induce the transition is shown to depend on an applied error field. A technique was established using this transition to determine the natural error field on HBT-EP.