https://phys.org/physics-news/plasma en-us The latest news on physics of plasma In the Japanese art of Kintsugi, an artist takes the broken shards of a bowl and fuses them back together with gold to make a final product more beautiful than the original. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-fusion-reaction-weaknesses-strengths.html Condensed Matter Plasma Physics Tue, 05 Mar 2024 10:28:49 EST news628856926 In the predawn hours of Sept. 5, 2021, engineers achieved a major milestone in the labs of MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), when a new type of magnet, made from high-temperature superconducting material, achieved a world-record magnetic field strength of 20 tesla for a large-scale magnet. That's the intensity needed to build a fusion power plant that is expected to produce a net output of power and potentially usher in an era of virtually limitless power production. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-high-temperature-superconducting-magnets-ready.html Superconductivity Plasma Physics Mon, 04 Mar 2024 11:52:12 EST news628775519 Most people know about solids, liquids, and gases as the main three states of matter, but a fourth state of matter exists as well. Plasma—also known as ionized gas—is the most abundant, observable form of matter in our universe, found in the sun and other celestial bodies. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-plasma-oscillations-propel-breakthroughs-fusion.html Plasma Physics Mon, 04 Mar 2024 08:48:32 EST news628764503 An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Antwerp (Belgium) successfully conducted in-situ studies with a plasma generated inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM). This marks the first time live SEM imaging while treating the sample with a plasma was achieved. The study is published in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-real-microscopic-imaging-plasma-treatment.html Plasma Physics Wed, 28 Feb 2024 07:17:03 EST news628327022 Most of the energy from the sun and other stars comes from a chain of nuclear fusion reactions. The end of this chain is marked by the fusion of protons with beryllium-7 to form boron-8. This process is key in determining the flow of high-energy solar neutrinos that reach the Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-theory-based-clearer-picture-fusion.html General Physics Plasma Physics Mon, 26 Feb 2024 15:24:13 EST news628183444 Fusion is a natural phenomenon that provides our planet with much of its energy—generated millions of miles away in the center of our sun. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-scientists-inertial-fusion-energy.html Plasma Physics Sat, 24 Feb 2024 19:50:01 EST news627821166 With its tangle of pipes and pumps leading to a metal pot the size of a five-storey building, Japan's JT-60SA machine looks to the untrained eye like a contraption from 1970s sci-fi. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-doughnut-japan-power-sun.html Plasma Physics Thu, 22 Feb 2024 06:17:33 EST news627805045 In the blink of an eye, the unruly, superheated plasma that drives a fusion reaction can lose its stability and escape the strong magnetic fields confining it within the donut-shaped fusion reactor. These getaways frequently spell the end of the reaction, posing a core challenge to developing fusion as a non-polluting, virtually limitless energy source. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-ai-wrangle-fusion-power-grid.html Plasma Physics Wed, 21 Feb 2024 11:00:01 EST news627724442 Fashioned from the same element found in sand and covered by intricate patterns, microchips power smartphones, augment appliances and aid the operation of cars and airplanes. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-plasma-scientists-microchips.html Plasma Physics Wed, 21 Feb 2024 05:24:06 EST news627715434 The Joint European Torus (JET), one of the world's largest and most powerful fusion machines, has demonstrated the ability to reliably generate fusion energy, while simultaneously setting a world record in energy output. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-fusion-facility-tritium-yield-energy.html Plasma Physics Thu, 08 Feb 2024 11:05:33 EST news626612727 Five independent teams of researchers have reviewed the work and claims made by a group at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) who announced in December 2022 that they had achieved the first laser-powered fusion reaction that exceeded "scientific breakeven"—in which more energy was produced by a manmade fusion reaction than consumed by the reaction. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-nif-fusion-breakeven-peer-multiple.html Plasma Physics Tue, 06 Feb 2024 10:49:35 EST news626438966 Artificially intelligent software has been developed to enhance medical treatments that use jets of electrified gas known as plasma. The computer code predicts the chemicals emitted by plasma devices, which can be used to treat cancer, promote healthy tissue growth and sterilize surfaces. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-artificially-intelligent-software-jets-plasma.html Plasma Physics Tue, 06 Feb 2024 09:05:05 EST news626432701 Scientists from the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) led experiments to demonstrate an effective "spark plug" for direct-drive methods of inertial confinement fusion (ICF). In two studies published in Nature Physics, the authors discuss their results and outline how they can be applied at bigger scales with the hopes of eventually producing fusion at a future facility. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-scientists-effective-inertial-confinement-fusion.html Plasma Physics Mon, 05 Feb 2024 15:40:04 EST news626370002 Fusion energy is being developed as a solution to global energy problems. In particular, the magnetic confinement method, in which ultra-high temperature plasma is confined by a magnetic field, is the most advanced and is considered to be the most promising method for fusion reactors. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-fusion-plasma-digital-twin.html Plasma Physics Fri, 26 Jan 2024 09:33:39 EST news625484016 Plasma is an ionized gas—that is, a gas containing electrons, ions, atoms, molecules, radicals, and photons. It is often called the fourth state of matter, and surprisingly, it permeates everything. Plasmas, which are artificially generated by transmitting energy to a gas, are found in the fluorescent tubes that light kitchens, but they have also allowed mobile phones to become smaller and smaller. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-decontamination-plasma-jet.html Plasma Physics Wed, 24 Jan 2024 16:31:01 EST news625336258 Emerging research suggests it may be easier to use fusion as a power source if liquid lithium is applied to the internal walls of the device housing the fusion plasma. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-liquid-lithium-walls-fusion-device.html Plasma Physics Tue, 23 Jan 2024 13:07:58 EST news625237675 In a burning plasma, maintaining confinement of fusion-produced energetic ions is essential to producing energy. These fusion plasmas host a wide array of electromagnetic waves that can push energetic ions out of the plasma. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-visualize-energetic-ion-fusion-devices.html Plasma Physics Tue, 16 Jan 2024 17:02:03 EST news624646921 Laser-based absorption spectroscopy is an important method for determining the concentration of gas components in a sample. Modern devices are highly specialized for detecting very specific gases, such as trace gases in the atmosphere, in combustion exhaust fumes and in technical applications of plasmas. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-optical-analysis-gases-optimized.html Optics & Photonics Plasma Physics Tue, 09 Jan 2024 11:58:03 EST news624023881 A team led by Prof. Lyu Bo and Dr. Bae Cheonho from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new code to analyze the multi-fluid plasma rotation and transport properties in tokamak plasmas, including the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). https://phys.org/news/2024-01-code-tokamak-plasma-rotation-analysis.html Plasma Physics Thu, 04 Jan 2024 12:46:02 EST news623594761 The Korean artificial sun, KSTAR, has completed divertor upgrades, allowing it to operate for extended periods sustaining high-temperature plasma over 100 million degrees. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-korean-artificial-sun-kstar-divertor.html Plasma Physics Fri, 29 Dec 2023 09:34:50 EST news623064888 University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers have used a spray coating technology to produce a new workhorse material that can withstand the harsh conditions inside a fusion reactor. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-newly-material-gulps-hydrogen-fusion.html General Physics Plasma Physics Thu, 14 Dec 2023 16:20:33 EST news621793230 For about 20 years, Caltech Professor of Applied Physics Paul Bellan and his group have been creating magnetically accelerated jets of plasma, an electrically conducting gas composed of ions and electrons, in a vacuum chamber big enough to hold a person. (Neon signs and lightning are everyday examples of plasma). https://phys.org/news/2023-12-physicist-x-rays-shouldnt-cold-plasma.html Plasma Physics Tue, 05 Dec 2023 12:38:25 EST news621002302 Just like there are waves in the ocean, waves can also occur in an electrically charged gas called a plasma, made up of electrons and ions. In the ocean, people surf by riding their boards at nearly the same speed as the waves. This matching condition, called resonance, allows the wave to efficiently push the surfer by exchanging energy. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-collisions-fast-ions-surf-plasma.html Plasma Physics Mon, 04 Dec 2023 17:27:03 EST news620933221 Twenty-five feet below ground, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory scientist Spencer Gessner opens a large metal picnic basket. This is not your typical picnic basket filled with cheese, bread and fruit—it contains screws, bolts, steel tubing, and many other parts and pieces that carry particles to nearly the speed of light. The components are arranged precisely to do an important job: help feed bunches of fast-moving electrons into the stuff that the sun is made of: plasma. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-particle-cold-plasma-large-picnic.html General Physics Plasma Physics Fri, 01 Dec 2023 15:28:02 EST news620666873 Interactions between intense laser pulses and plasma mirrors have been the focus of several recent physics studies due to the interesting effects they produce. Experiments have revealed that these interactions can generate a non-linear physical process known as high-order harmonics, characterized by the emission of extreme ultraviolet radiation (XUV) and brief flashes of laser light (i.e., attosecond pulses). https://phys.org/news/2023-11-anomalous-relativistic-emission-intense-interaction.html Optics & Photonics Plasma Physics Fri, 01 Dec 2023 07:00:01 EST news620560616 The world's biggest experimental nuclear fusion reactor in operation was inaugurated in Japan on Friday, a technology in its infancy but billed by some as the answer to humanity's future energy needs. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-japanese-experimental-nuclear-fusion-reactor.html General Physics Plasma Physics Fri, 01 Dec 2023 02:41:20 EST news620620871 A new study suggests that universities have an essential role to fulfill in the continued growth and success of any modern high-tech industry, and especially the nascent fusion industry; however, the importance of that role is not reflected in the number of fusion-oriented faculty and educational channels currently available. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-universities-critical-emerging-fusion-industry.html Plasma Physics Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:22:04 EST news620569321 Particle accelerators hold great potential for semiconductor applications, medical imaging and therapy, and research in materials, energy and medicine. But conventional accelerators require plenty of elbow room—kilometers—making them expensive and limiting their presence to a handful of national labs and universities. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-compact-technology-major-energy-milestone.html Optics & Photonics Plasma Physics Tue, 28 Nov 2023 09:36:43 EST news620386600 The LHC is back delivering collisions to the experiments after the successful leak repair in August. But instead of protons, it is now the turn of lead ion beams to collide, marking the first heavy-ion run in five years. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-lhc-lead-ion-collision.html General Physics Plasma Physics Thu, 28 Sep 2023 16:03:57 EDT news615135833 Researchers led by Chang Liu of PPPL have unveiled a promising approach to mitigating damaging runaway electrons created by disruptions in tokamak fusion devices. Key to the approach was harnessing a unique type of plasma wave that bears the name of astrophysicist Hannes Alfvén, a 1970 Nobel laureate. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-breakthrough-discovery-fusion-energy-earth.html Plasma Physics Thu, 28 Sep 2023 11:08:04 EDT news615118082