Experimental Study on Plasma Emission (X-ray, ion beam) from a mini-PF (100 J) Plasma Focus Device

A lot of efforts have been made for many years to study plasma production, plasma compression, and plasma emission for real-life applications. In this regard, the dense plasma focus (DPF) was discovered independently by Mather (USA) [1] and Filippov (USSR) [2] in the early 1960s. This device produces super-dense (~10^16-10^19 cm^-3), super-hot (~1 keV) plasma by self-generated electromagnetic compression [3]. It is a non-radioactive powerful source of ion beam (~0.01-100 MeV), electron beam (~0.01-1 MeV), pulsed fusion neutron (~2.45-14 MeV), soft (0.1-10 keV), and hard (~10-1000 keV) X-rays [4]. The emitted high-energy ion and electron beam from pinch plasma in a DPF have been used in different fields such as Nanomaterial and device fabrication, thin film deposition, surface modification, thermal surface treatment, ion-assisted coating, ion implication, and production of short-lived radioisotopes including plasma processing [5-6]. There is ongoing research that demonstrates potential applications of this device as an intense source of soft X-ray for the next generation of microelectronics lithography, surface micromachining, and a pulsed X-ray source for medical and security inspection applications and materials modification [7]. These distinctive features of the DPF set it apart from other devices as a prime candidate for technological, industrial, and field applications.

References:

[1]  J. W. Mather, Phys. Fluids, 8(2), 377 (1965).

[2]  N. Filippov, et al., Nucl. Fusion Suppl. 2 577(1962).

[3]  S. Lee, et al., Plasma Phys. Contr. F. 51(7) 075006 (2009).

[4]  M. Habibi et al., J. Fusion Energy 29(1)54 (2010).

[5]  S. H. Saw, et al., Int. J. Mod. Phys. Con. Ser. 32 1460322 (2014).

[6]  M. Hassan, et al., Appl. Phys. A. 90(4)677 (2008).

[7]  R. Niranjan, et al., Appl. Surf. Sci. 355998 (2015).

• Research Project