Numerical and experimental study of Outcomes from Plasma Focus Device by Current Trace Fitting Using Lee Code

A lot of efforts have been made for many years to study of the plasma production, plasma compression, and plasma emission for real life applications. In this regard, the plasma focus (PF) was discovered independently by Mather (USA) [1] and Filippov (USSR) [2] in the early 1960s. This device produce super-dense (~10¹⁶-10¹⁹ cm^-3), super-hot (~1 keV) plasma for very short-time (~100s ns) by self-generated electromagnetic compression [3]. During this compression, fusion neutron (~2.45-14 MeV), soft X-rays (~0.1-10 keV) and hard X-rays (~10-1000 keV), ion beam (~0.01-100 MeV), and electron beam (~0.01-1 MeV), and E-M waves (~GHz) [4]. The device is the simplest in construction, cost-effective, and easy maintenance.

 As a neutron source it is used in medical, security inspection applications and materials modification with fabrication [5]. There is ongoing research that demonstrates potential applications of this device as an intense source of soft X-ray for microelectronics lithography, surface micromachining and as pulsed X-ray source for medical and security inspection applications and materials modification [6]. The emitted high-energy ion and electron beam from PF have been used in different fields such as Nano material 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 [7-9].

The Lee code is one of the famous tools for numerical studies and experiments of a plasma focus for computing of all outcomes just fitting the computed current trace to the measured current trace [10]. This model couples the electrical circuit with the plasma dynamics, thermodynamics, and radiation physics [11].These distinctive features of the PF sets 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]  R. S. Rawat, et al., J.  App. Phys. 95(12), 7730 (2004).

[6]  M. A. Malek, et al., Mod. Phys. Lett. B, 33(7)1950077 (2019).

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

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

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

[10] S. Lee, Radiative Dense Plasma Focus Computation Package: RADPF www.plasmafocus.net (2022).

[11] M. Rafique, et al., J. Fusion Energy 29 304 (2010).

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