Thomas Schmidt from the University of New Mexico spends Summer 2019 at LPS

Taking measurements of radiation spanning the millimeter-wave range up to the near infrared range. Making measurements of turbulent density fluctuations with a proposed Thomson scattering diagnostic which operates in the Bragg scattering limit.

This summer so far: 

  • Developed a 94 GHz microwave radiometer along with three infrared (IR) radiometers at 1100, 1310, and 1550 nm.
    • Implemented these instruments on COBRA, with measurements taken for various plasma conditions (gas puff, single wire, gas puff + wire, varying gases)

What is planned for the rest of the summer: 

  • Understand the current set of measurements of COBRA plasmas.
    • Determine whether a black body spectrum is apparent in the IR measurements. If so, temperatures can be derived.
    • Further analyze the microwave measurements to derive the absolute intensity of the emissions – this will help (along with IR measurements) to determine the total energy expended into radiation the imploding plasma.
  • Continue developing a collective Thomson scattering system, allowing for insight into how energy is expended into turbulence in an imploding gas puff plasma.