Vacuum-arc plasma centrifuge experiment

Author

Bosco, Edson Del ; Dallaqua, Renato Sergio ; Bittencourt, José Augusto ; Ludwig, Gerson Otto

Author_Institution

Lab. Associado de Plasma, Inst. de Pesquisas Espaciais, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Volume

17

Issue

5

fYear

1989

fDate

10/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

701

Lastpage

704

Abstract

The authors describe the vacuum-arc plasma centrifuge developed at the Institute for Space Research (INPE) in Brazil. The experiment is characterized by its relatively small dimensions. Angular rotation frequencies in the range of 1.9×10⁵ rad/s to 3.5×10⁵ rad/s, measured with langmuir probes, are presented for a magnesium plasma. Enrichments of 15% for ²⁵Mg and 26% for ²⁶Mg were measured with a quadrupole mass spectrometer. The dependence of magnesium isotope enrichments upon the magnetic field is also presented. It is noted that the existence of an optimum value for the B field is important for future scaling laws of plasma centrifuges

Keywords

Langmuir probes; arcs (electric); centrifuges; isotope effects; plasma devices; ²⁵Mg; ²⁶Mg; B field; Brazil; Institute for Space Research; Mg plasma; angular rotation frequencies; isotope enrichments; langmuir probes; magnetic field; quadrupole mass spectrometer; scaling laws; vacuum-arc plasma centrifuge; Anodes; Cathodes; Chemical elements; Isotopes; Magnetic field measurement; Magnetic fields; Mass spectroscopy; Plasma materials processing; Plasma measurements; Plasma sources;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.41185

Filename

41185