THz backward wave oscillator for plasma diagnostic in nuclear fusion
Funded by UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
KEY FACTS
Principal Investigator
- Prof. Claudio Paoloni
Co Investigators
- Dr. Farid Aiouache
- Dr. Rosa Letizia
- Dr. Andrew Marshall
(Physics Department)
Research Associate
- Dr. Seyed Ali Malek Abadi
Principal Investigator at University of Leeds
- Dr. Paul Steenson
International Partners
- Prof. Neville C. Luhmann
University of California Davis, US -
Prof. Jinjun Feng
Beijing Vacuum Electronic Research Institute, China
PhD student
- Rob Waring
Funder
- EPSRC
EP/L026597/1
Total funding
- £450k
Starting date
- 1st November 2014
Duration
- 2 years
Terahertz technology and nuclear fusion are two fascinating scientific fields of strategic importance for the scientific progress and a sustainable future. The technological challenges are formidable and require a joint effort at global level.
The Lancaster University leads an ambitious project in collaboration with the University of Leeds and two international partners of the calibre of University of California Davis, US, and Beijing Vacuum Electronics Research Institute, China, to solve the lack of compact, affordable and powerful THz sources required to foster a breakthrough in the understanding of the mechanisms of nuclear fusion and to open new frontiers in many outstanding applications at THz frequency, presently limited only at laboratory level.
Nuclear fusion is unanimously
considered as a limitless and clean source of energy of the future. The
UK strongly supports national fusion programs as MAST at the Culham
Center for Fusion Energy (CCFE) and the ITER project for the first
commercial fusion reactor.
Cancer early diagnosis or burn diagnosis, imaging for non destructive
quality inspection, food quality analysis, detection of dangerous or
illegal substances, high sensitivity receiver for space explorations
(about 97% of the space radiation is at THz frequency), wireless
communications with the same data rate as multigigabit optical fibres,
art conservation and many others are only some of the numerous
outstanding applications of THz radiation. Further, the very low energy
level (1/100000 in comparison to X-rays) of the THz radiation will not
raise the same health concerns as X-rays, making its use acceptable to
the general public.
The nuclear fusion process requires extremely high temperatures (more
than 100 million°C) for the fuel, a hot plasma, that has to be
confined by a proper magnetic field. Unfortunately, due to perturbation
causes, the plasma suffers from undesired turbulence that, if too
intense, can lead up to the blocking of the fusion reaction.
Measurement of plasma turbulence based on THz frequencies is of
fundamental importance to define methodologies to strongly reduce the
phenomenon.
A team at University of
California Davis (UC Davis) led by Prof. Neville Luhmann is realising a
novel advanced plasma turbulence diagnostic system based on high-k
collective Thomson scattering at THz frequencies to be tested at the
National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) at Princeton Plasma Physics
Laboratory (PPPL) and of interest to the MAST experiment in UK. The new
system will require compact, affordable and powerful (above 100 mW) THz
sources. The conventional electronic and photonic approaches fail to
provide devices with adequate power and such sources, where available,
are very narrow band, weak and expensive.
The recent advances in microfabrication processes have opened new
routes in realising micro vacuum electron devices to generate high
power at THz frequencies. However, the technological challenges of
affordable THz vacuum sources remain formidable.
Lancaster University will lead
this project for the realisation of the first compact, powerful,
affordable 0.346 THz backward wave oscillator vacuum tube, supported by
the outstanding technological facilities at Leeds University, UC Davies
and BVERI, and will establish a new low cost fabrication process for
fast prototyping assisted design and fabrication of metal
microstructures for THz vacuum electron devices in the UK.
This project represents a unique opportunity for UK academia to have a
central role in the advancement of the knowledge in two fundamental
scientific fields such as THz vacuum electronics and nuclear fusion.
This research is the first step of a long-term joint strategy to develop a new family of compact, low cost THz sources to open new perspective in the THz science in the UK.