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The need for long-term energy sources, in particular for our highly technological society, has become increasingly apparent during the last decade. One of these sources, of tremendous poten tial importance, is controlled thermonuclear fusion. The goal of controlled thermonuclear fusion research is to produce a high-temperature, completely ionized plasma in which the nuclei of two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, undergo enough fusion reactions so that the nuclear energy released by these fusion reactions can be transformed into heat and electricity with an overall gain in energy. This requires average kinetic energies for the nuclei of the order of 10 keV, corresponding to temperatu...
The physics of highly charged ions has become an essential ingredient of many modern research fields, such as x-ray astronomy and astrophysics, con trolled thermonuclear fusion, heavy ion nuclear physics, charged particle ac celerator physics, beam-foil spectroscopy, creation of xuv and x-ray lasers, etc. A broad spectrum of phenomena in high-temperature laboratory and astrophysical plasmas, as well as many aspects of their global physical state and behaviour, are directly influenced, and often fully determined, by the structure and collision properties of multiply charged ions. The growth of in terest in the physics of highly charged ions, experienced especially in the last ten to fifteen y...
This well-illustrated resource provides vital cross-section information for the atomic and molecular collision processes taking place in the boundary region of magnetically confined fusion plasmas and in other laboratory and astrophysical low-temperature plasmas. The expertly assessed information in this noteworthy volume includes the most recent experimental and theoretical results presented in a convenient format. Coverage includes the processes of electron-impact excitation and ionization of plasma edge atoms, electron-ion recombination, dissociative collision processes involving electrons and much more.
It is arguable that most of chemistry and a large portion of atomic physics is concemed with the behaviour of the 92 naturally occurring elements in each of 3 charge states (+1, 0, -1); 276 distinct species. The world of multiply and highly charged ions provides a further 4186 species for us to study. Over 15 times as many! It is the nature of human beings to explore the unknown. This nature is par ticularly strong in physicists although this may not be readily apparent because theses explorations are undertaken in somewhat abstract 'spaces'. It is, then, no surprise that we have begun to explore the realm of multiply and highly charged ions. Over the past few decades, a consistent1y high qu...
The last decade has seen dramatic progress in the development of devices for producing mu1ticharged ions. Indeed it is now pos sible to produce any charge state of any ion right up through 92 fully-stripped uranium (U +). Equally dramatic progress has been achieved in the energy range of the available ions. As an example, fully-stripped neon ions have been produced in useable quantities with kinetic energies ranging from a few ev to more than 20 Gev. Interest in the atomic physics of multicharged ions has grown apace. In the fusion program, the spectra of these ions is an im portant diagnostic tool. Moreover the presence of mu1ticharged ions presents a serious energy loss mechanism in fusion devices. This fact has motivated a program to study the collision mech anisms involved. In another area, mu1ticharged ions are present in the solar corona and the interstellar medium and knowledge of their collision properties and spectra is essential to understand ing the astrophysics. Other possible applications are to x-ray lasers and heavy ion inertial fusion. On a more fundamental level, new possibilities for testing quantum electrodynamics with mu1ti charged ions have emerged.
Although based on lectures given for graduate students and postgraduates starting in plasma physics, this concise introduction to the fundamental processes and tools is as well directed at established researchers who are newcomers to spectroscopy and seek quick access to the diagnostics of plasmas ranging from low- to high-density technical systems at low temperatures, as well as from low- to high-density hot plasmas. Basic ideas and fundamental concepts are introduced as well as typical instrumentation from the X-ray to the infrared spectral regions. Examples, techniques and methods illustrate the possibilities. This book directly addresses the experimentalist who actually has to carry out the experiments and their interpretation. For that reason about half of the book is devoted to experimental problems, the instrumentation, components, detectors and calibration.