Study of Luminous Emission from a Coaxial Plasma Discharge Device in the Presence of External Transverse Magnetic Field

Tarek M. Allam, Hanaa A. El-Sayed, Hanaa M. Soliman
DOI: 10.4236/epe.2011.34055                

Abstract

The experimental investigations in this paper are focused on the study of luminous radiation emission from coaxial plasma discharge device and the effect of applied transverse magnetic field B_tr on it. The experiment was done in (1.5 KJ - 10 KV) coaxial plasma discharge device. The discharge is operated in Nitrogen gas at pressures from 1 to 2.2 torr. Helmholtz magnetic coils are placed outside the coaxial electrodes with its axis at a distance = 3 cm from the coaxial electrodes muzzle, then B_tr with a maximum induction ≈ 0.85 T is applied perpendicularly to the expanded plasma from the coaxial electrodes muzzle. The diagnostics used in the measurements include a Rogowsky coil and a photomultiplier tube equipped with light collimator. The experimental results showed that the maximum intensity of luminous radiation is detected at axial distance (side view) z = 8 cm and gas pressure, P = 2.2 torr. It also showed that the maximum value of axial luminous plasma zone velocity = 2.383 × 10⁶ cm/s at z = 11 cm and P = 1.4 torr. In mode of presence of external B_tr, the investigations have shown that, at P = 1.4 torr the maximum intensity of luminous radiation (detected at end-view position) is reduced by 17%, the full width at half maximum, FWHM of luminous radiation signal is increased by 40 times, while the luminous radiation signal is delayed by ta = 438 µs. In two modes of operation t_a and FWHM have approximately a minimum values at P = 1.4 torr.

Keywords

Coaxial Discharge, Luminous Radiation, Transverse Magnetic Field, Energy Losses

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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