College Honors Program

Experimental Realization of the Pulse Sequencing Method for Measuring Charge Transfer Collision Cross Sections

Date of Creation

5-17-2024

Document Type

Campus Access Only

Department

Physics

First Advisor

Paul Oxley

Abstract

Quantifying the probability of charge transfer collisions between hydrogen ions and lithium atoms is relevant to ongoing nuclear fusion research involving tokamaks. This probability is encased in the collision cross-section. Progress towards a new experimental method to measure the cross-section for collisions between protons and lithium atoms at energies as low as 10 eV is described in this thesis.

The new method is termed the “Pulse Sequencing Method” because it entails generating and applying seven precisely coordinated voltage pulses to specific experimental equipment. With this method the proton beam is rapidly pulsed on and off exactly out of phase with an electric field that is used to sweep lithium-ion collision products to a CEM detector. The number of detected lithium ions, along with other measured quantities, can be used to infer the collision cross-section. Here I describe experiments to generate, characterize, and optimize the voltage pulses; experiments to test the performance of both the CEM detector and the oven used to generate the lithium atomic beam; and laser absorption experiments to measure the lithium beam density. These experiments finalize the preparations for measuring charge transfer collision cross-sections at previously unexplored energies.

Comments

Reader: Timothy Roach

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS