Create Your First Project
Start adding your projects to your portfolio. Click on "Manage Projects" to get started
Plasma Response
Department of Energy, ARPA-E
Post-doctoral Researcher
Oregon State University, UCLA, Plasma Energy and Space Propulsion Laboratory
This project investigates how volumetrically complex materials (VCMs) fundamentally alter the plasma sheath, presheath, and global plasma response. When a positively biased electrode is replaced with a porous, plasma-infused material, the effective electron-collecting area increases dramatically, modifying the plasma potential, electron temperature, and electron confinement.
The images illustrate three key phenomena observed in the experiment:
a. Plasma infusion—electron-rich regions penetrating deep into the pore network.
b. Fireball / double-sheath formation—a bright, high-temperature region that forms when secondary-electron–driven electron sheaths collapse and reform locally.
c. Presheath modification—measured changes in 𝑇𝑒, 𝑉𝑝, and 𝑛𝑒 upstream of the electrode, consistent with the APS-DPP results.
As the sheath interacts with the 3-D material ligaments, the plasma reorganizes globally: 𝑇𝑒 increases by ~2 eV relative to the flat plate, the plasma potential rises, and the enhanced electron-collection area drives a transition toward a fireball-supported electron sheath. These measurements confirm that VCMs can act as global actuators, shaping plasma behavior through geometry alone.
Plasma diagnostics: Langmuir probes, Emissive probes, Impedance probes, optical emission spectroscopy (OES), Helmholtz Coil, imaging.
Software: MATLAB, LabVIEW.
