International Conference on Plasma Sciences

Yitzhak Maron

Yitzhak Maron received his Ph.D. in Physics from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1977, served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Weizmann. In the years 1980-1984, he became a Research Associate at the Laboratory of Plasma Studies at Cornell University. Later then he became a Professor in the Faculty of Physics in the Weizmann Institute of Science and has been heading the Plasma Laboratory in the Weizmann Institute of Science. His Laboratory focuses on studying the processes in plasmas, subjected to high-energy deposition. They examine the interaction of nonequilibrium plasmas with strong electric and magnetic fields, the propagation of ionization fronts, the production of shock waves, conversion of energy in pulsed-power systems, generation of fast particle beams, generation of magnetic shocks, development of collective fluctuating fields, and plasma-surface interactions. The research in his laboratory is relevant to the understanding of high-energy-density plasmas in various systems and of astrophysical data. Among the accomplishments in his studies are pioneering determination of the electric-field distribution and ion velocities in high power ion diodes; determination of the magnetic field distribution in particle diodes, Plasma Opening Switches, Z-pinch, and laser-produced plasmas; investigations of electric and magnetic fields in turbulent plasmas; demonstration of the Hall effect in magnetic field penetration; observation of simultaneous field penetration and particle reflection, studying the implosion dynamics of a Z-pinch plasma; and determining the energy balance in the stagnating plasma. His laboratory conducts broad international collaborations and hosts worldwide students and researchers. He is an APS Fellow (1995), an IEEE Fellow (2003), Fellow of the IEEE Society, USA (2005), Editorial Board of Laser and Particle Beams (2005), the recipient of the IEEE PSAC Award (2007) and the American Physical Society John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research (2009).

Spectroscopic Investigations of The Ion Temperature, Turbulence, And Current Flow in Pulsed Power Systems

We review recent advances in the determination of fundamental properties of plasmas and fields in pulsed-power systems, in particular in High-Energy-Density (HED) plasmas. Presented will be measurements that brought up that at plasma stagnations a large fraction of the plasma kinetic energy can be stored in hydrodynamic motion rather than in thermal motion, while only the ion thermal motion is responsible for the fusion rates and the electron heating. In addition, a novel method recently developed for the determination of the ion temperature, and thus for discriminating it from the hydromotion will be presented, together with the determination of the hydromotion dissipation time. This is unlike Doppler broadening or neutron Time-of-Flight methods in fusion plasmas that yield the ion total kinetic energy. The measurement implications on investigating the plasma turbulence at stagnation will be presented. A key parameter in the determination of the plasma flow and development of instabilities in pulsed-power systems is the current flow in the systems. Generally, in HED plasmas, the Zeeman splitting is obscured by the Stark and Doppler effects. Reviewed will be measurements of the magnetic fields that overcome this problem in ion diodes, plasma opening switches, electron diodes, Z-pinches, and magnetized plasma compression. Discussed will be unanticipated magnetic-field profiles, such as the relatively unimportant role of the magnetic field pressure in the pressure balance in stagnating Z-pinch plasmas, together with observations of unexpected time-dependent behavior of the current distribution. Effects of the current distribution observed on the plasma flows and plasma rotation will be demonstrated, for both the magnetized and unmagnetized plasma compression. Such observations have significant implications on the established concepts of implosion dynamics and provide challenges for model and code validation. Discussed will be possibilities to employ the spectroscopic methods developed in large plasma implosion experiments utilizing intense current pulses or intense radiation.