Design and Construction of Multipole Plasma Trap Electrode Set

This research project seeks to design, construct, and test a Multipole Plasma Trap (MPT) electrode set for the purpose of conducting basic plasma science and engineering investigations. A MPT uses radiofrequency (RF) electric multipole fields to confine the charged particles of a plasma in a 3D volume [1]. To operate the device, RF voltage is applied to a set of electrodes that bound a spherical, cylindrical, or toroidal volume. Given a specific electrode geometry, the oscillating electric field would become stronger with increasing distance from the center of the trap, creating an effective potential well that traps charged particles. The stable, trapped particle trajectories depend on compatibility between the charge-to-mass ratio of the particles, RF frequency, RF voltage, trap size, and electrode geometry. To trap a single species of particle (“non-neutral plasma”), a balance must be established between the confining effective potential well of the trap and the repulsive space charge of particles. To trap “normal” (or “quasi-neutral”) plasma, bulk space charge is essentially zero, and the trapping would depend on the ability to confine species of possibly disparate charge-to-mass ratios.

Link to Final Poster