Article: Diagnosing the state of an unruly plasma.

Diagnosing the state of an unruly plasma

The narrow, high-voltage gap between the positive and negative electrodes in a pulsed-power diode is a hostile environment. Intense electric and magnetic fields, restricted to a small volume, tear matter apart to produce an extremely hot, unruly plasma of ions and electrons. Such extreme conditions make it difficult to monitor what's happening inside the diode--the kind of fundamental information needed for learning how to generate ion beams with the right characteristics to initiate and drive thermonuclear fusion in tiny fuel pellets.

Now researchers are starting to catch glimpses of the hitherto largely unseen ...

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