1. Micro-Architectured Materials for Electric Propulsion and Pulsed Power
Nasr M. Ghoniem, P.I. (UCLA)
Yevgeny Raitses (PPPL), Robert Shaefer (Sharafat) (UCLA) Co-P.I.s
Investigators
Dan Goebel (UCLA/JPL), Igor D. Kaganovich (PPPL) Brian Williams (Ultramet)
Collaborators
Alp Sehirlioglu (Case Western)
Richard Wirz (UCLA)
AFOSR Program on Materials and Processes Far From Equilibrium

2. Heat Flux & Energy Density Limits on Materials in EP & PP Applications -Performance metrics are found: Heat Flux and Energy Fluence.

3. New architectured materials have been developed
Textured armor: Ultramet developed new material architectures that are more resilient in ion and plasma environments. These include refractory metal surfaces with micro-rods, micro-spears, and nodular structures.

4. A new High Energy Flux Atmospheric Plasma Facility (HEFTY) has been developed
HEFTY is a high heat flux testing facility dedicated to studying materials in extreme thermal loading environments
Capacity to test materials in up 300MW/m^2 heat flux through the use of a plasma gun (Praxair SG-100)
Temperature gradients are generated across sample thickness so an investigation into a combined damage event consisting of heat flux and temperature gradients is possible
Gradient is achieved through impingement cooling on back side of the samples
Thermal fatigue experiments can be performed through pulsed operation of the system allowing for evaluation of materials in a more realistic operating environment
Rear view of sample
CAD model of testing chamber
Sample holder assembly
Heat source, SG-100 plasma gun

5. UCLA Pi – Plasma Surface Interaction Facility is developed for plasma-material interaction studies
Capabilities: Controlled studies of the erosion and redepostion of materials during high flux and fluence plasma exposure
Parameter
Range
Plasma density
≤1x1019 m-3
Electron temperature
3 to 20 eV
Ion energy
10 to 300 eV
Ion flux to target
1021 to 1023 m-2s-1
Target area
≈5 cm2
Plasma Source
Magnetic Confinement Rings
Sample manipulation and cooling
Material Sample

6. Alp Sehirlioglu (Case Western Reserve University)
Microstructural investigation of engineered surfaces
Alp Sehirlioglu (Case Western Reserve University)
– Discovered amorphous Tungsten!!
Two main types of structures (i) Dendrites (ii) Nodules
Sputtering created a ~10 nm amorphous region on the surface of the caps of dendrites
Before Sputtering
Platinum
Crystalline W
- Pt was coated during sample prep.
- Area under Pt is “real” surface, not exposed surface during sample prep.
- Dendrites contained a stem and a cap.
- Stems were faceted before and after sputtering.
- Caps eroded the most during sputtering.
After Sputtering
Before Sputtering After Sputtering
Crystalline W
Amorphous W
Platinum

7. Modeling Plasma and Ion Effects on Materials
– Developed phase field theory of thermomechanical damage
-- Developed Ab Initio & MD models for surface diffusion in W
The objective is develop a multiphysics computational model capable of simulating the damage in W surface and crack propagation, under severe transient heating conditions.
The method is based on the phase-field method, in which an energy functional for the system can be defined as:
r(r) of surface crowdion indicates the high mobility and strong anistropy of its movement.
Snapshots of the bombardment of a Xe atom (KE = 100 eV) on W(001) surface at T = 200 K.

8. Upgraded Setup for Measurements of Secondary Electron Emission (SEE) from Micro-Engineered Materials
Cryogenic system to maintain better vacuum
(<10-8 torr) during SEE measurements
Ion source to remove surface charges
Importantly for micro-engineered materials , the upgrade allows to minimize, outgassing, surface , contamination, etc

9. Experiments with micro-engineered materials immersed in non-equilibrium plasma of LTPX
Micro-engineered materials are expected to minimize SEE, but may be a source of electron field emission due to surface non-uniformities.
Electron field emission may have a similar effect on plasma-wall sheath as SEE, i.e. to weaken electrical and thermal insulating properties of the sheath
To evaluate possible effects of electron field emission and photoelectron emission, we impressed a 4” silicon wafer coated with ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) in the non-equilibrium plasma of LTPX setup
Typical features of UNCD : several nm’s grains with non-uniformities of up to 100’s nm
UNCD has exceptional field emission properties
Y. Raitses and A. V. Sumant, XXI International MRC, 2012

10. A new regime of plasma-wall interaction with a very strong SEE  > 1 is found
The main result - Disappearance of Debye Sheaths Due to SEE
Qualitative differences between the potential profile, relative to the wall, of a classical sheath (a), SCL sheath (b) and the new inverse sheath (c). Note that plasma electrons are still confined by the SCL sheath, but not confined by the inverse sheath.
Results of particle-in-cell simulations of Hall thruster discharge: a comparison of results with classical (Sim. A), E = 200 V/cm, and inverse sheath (Sim. B) E = 250 V/cm. Simulation parameters: the distance between the opposite walls is 2.5 cm, B= 100 Gauss, neutral density, na =1012 cm3, plasma density n0 = 1011 cm3, turbulent collision frequency values 1.4  106 s-1 for Sim A, and 2.8  106 s-1 for Sim B.
M. Campanell et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, (2012)