• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.41 no.1
• /
• pp.45.1-45.1
• /
• 2016

Spatially rotating magnetic fields have been observed in the solar wind and in the Earth's magnetopause as well as in reversed field pinch (RFP) devices. Such field configurations have a similarity with extended current layers having a spatially varying plasma pressure instead of the spatially varying guide field. It is thus expected that magnetic reconnection may take place in a rotating magnetic field no less than in an extended current layer. We have investigated the spontaneous evolution of a collisionless plasma system embedding a rotating magnetic field with a two-and-a-half-dimensional electromagnetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation. In magnetohydrodynamics, magnetic flux can be decreased by diffusion in O-lines. In kinetic physics, however, an asymmetry of the velocity distribution function can generate new magnetic flux near O- and X-lines, hence a dynamo effect. We have found that a magnetic-flux-reducing diffusion phase and a magnetic-flux-increasing dynamo phase are alternating with a certain period. The temperature of the system also varies with the same period, showing a similarity to sawtooth oscillations in tokamaks. We have shown that a modified theory of sawtooth oscillations can explain the periodic behavior observed in the simulation. A strong guide field distorts the current layer as was observed in laboratory experiments. This distortion is smoothed out as magnetic islands fade away by the O-line diffusion, but is soon strengthened by the growth of magnetic islands. These processes are all repeating with a fixed period. Our results suggest that a rotating magnetic field configuration continuously undergoes deformation and relaxation in a short time-scale although it might look rather steady in a long-term view.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.02a
• /
• pp.544-545
• /
• 2013

Recently, low-temperature atmospheric-pressure plasmas have been investigated [1,2] for biomedical applications and surface treatments. Experiments for improving hydrophilicity of stainless steel (SUS 304) plate with atmospheric microwave argon and H2O2 mixture plasma jet [3] were carried out and experimental measurements and plasma simulations were conducted for investigating the characteristics of plasma for the process. After 30 s of low power (under 10 W) and low temperature (under $50^{\circ}C$) plasma treatment, the water contact angle decreased rapidly to around $10^{\circ}$ from $75^{\circ}$ and was maintained under $30^{\circ}$ for a day (24 hours). The surface free energy, calculated from the contact angles, increased. The chemical properties of the surface were examined by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and the surface morphology and roughness were examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) respectively. The characteristics of plasma sources with several frequencies were investigated by Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) measurement and one-dimensional Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulation and zero-dimensional global simulation [4]. The relation between plasma components and the efficacy of the surface modification were discussed.