-- RamonaValenzuelaPerez - 2014-06-21

About

We are an academic research group at a public research university with a focus on fast ion loss diagnostics for magnetically confined fusion plasmas.

Current Project

An adapted instrument with 2 more channels, a total of 6 channels, will be designed with the goal of studying charged fusion products from NSTX-U plasmas.

* Please visit our TWiki page for the next phase Proton Detector which will be designed with the goal of installation in the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade

Previous and Ongoing Project

Our instrument, or diagnostic, will allow us to study fusion plasma instabilities. Our research will contribute to worldwide efforts in better understanding plasmas to control instabilities which can deteriorate fusion plasma performance. Plasma performance is a concern because stable plasmas are necessary to create commercially viable fusion energy.

Though we design, develop, and bench test our instrument at FIU, we have collected our data offsite at a research facility in England (the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak). We are currently analyzing data collected with our instrument to determine the time dependent charged fusion product profile. We are specifically observing products from nuclear fusion reactions between hydrogen isotopes, or deuterium-deuterium reactions. In general, we want to know when and where charged particles from these reactions, such as protons and tritons, are created inside of the plasma so that we can study how the plasma is affected by instabilities.

* Please visit our TWiki page for the Proton Detector installed in Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak

FIU Group Members

ABOVE: Pierre Avila (FIU), Dr. Douglass Darrow (PPPL), Adrianna Angulo (FIU), Ramona Perez (FIU), Dr. Werner Boeglin (FIU), Omar Leon (FIU), Carlos Lopez (FIU) Click here to see more group member and collaborator photos

Principal Investigator (PI):

• Werner Boeglin (boeglinw@fiu.edu)

Graduate Students:

• Alex Netepenko

Undergraduate Students:

• Javierra Latorre

Collaborators:

• Culham Science Centre, Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) located in Culham, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
• Durham University, United Kingdom
• FSU Superconducting Linear Accelerator Laboratory
  • Ingo Wiedenhöver, Lagy Baby
• Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) located in Princeton, New Jersey
  • Douglass Darrow (http://www.pppl.gov/people/douglass-s-darrow , http://pst.pppl.gov/person/doug_darrow.htm)
• Uppsala University, Sweden

Past Graduate Students:

• Ramona V Perez (lc.ramona@gmail.com)
  • joined Intel Corporation as RET Design Engineer 08/2015
  • External collaborator with FEPP 07/2015
  • FEPP member 05/2009 - 07/2015

Past Undergraduate Students:

• Adrianna Angulo
  • joined Applied Physics graduate program at University of Michigan 06/2015
  • McNair Fellow 02/2014
  • FEPP member 01/2012 - 04/2015
• Carlos Lievano
  • FEPP member 06/2014 - 09/2014
• Doug Tuckler
  • joined Physics graduate program at University of Cincinnati 08/2014
  • FEPP member 01/2014 - 08/2014
• Pierre Avila
  • joined Physics graduate program at University of Houston - Clear Lake 08/2014
  • McNair Fellow 04/2013
  • FEPP member 01/2011 - 08/2014
• Carlos Lopez
  • joined Excet, Inc. Research & Development Division as Engineer III 09/2014
  • McNair Fellow 04/2013
  • FEPP member 01/2012 - 08/2014
• Omar Leon
  • joined Applied Physics graduate program at University of Michigan 06/2014
  • McNair Fellow 04/2013
  • FIU Fred Hoover Memorial Scholarship Recipient
  • FEPP member 01/2012 - 06/2014
• Rahul Patel
  • joined Physics graduate program at Stony Brook University
  • McNair Fellow

Past High School Students:

• Aram Sargsian

Research Opportunities

Research Facilities:

• FIU Physics Laboratory CP185
• National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade (NSTX-U) at the PPPL http://nstx.pppl.gov/overview.html
• Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) at the CCFE http://www.ccfe.ac.uk/MAST.aspx
• Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak Upgrade (MAST-U) at the CCFE
• FSU Superconducting Linear Accelerator Laboratory http://www.physics.fsu.edu/Nuclear/Brochures/SuperconductingLinearAcceleratorLaboratory/

Undergraduate Research:

• Independent Study credits
• Undergraduate Research Experience
• Senior Thesis or Honors Thesis
• Read about what our undergraduate and FIU alumni researchers are doing

Graduate Research:

• M.S. and Ph.D opportunities (speak with Dr. Werner Boeglin http://wanda.fiu.edu)
• Find out more about the FIU Graduate Physics Program http://physics.fiu.edu/graduate-program
• Read about a past Dissertation project
• What kind of research experience can you gain working in FEPP?

Collaborators:

• Please send Dr. Boeglin an email

ABOVE: High Vacuum system for bench testing

Past Projects

3-D reconstruction of dust particle trajectories in the NSTX

• http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/rpatel/files/Rahul%20Patel%20McNair%20Poster.pdf
• http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/rpatel/files/sdarticle.pdf

The original Charged Fusion Products Diagnostic that would have been installed in NSTX (there was a premature shutdown of NSTX for its upgrade):

• NSTX Diagnostic

LEFT AND RIGHT: Images of 3D cad drawings for detector housing/ probe head with the ability to change detector orientations