FIU Experimental Plasma Physics Group (FEPP)

ABOVE: Pierre Avila (FIU), Dr. Douglass Darrow (PPPL), Adrianna Angulo (FIU), RamonaValenzuelaPerez (FIU), Dr. Werner Boeglin (FIU), Omar Leon (FIU), Carlos Lopez (FIU)

Click here to see more group member and collaborator photos

Current Project

Our instrument, or diagnostic, will allow us to study 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. We are currently analyzing data collected with our instrument (an array of four detectors) to determine the time dependent charged fusion product profile. In general, we want to know when and where charged particles from fusion reactions are created inside of a fusion plasma. We are specifically looking at protons and tritons which are products from deuterium-deuterium fusion reactions.

• Please visit our TWiki page for our Charged Fusion Products Diagnostic, also called the Proton Detector:
  • http://phy.fiu.edu/twiki/bin/view/TWiki/MAST_Diagnostic
• More information:
  • Conference Proceeding
    • http://rsi.aip.org/resource/1/rsinak/v81/i10/p10D301_s1?isAuthorized=no

FIU Group Members

Principal Investigator (PI):

• Werner Boeglin

Graduate Student:

• Ramona V Perez my TWiki page

Undergraduate Students:

• Adrianna Angulo
• Carlos Lopez
• Doug Tuckler
• Javierra Latorre
• Omar Leon
• Pierre Avila

Past Undergraduate Students:

• Rahul Patel

High School Students:

• Aram Sargsian

Collaborators:

• 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)
• Culham Science Centre, Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) located in Culham, Oxfordshire, England

Research Opportunities

Research Facilities:

• FIU Physics Laboratory CP185
• National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) at the PPPL http://nstx.pppl.gov/overview.html
• National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade (NSTX-U) at the PPPL (upgrade not yet completed)
• 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 (upgrade not yet completed)

Undergraduate Research:

• Independent Study credits
• Undergraduate Research Experience
• Read about what our undergraduate 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 what our graduate student is doing
• What kind of research experience can you gain working in FEPP?

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

-- RamonaValenzuelaPerez - 2013-11-15