Dynamics of a relativistic electron beam in the vicinity of a spherical injecting body in space plasma

The dynamics of a relativistic electron beam in the vicinity of an injector in the form of a spherical conducting body in a space plasma is considered. An equation describing the radial evolution of a steady electron beam with a self-similar density profile in the electric field of the injector is formulated. A method for calculating the radial evolution of a relativistic electron beam in the vicinity of an injector is developed. The method is based on the numerical integration of a set of ordinary differential equations for the beam radius and field potential in the space charge region under the relevant boundary conditions at the injector surface. Results are presented from numerical simulations of the radial dynamics of an electron beam in the vicinity of a spherical screen system for neutralizing the electric charge carried away by the beam. The numerical results show that the electric field of the injector hastens the beam expansion.     

Nanofocusing of Surface Plasmon Polaritons on Metal-Coated Fiber Tip Under Internal Excitation of Radial Vector Beam

We theoretically present the nanofocusing of the metal-coated fiber tip under internal excitation of the radial vector beam within visible band based on the finite difference time domain (FDTD) analysis. The electric field intensity enhancement factor of the localized surface plasmons (LSP) mode at the tip apex is quantitatively shown in relation with incident wavelength, coating material, conical angle of tip, and coating film thickness/length. Specially, the evolution of fiber radial vector mode to surface mode with respect to the radius of metal-coated fiber tip is calculated under typical excitation wavelengths of 633 nm and 785 nm. Furthermore, the reason of the tip eliminating far-field background signal is explained, and the transverse electric field distributions of LSP mode and the tip-substrate coupling are also given at the optimal excitation wavelength. These calculation results will be a good reference for the fabrication of metal-coated fiber tips and for the experimental design of the tip-enhanced spectroscopy (TES) system.

     

Ecton processes in the generation of pulsed runaway electron beams in a gas discharge

As was shown earlier for pulsed discharges that occur in electric fields rising with extremely high rates (10¹⁸ V/(cm s)) during the pulse rise time, the electron current in a vacuum discharge is lower than the current of runaway electrons in an atmospheric air discharge in a 1-cm-long gap. In this paper, this is explained by that the field emission current from cathode microprotrusions in a gas discharge is enhanced due to gas ionization. This hastens the initiation of explosive electron emission, which occurs within 10^–11 s at a current density of up to 10¹⁰ A/cm². Thereafter, a first-type cathode spot starts forming. The temperature of the cathode spot decreases due to heat conduction, and the explosive emission current ceases. Thus, the runaway electron current pulse is similar in nature to the ecton phenomenon in a vacuum discharge.     

Induction of ELF transmembrane potentials in relation to power-frequency electric field bioeffects in a plant root model system

The region of elongation in Cucumis sativus and Cucurbita maxima roots was marked at increasing distances from the apex to provide an analog of increasing cell size. These roots were exposed/sham-exposed to 60 Hz electric fields and the growth rates of the root segments measured. The growth rate effect magnitude varied with increasing distance from the root tip at constant field strength, and with increasing applied field strength. These results provide strong, qualitative support for the postulate that ELF transmembrane potential induction is involved in the stimulation of ELF electric field effects in the plant root model system.     

Means for efficient electron beam generation in wide-aperture open-discharge light sources

The interaction of a plasma in the accelerating gap of an open discharge with a strong external electric field and with the cathode surface has been investigated theoretically and experimentally. In a pulsed nanosecond discharge, the ion inertia and plasma screening of the electric field cause a fast growth of the electric field E in the cathode region and a decrease in the length of the latter. Along with a reduction of the electron multiplication factor at high electric fields, this leads to a substantial decrease in the ion flux toward the cathode, which allows one to develop highly efficient open-discharge light sources with a long lifetime and low cathode sputtering. In this respect, continuous and quasi-continuous discharges are less advantageous because of the smaller increase in the electric field in the cathode region. The Townsend coefficients of charge multiplication and electron emission at high electric fields typical of open discharges have been measured for the first time. Fast ions and atoms extracted from the plasma of the accelerating gap significantly affect the cathode emission properties. In particular, photoemission is enhanced by more than one order of magnitude and becomes the main mechanism for electron generation. This also increases the efficiency and lifetime of open-discharge light sources.     

Development of a self-consistent model of dust grain charging at elevated pressures using the method of moments

A model of dust grain charging is constructed using the method of moments. The dust grain charging process in a weakly ionized helium plasma produced by a 100-keV electron beam at atmospheric pressure is studied theoretically. In simulations, the beam current density was varied from 1 to 10⁶ μA/cm². It is shown that, in a He plasma, dust grains of radius 5 μm and larger perturb the electron temperature only slightly, although the reduced electric field near the grain reaches 8 Td, the beam current density being 10⁶ μA/cm². It is found that, at distances from the grain that are up to several tens or hundreds of times larger than its radius, the electron and ion densities are lower than their equilibrium values. Conditions are determined under which the charging process may be described by a model with constant electron transport coefficients. The dust grain charge is shown to be weakly affected by secondary electron emission. In a beam-produced helium plasma, the dust grain potential calculated in the drift-diffusion model is shown to be close to that calculated in the orbit motion limited model. It is found that, in the vicinity of a body perturbing the plasma, there may be no quasineutral plasma presheath with an ambipolar diffusion of charged particles. The conditions for the onset of this presheath in a beam-produced plasma are determined. __________ Translated from Fizika Plazmy, Vol. 29, No. 3, 2003, pp. 214–226. Original Russian Text Copyright ? 2003 by Filippov, Dyatko, Pal’, Starostin.     

Changes in the Electric Field at an Injury Site During Healing Under Electrical Stimulation

Changes in the electrical properties of tissue during healing should affect the electric field and current density distributions produced by applied electric or magnetic fields. The electric field produced at a fracture site by surface electrodes is found using a finite-difference method, implemented with a commerically-available spread-sheet program on a microcomputer. The method is first validated by application to a two-layer cylinder. The model considered is the healing of a tibia fracture in an irregularly-shaped, anisotropic model of the human calf. Variations of the three components of the electric field throughout the calf due to the healing are examined. Significant changes are found at the fracture site and in its vicinity. Similar results should be observed with other forms of electromagnetic stimulation.     

Visualizing ion relaxation in the transport of short DNA fragments

Ion relaxation plays an important role in a wide range of phenomena involving the transport of charged biomolecules. Ion relaxation is responsible for reducing sedimentation and diffusion constants, reducing electrophoretic mobilities, increasing intrinsic viscosities, and, for biomolecules that lack a permanent electric dipole moment, provides a mechanism for orienting them in an external electric field. Recently, a numerical boundary element method was developed to solve the coupled Navier-Stokes, Poisson, and ion transport equations for a polyion modeled as a rigid body of arbitrary size, shape, and charge distribution. This method has subsequently been used to compute the electrophoretic mobilities and intrinsic viscosities of a number of model proteins and DNA fragments. The primary purpose of the present work is to examine the effect of ion relaxation on the ion density and fluid velocity fields around short DNA fragments (20 and 40 bp). Contour density as well as vector field diagrams of the various scalar and vector fields are presented and discussed at monovalent salt concentrations of 0.03 and 0.11 M. In addition, the net charge current fluxes in the vicinity of the DNA fragments at low and high salt concentrations are briefly examined and discussed.     

Ion acceleration in a dipole vortex in a laser plasma corona

Particle-in-cell simulations show that the inhomogeneity scale of the plasma produced in the interaction of high-power laser radiation with gas targets is of fundamental importance for ion acceleration. In a plasma slab with sharp boundaries, the quasistatic magnetic field and the associated electron vortex structure produced by fast electron beams both expand along the slab boundary in a direction perpendicular to the plasma density gradient, forming an extended region with a quasistatic electric field, in which the ions are accelerated. In a plasma with a smooth density distribution, the dipole magnetic field can propagate toward the lower plasma density in the propagation direction of the laser pulse. In this case, the electron density in an electric current filament at the axis of the magnetic dipole decreases to values at which the charge quasineutrality condition fails to hold. In electric fields generated by this process, the ions are accelerated to energies substantially higher than those characteristic of plasma configurations with sharp boundaries.     

Nonlinear relativistic plasma resonance: Renormalization group approach

An analytical solution to the nonlinear set of equations describing the electron dynamics and electric field structure in the vicinity of the critical density in a nonuniform plasma is constructed using the renormalization group approach with allowance for relativistic effects of electron motion. It is demonstrated that the obtained solution describes two regimes of plasma oscillations in the vicinity of the plasma resonance— stationary and nonstationary. For the stationary regime, the spatiotemporal and spectral characteristics of the resonantly enhanced electric field are investigated in detail and the effect of the relativistic nonlinearity on the spatial localization of the energy of the plasma relativistic field is considered. The applicability limits of the obtained solution, which are determined by the conditions of plasma wave breaking in the vicinity of the resonance, are established and analyzed in detail for typical laser and plasma parameters. The applicability limits of the earlier developed nonrelativistic theories are refined.     

Determination of the electron density and electric field in the plasma of a low-pressure microwave electrode discharge in hydrogen from the measured spectral line intensities

The parameters of the plasma of a microwave electrode discharge in hydrogen at pressures of 1–8 torr and incident powers of 20–80 W are measured by the so-called “relative intensity” method. The method allows one to determine the electron density and electric field in plasma by measuring the relative intensities of the H_α, H_β, and 763.5-nm Ar line emission and calculating the electron-impact rate constants from the homogeneous Boltzmann equation. The measurements show that there are regions in the discharge where the electron density is higher (a bright electrode sheath) and lower (a spherical region) than the critical density for the frequency 2.45 GHz (n_cr～7×10¹⁰ cm^?3). Inside the spherical region, the electric field varies slightly over the radius and the electron density increases as the discharge boundary is approached. The observed discharge structure can be attributed to the presence of a self-sustained discharge zone (electrode sheath); a non-self-sustained discharge zone (spherical region); and a decaying plasma region, which is separated from the active discharge zone by an electric double layer.     

Spatial structure of emission from an electrode microwave discharge in hydrogen

The structure of electrode microwave (2.45 GHz) discharges in hydrogen with electrodes of various shapes and sizes at pressures of 1–8 torr and incident powers of 2–150 W is studied. It is found that the discharges exhibit a common feature that is independent of the antenna-electrode design: near the electrode surface, there is a thin bright sheath surrounded by a less bright, sharply bounded region, which is usually shaped like a sphere. It is suggested that the structure observed arises because the microwave field maintaining the discharge is strongly nonuniform. Near the electrode, there exists a thin dense plasma sheath with a high electron density gradient. A strong dependence of the electron-impact excitation coefficient on the electric field makes the effect even more pronounced. As the electron density decreases due to dissociative recombination, the microwave field gradient decreases and the discharge emission intensity tends to a nearly constant value. Presumably, in the boundary region of the discharge, there exists a surface wave, which increases the emission intensity at the periphery of the discharge.     

Electron leakage mechanism in a plasma-filled magnetically insulated transmission line

It is shown that relativistic electron current can propagate across the magnetic field B ₀ over a distance d much larger than the electron gyroradius, r ₀ ? m _e v _z c/(eB ₀) ? d. This current is driven by the Hall electric field, which is generated on a spatial scale equal to the magnetic Debye radius r _B = B ₀/(4πen _e) and causes the electrons to drift in crossed electric and magnetic fields. For a plane equilibrium current configuration, analytic profiles of the electron velocity and electron density are calculated and the electric and magnetic fields are determined. The results obtained are used to explain electron leakages in magnetically insulated transmission lines filled with a plasma expanding from the electrodes. Equations describing an equilibrium configuration of the ions and electrons that drift simultaneously across a strong magnetic field are derived.     

Self-electroporation as a model for fusion pore formation

The creation of a small opening called the fusion pore is a necessary prerequisite for neurotransmitter release from synaptic vesicles. It is known that high intensity electric fields can create pores in vesicles by a process called electroporation. Due to the presence of charged phosphatidylserine (PS) molecules on the inner leaflet of the cell membrane, an electric field that is strong enough to cause electroporation of a synaptic vesicle might be present. It was shown by K. Rosenheck [K. Rosenheck. Biophys J 75, 1237-1243 (1998)] that in a planar geometry, fields sufficient to cause electroporation can occur at intermembrane separations of less than approximately 3 nm. It is frequently found, however, that the cell membrane is not planar but caves inward at the locations where a vesicle is close to it. Indentation of the cell membrane in the fusion region was modelled as a hemisphere and a theoretical study of the electric field in the vicinity of the cell membrane taking into account the screening effect of dissolved ions in the cytoplasm was performed. It was discovered that fields crossing the electroporation threshold occurred at a distance of 2 nm or less, supporting the claim that electroporation could be a possible mechanism for fusion pore formation.     

Charging of submicron structures during silicon dioxide etching in one- and two-frequency gas discharges

A model that combines the Monte Carlo method for calculating electron and ion trajectories in three-dimensional geometry and an analytic approach developed for calculating an electric field in two-dimensional geometry is used to simulate the charging of the surface of periodic submicron SiO₂ structures by electron and ion fluxes in the plasma of a one- and a two-frequency capacitive RF discharge. The energy distribution function of the electrons and ions that come to the bottom of a submicron structure in an argon and an argon-containing plasma is calculated for structures with a width of 11–45 nm and an aspect ratio of d/w = 1–10 (where d and w are the depth and width of the structure). It is shown that secondary electronelectron emission plays an important role in the redistribution of the electric charge and, accordingly, of the electric potential in a submicron structure. It is demonstrated that, when the secondary electron-electron emission mechanism is taken into account, the ion energy spectrum at the bottom of a submicron structure is shifted toward lower energies and becomes broader in comparison with the spectrum of an ion flux from an RF discharge plasma. Moreover, the shift and broadening depend only on the secondary electron-electron emission coefficient, the energy of the charged particles, and the aspect ratio.     

Frequency and voltage dependence of the dielectrophoretic trapping of short lengths of DNA and dCTP in a nanopipette

The study of the properties of DNA under high electric fields is of both fundamental and practical interest. We have exploited the high electric fields produced locally in the tip of a nanopipette to probe the motion of double- and single-stranded 40-mer DNA, a 1-kb single-stranded DNA, and a single-nucleotide triphosphate (dCTP) just inside and outside the pipette tip at different frequencies and amplitudes of applied voltages. We used dual laser excitation and dual color detection to simultaneously follow two fluorophore-labeled DNA sequences with millisecond time resolution, significantly faster than studies to date. A strong trapping effect was observed during the negative half cycle for all DNA samples and also the dCTP. This effect was maximum below 1 Hz and decreased with higher frequency. We assign this trapping to strong dielectrophoresis due to the high electric field and electric field gradient in the pipette tip. Dielectrophoresis in electrodeless tapered nanostructures has potential applications for controlled mixing and manipulation of short lengths of DNA and other biomolecules, opening new possibilities in miniaturized biological analysis.     

Electric field effect on (6,0) zigzag single-walled aluminum nitride nanotube

Structural, electronic, and electrical responses of the H-capped (6,0) zigzag single-walled aluminum nitride nanotube was studied under the parallel and transverse electric fields with strengths 0-140?×?10(-4)?a.u. by using density functional calculations. Geometry optimizations were carried out at the B3LYP/6-31G* level of theory using a locally modified version of the GAMESS electronic structure program. The dipole moments, atomic charge variations, and total energy of the (6,0) zigzag AlNNT show increases with increase in the applied external electric field strengths. The length, tip diameters, electronic spatial extent, and molecular volume of the nanotube do not significantly change with increasing electric field strength. The energy gap of the nanotube decreases with increases of the electric field strength and its reactivity is increased. Increase of the ionization potential, electron affinity, chemical potential, electrophilicity, and HOMO and LUMO in the nanotube with increase of the applied parallel electric field strengths shows that the parallel field has a much stronger interaction with the nanotube with respect to the transverse electric field strengths. Analysis of the parameters indicates that the properties of AlNNTs can be controlled by the proper external electric field.     

Microwave generation by a superluminal source at limiting current densities

It is well known that high-power directed wideband electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range can be generated by a superluminal pulse of the electron emission current. The operation of a simple emitting element driven by a superluminal current pulse and consisting of an accelerating diode with a photocathode and a source of ionizing radiation that initiates electron emission from the cathode is considered. It is shown that the parameters of an elementary superluminal source obey scaling relations that are determined by the growth rate of the electron emission current from the photocathode and the parameters of the accelerating diode. The limiting anode current density and the limiting values of the characteristics of electromagnetic radiation achievable in such a system are determined. The effect of the finite dimensions of the accelerating system on the parameters of the emitter is investigated, and the spatiotemporal characteristics of the generated electromagnetic fields are obtained.     

Scanning electron microscopic study on the structure of the lingual papillae of the Saanen goat

The morphology of lingual papillae of the ten male mature Saanen goats (11 months old, approximately 42 kg in weight and of a known pedigree) was examined by scanning electron microscopy. Tissues were taken from the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the apex, body and root of the tongue, and were prepared accordingly and observed under the scanning electron microscope. On the dorsal and ventro-lateral surfaces of the lingual mucosa, three types of mechanical papillae (filiform, lenticular, and conical) and two types of gustatory papillae (vallate and fungiform) were observed. The structure and density of the filiform papillae differentiated on the anterior, posterior and ventro-lateral aspects of the tongue. Two types of lenticular papillae, both possessing a prominent surrounding papillary groove, were determined. The pyramidal-shaped type I lenticular papilla had a pointed apex while the round-shaped type II lenticular papilla possessed a blunt apex. Certain number of the type I lenticular papillae had double apices. The larger conical papillae were hollow structures, differing structurally from the filiform papillae with their larger size, a tip without projections and lack of the secondary papillae. The vallate papillae were present on both rims of the torus linguae, were encircled by a prominent gustatory furrow which was also surrounded by a thick annular fold. The fungiform papillae were scattered among the filiform papillae in the anterior two-thirds of the dorsal and lateral surfaces, and each of them was highly protected by surrounding filiform papillae, yet encircled by a papillary groove. Our findings indicate that Saanen goat have profuse distribution of papillae on the tongue displaying morphological features characteristic of mechanical function.     

The effects of external electric field on the electron transport system of spinach chloroplasts

Since the thylakoid membranes of an active chloroplast are constantly exposed to the electric fields generated by the electron transport system inside the membranes, we have studied the effects of pretreating chloroplasts of spinach ( Spinacia oleracea L.) leaves with an external AC (alternating current) electric field on their electron transport system. It was found that a few minutes electric field pretreatment (333 V cm^-1 across chloroplast samples), especially at low frequency, irreversibly inhibited the activity of photosystem II (PSII), but under certain conditions, stimulated that of photosystem I (PSI). From the measurements of fluorescence from PSII, we ascribe the inhibition to a lesion close to its reaction center P680, leading to increased dissipation of excitation energy to heat. The effect on PSI was investigated by the reduction of its reaction center, P700 by various artificial donors. We suggest that the stimulative effect can be attributed to a positive shift of the surface charge density of thylakoid membranes that brings about an increase in the accessibility of exogenous electronegative donors.