Plasma Science Enabling Technology, Sustainability, Security, and Exploration (2021) / Chapter Skim
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Plasmas -- which enable microelectronics fabrication through the etching and deposition of materials -- have been indispensable to the information technology revolution. Translating basic research in plasma science and engineering has the potential to produce new society-altering technologies -- clean energy and energy independence through controlled fusion; a new paradigm for chemical processing; compact particle accelerators for science, medicine, and industry; forecasting of extreme space weather events; agricultural and medical advances -- all 1
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GRAND CHALLENGES OF PLASMA SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING PSE transforms fundamental scientific research into powerful societal applica tions. This outstanding strength of PSE is captured in the following "PSE Grand 1 National Research Council, 2007, Plasma Science: Advancing Knowledge in the National Interest, The National Academies Press Washington, DC, https://doi.org/10.17226/11960.
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• Developing fusion-generated electricity will tap the virtually unlimited fuel in seawater, to bring the benefits of energy independence and carbon-neutral power to the nation through economical, deployable, and sustainable fusion systems enabled by advances in experimental and computational plasma physics. • Demonstrating that lasers and pulsed-power devices can produce inertially confined fusion ignition by creating plasma-based extreme states of matter to support stockpile stewardship, further the goal of sustainable energy, energy independence, and expand our knowledge of high energy density (HED)
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This isolation results in part from the diversity of applications that motivates the fundamental research and is reinforced by mission-driven support at the federal level that may not take full advantage of synergies between fundamental research in the subdisciplines and applications. In many areas of PSE, such as plasma materials processing, application-focused research is the primary mission of a program that is different than that research funding fundamental plasma research.
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At the large-business end of the innovation chain, there are extreme pressures from international competition, in large part resulting from strong foreign government support for fundamental and translational research in key industries. Recommendation: Federal agencies directly supporting plasma science and engineering (PSE)
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A professional workforce cannot reflect society if the student pipeline entering PSE is not diverse. The number and diversity of students entering the pipeline can be increased by increasing the numbers of undergraduate students exposed to PSE through research experiences.
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Two examples are the European Union investment in the Extreme Light Infrastructure and the Wendelstein 7-X stellerator. Given these strong international investments, incremental progress in facilities in the United States is insufficient to maintain leadership.
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Each chapter presents exciting future research directions, the national benefits that will occur with the translation of scientific advances to applications, and develops individual chapter-level findings and recommendations. Although cross-cutting themes and challenges are discussed, particularly in Chapter 2, the committee elected to make vertical cuts through the discipline since this better maps onto the current support infrastructure of the federal agencies.
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Thus, the continued impact of computational plasma science and engineering will depend on making state-of-the-art computations accessible to researchers who are not computational experts Chapter 3: Laser-Plasma Interactions Expanding plasma-based capabilities in high-intensity ultrafast lasers, with increasing energies, repetition rates, and control are opening new areas of high field plasma physics, including the investigation of quantum processes and the creation of matter from pure photon energy. Laser and particle-beam control of the most intense sustained electromagnetic fields in plasmas is opening new disciplines in plasma optics and particle acceleration.
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LTP technologies are propelling the electrification of the chemical industry -- that is, driving chemical processing by electrical means facilitated by plasmas. Chapter 6: Magnetic Confinement Fusion Energy The societal benefit from magnetic confinement fusion energy (MFE)
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Startling recent advances include detection of a possible neutron star merger through the simultaneous excitation of gravitational waves, gamma-ray bursts, X-ray and visible plasma emission, and the first images of a black hole -- both extraordinarily exotic events that represent SAP research.
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