How would I fully ionize plasma in a vacuum chamber? How would I know that it is fully ionized? Could I even come close? How could I measure how would I know how ionized the plasma is.
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$\begingroup$ iter.org/mach/tokamak "...air and impurities are first evacuated from the vacuum chamber. Next, the magnet systems that will help to confine and control the plasma are charged up and the gaseous fuel is introduced. As a powerful electrical current is run through the vessel, the gas breaks down electrically, becomes ionized (electrons are stripped from the nuclei) and forms a plasma. As the plasma particles become energized and collide they also begin to heat up. Auxiliary heating methods help to bring the plasma to fusion temperatures (between 150 and 300 million °C). $\endgroup$– Count IblisCommented Apr 27, 2017 at 21:05
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$\begingroup$ But how COULD I DO this in a diy science project? $\endgroup$– Maxwell BakerCommented Apr 29, 2017 at 23:08
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1 Answer
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There are several questions in your question, let's try to answer them:
- How to fully ionize a plasma?
You simply need to heat up a gas and there are several ways to do so: electromagnetic waves in different frequency regimes using different physical mechanisms depending on your device configuration (magnetic field?) or a strong electric field resulting in a current for example.
- How would I know that the plasma is fully ionized?
Measure the particle number density before the breakdown (when there is no plasma) and then measure the plasma density (after the breakdown, obviously) and compare the two. You could use, for example, Langmuir probes or some kind of spectroscopy or active microwave probing (interferometry, reflectometry).
- Could I even come close?
In a well equipped lab, for sure. In your garage, depends on your setup/equipment.
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$\begingroup$ Can you get more specific?, The plasma I'm trying to ionize is a extremely low pressure air in a vacuum chamber $\endgroup$ Commented May 2, 2017 at 23:34
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$\begingroup$ You are saying you have a low pressure gas that you are trying to ionize? Then all of the answers given above still hold, i.e. there exists a variety of methods for plasma heating/creating and diagnostics. As a start, use whatever you have available in your lab (microwave generators, power supplies, spectrometer....) $\endgroup$– AlfCommented May 7, 2017 at 13:47
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$\begingroup$ Is there a device I could buy that would measure the ionization? Also where could I buy It, I couldn't find any suitable devices on ebay, amazon, or google shopping... $\endgroup$ Commented May 8, 2017 at 18:24
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$\begingroup$ well, you have to look at specialized companies, I know there are a few that sell Langmuir probes or spectroscopy set-ups but in any case you need to do some physics and/or math calculations by yourself (also, I guess this equipment is not cheap (at the University, we used to build them by ourselves)) $\endgroup$– AlfCommented May 8, 2017 at 21:34