Zihan Lin ’23
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Plasma-Material Interactions for Fusion Energy
I investigated the ion incident angle and sheath profile in linear plasma devices with oblique magnetic field incident angles. One motivation for studying plasmas is to obtain energy through nuclear fusion, but achieving controlled fusion faces many challenges. One is designing the plasma-facing component so that it can handle the extreme conditions inside a fusion reactor without degrading plasma performance. My project focused on linear plasma devices because of their more simplified plasma parameters and ease of conducting experiments. I used an equation-of-motion model to simulate ion trajectory in a collisionless plasma sheath and measured the ion impact angle upon striking the surface. The resulting incident ion angle distributions were applied to a Monte Carlo simulation to illustrate the expected erosion profile of a specially designed plasma-facing sample surface. Experimental verification of my simulation results using a linear device will be performed in the future. Through this internship, I gained experience with fusion divertor plasma simulation and learned the complexities of plasma-material interaction research. I also learned valuable presentation skills and gained proficiency in the programming language MATLAB. I plan on pursuing research related to fusion and material science in the future.
2021
Innovation and a New Energy Future
Koel Research Group, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University
Bruce Koel, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering; Shota Abe, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Chemical and Biological Engineering