Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-04T10:14:29.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Soft X-ray continuum radiation from low-energy pinch discharges of hydrogen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2013

R. MILLS
Affiliation:
BlackLight Power, Inc., 493 Old Trenton Road, Cranbury, NJ 08512, US ([email protected])
R. BOOKER
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Asheville, NC 28804, USA
Y. LU
Affiliation:
BlackLight Power, Inc., 493 Old Trenton Road, Cranbury, NJ 08512, US ([email protected])

Abstract

Under a study contracted by GEN3 Partners, spectra of high current pinch discharges in pure hydrogen and helium were recorded in the extreme ultraviolet radiation region at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in an attempt to reproduce experimental results published by BlackLight Power, Inc. (BLP) showing predicted continuum radiation due to hydrogen in the 10–30 nm region (Mills, R. L. and Lu, Y. 2010 Hydrino continuum transitions with cutoffs at 22.8 nm and 10.1 nm. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy35, 8446–8456, doi:10.1016?j.ijhydene.2010.05.098). Alternative explanations were considered to the claimed interpretation of the continuum radiation as being that emitted during transitions of H to lower-energy states (hydrinos). Continuum radiation was observed at CfA in the 10–30 nm region that matched BLP's results. Considering the low energy of 5.2 J per pulse, the observed radiation in the energy range of about 120–40 eV, reference experiments and analysis of plasma gases, cryofiltration to remove contaminants, and spectra of the electrode metal, no conventional explanation was found in the prior or present work to be plausible including contaminants, electrode metal emission, and Bremsstrahlung, ion recombination, molecular or molecular ion band radiation, and instrument artifacts involving radicals and energetic ions reacting at the charge-coupled device and H2 re-radiation at the detector chamber. Moreover, predicted selective extraordinarily high-kinetic energy H was observed by the corresponding Doppler broadening of the Balmer α line.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akhtar, K., Scharer, J. and Mills, R. L. 2009 Substantial Doppler broadening of atomic-hydrogen lines in DC and capacitively coupled RF plasmas. J. Phys. D, Appl. Phys. 42, 135 207218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexiou, S. and Leboucher-Dalimier, E. 1999 Hydrogen Balmer α in dense plasmas. Phys. Rev. E 60, 34363438.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ayers, E. L. and Benesch, W. 1988 Shapes of atomic-hydrogen lines produced at a cathode surface. Phys. Rev. A 37, 194199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baravian, G., Chouan, Y., Ricard, A. and Sultan, G. 1987 Doppler-broadened Hα line shapes in a rf low-pressure H2 discharge. J. Appl. Phys. 61, 52495253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbeau, C. and Jolly, J. 1990 Spectroscopic investigation of energetic atoms in a DC hydrogen glow discharge. J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 23, 11681174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benesch, W. and Li, E. 1984 Line shapes of atomic hydrogen in hollow-cathode discharges. Optic Lett. 9, 338340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brauner, T. 2007 Particle emission from extreme ultraviolet light sources. Doctoral thesis, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, pp. 69–72.Google Scholar
Bykanov, A. 2011 Validation of the observation of soft X-ray continuum radiation from low energy pinch discharges in the presence of molecular hydrogen, http://www.blacklightpower.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/GEN3_Harvard.pdf. Accessed 30 November, 2012.Google Scholar
Bzenic, S. A., Radovanov, S. B., Vrhovac, S. B., Velikic, Z. B. and Jelenkovic, B. M. 1991 On the mechanism of Doppler broadening of Hβ after dissociative excitation in hydrogen glow discharges. Chem. Phys. Lett. 184, 108112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chowdhuri, M. B., Morita, S. and Goto, M. 2007 Line analysis of EUV spectra from molybdenum and tungsten injected with impurity pellets in LHD. Plasma and Fusion Research: Regular Articles 2, S1060-15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clementson, J., Beiersdorfer, P., Magee, E. W., McLean, H. S. and Wood, R.D. 2010 Tungsten spectroscopy relevant to the diagnostics development of ITER divertor plasmas. J. Phys. B 43, 144 009016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Djurovic, S. and Roberts, J. R. 1993 Hydrogen Balmer alpha line shapes for hydrogen-argon mixtures in a low-pressure rf discharge. J. Appl. Phys. 74, 65586565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finley, D. S., Bowyer, S., Paresce, F. and Malina, R. F. 1979 Continuous discharge Penning source with emission lines between 50 Å and 300 Å. Appl. Optics 18, 649654.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Gessel, A. F. H. 2009 EUV spectroscopy of hydrogen plasmas. Masters thesis, Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Applied Physics, Group of Elementary Processes in Gas Discharges, EPG 09-02, pp. 61–70.Google Scholar
Giannuzzi, L. A., Prenitzer, B. I. and Kempshall, B. W. 2005 Ion-solid interactions. In: Introduction to Focused Ion Beams Instrumentation, Theory, Techniques and Practice (ed. Giannuzzi, L. A. and Stevie, F. A.). New York, NY: Springer, ch. 2, pp. 1352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grehl, T. 2003 Improvement in TOF-SIMS instrumentation for analytical application and fundamental research. Doctoral thesis, University of Münster, Germany, Faculty of Physics, Mathematics and Natural Sciences.Google Scholar
Kuraica, M. and Konjevic, N. 1992 Line shapes of atomic hydrogen in a plane-cathode abnormal glow discharge. Phys. Rev. A 46, 44294432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuraica, M., Konjevic, N., Platisa, M. and Pantelic, D. 1992 Plasma diagnostics of the Grimm-type glow discharge. Spectrochim. Acta 47, 11731186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, H. M. 1976 The solubility of hydrogen in transition metals. Metall. Trans. A 7A, 431433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, R. 2011 The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Physics; August 2011 edition. The book is available at www.blacklightpower.com. Accessed 30 November 2012.Google Scholar
Mills, R. and Akhtar, K. 2009 Tests of features of field-acceleration models for the extraordinary selective H Balmer α broadening in certain hydrogen mixed plasmas. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 34, 64656477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, R. L. and Akhtar, K. 2010 Fast H in hydrogen mixed gas microwave plasmas when an atomic hydrogen supporting surface was present. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 35, 25462555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, R. L., Akhtar, K., Zhao, G., Chang, Z., He, J., Hu, X. and Chu, G. 2010a Commercializable power source using heterogeneous hydrino catalysts. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 35, 395419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, R. L., Dhandapani, B. and Akhtar, K. 2008 Excessive Balmer α line broadening of water-vapor capacitively-coupled RF discharge plasmas. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 33, 802815.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, R. L., Lotoski, J., Zhao, G., Akhtar, K., Chang, Z., He, J., Hu, X., Wu, G., Chu, G. and Lu, Y. 2011a Identification of new hydrogen states. Phys. Essays 24, 95116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, R. L. and Lu, Y. 2010 Hydrino continuum transitions with cutoffs at 22.8 nm and 10.1 nm. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 35, 84468456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, R. L. and Lu, Y. 2011 Time-resolved hydrino continuum transitions with cutoffs at 22.8 nm and 10.1 nm. Eur. Phys. J. D 64, 6572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, R. L., Lu, Y. and Akhtar, K. 2010b Spectroscopic observation of helium-ion- and hydrogen-catalyzed hydrino transitions. Cent. Eur. J. Phys. 8, 318339.Google Scholar
Mills, R., Ray, P. and Dhandapani, B. 2006 Evidence of an energy transfer reaction between atomic hydrogen and argon II or helium II as the source of excessively hot H atoms in RF plasmas. J. Plasma Phys. 72, 469484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, R. L., Ray, P. C., Mayo, R. M., Nansteel, M., Dhandapani, B. and Phillips, J. 2005 Spectroscopic study of unique line broadening and inversion in low pressure microwave generated water plasmas. J. Plasma Phys. 71 (Part 6), 877888.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, R. L., Zhao, G., Akhtar, K., Chang, Z., He, J., Hu, X., Wu, G., Lotoski, J. and Chu, G. 2011b Thermally reversible hydrino catalyst systems as a new power source. Int. J. Green Energy 8, 429473.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NIST Atomic Spectra Database, 2012 http://www.physics.nist.gov/cgi-bin/AtData/display.ksh. Accessed 30 November 2012.Google Scholar
Phelps, A. V. 1992 Collisions of H+, H2+, H3+, ArH+, H, H, and H2 with Ar and of Ar+ and ArH+ with H2 for energies from 0.1 eV to 10 keV. J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data 21, 883897.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, J., Chen, C.-K., Akhtar, K., Dhandapani, B. and Mills, R. 2007 Evidence of catalytic production of hot hydrogen in RF generated hydrogen/argon plasmas. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 32, 30103025.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radovanov, S. B., Dzierzega, K., Roberts, J. R. and Olthoff, J. K. 1995a Time-resolved Balmer-alpha emission from fast hydrogen atoms in low pressure, radio-frequency discharges in hydrogen. Appl. Phys. Lett. 66, 26372639.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radovanov, S. B., Olthoff, J. K., Van Brunt, R. J. and Djurovic, S. 1995b Ion kinetic-energy distributions and Balmer-alpha (H α) excitation in Ar-H 2 radio-frequency discharges. J. Appl. Phys. 78, 746757.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Videnovic, I. R., Konjevic, N. and Kuraica, M. M. 1996 Spectroscopic investigations of a cathode fall region of the Grimm-type glow discharge. Spectrochim. Acta, Part B 51, 17071731.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watt, F., Bettiol, A. A., Van Kan, J. A., Teo, E. J. and Breese, M. B. H. 2005 Ion beam lithography and nanofabrication: a review. Int. J. Nanosci. 4, 269286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar