List of plasma (physics) applications articles

A

• Ablation
  Ablation
  Ablation is removal of material from the surface of an object by vaporization, chipping, or other erosive processes. This occurs in spaceflight during ascent and atmospheric reentry, glaciology, medicine, and passive fire protection.-Spaceflight:...
  
  
• Abradable coating
  Abradable coating
  An abradable coating is a coating made of an abradable material – meaning if it rubs against a more abrasive material in motion, the former will be worn whereas the latter will face no wear....
  
  
• Abraham–Lorentz force
• Absorption band
  Absorption band
  An absorption band is a range of wavelengths, frequencies or energies in the electromagnetic spectrum which are able to excite a particular transition in a substance...
  
  
• Accretion disk
• Active galactic nucleus
  Active galactic nucleus
  An active galactic nucleus is a compact region at the centre of a galaxy that has a much higher than normal luminosity over at least some portion, and possibly all, of the electromagnetic spectrum. Such excess emission has been observed in the radio, infrared, optical, ultra-violet, X-ray and...
  
  
• Adiabatic invariant
  Adiabatic invariant
  An adiabatic invariant is a property of a physical system that stays constant when changes occur slowly.In thermodynamics, an adiabatic process is a change that occurs without heat flow, and slowly compared to the time to reach equilibrium. In an adiabatic process, the system is in equilibrium at...
  
  
• ADITYA (tokamak)
  Aditya (tokamak)
  ADITYA is a medium size tokamak installed at the Institute for Plasma Research in India. It has a major radius of 0.75 metres and a minor radius of the plasma is 0.25 metres. The maximum field strength is 1.2 tesla produced by the help of 20 toroidal field coils spaced symmetrically in the toroidal...
  
  
• Afterglow plasma
  Afterglow plasma
  In the afterglow of a plasma, also known as remote plasma, the external electromagnetic fields that sustained the plasma glow are absent or insufficient to maintain the discharge. A plasma afterglow can either be a temporal, due to an interrupted plasma source, or a spatial one, due to a distant...
  
  
• Airglow
  Airglow
  Airglow is the very weak emission of light by a planetary atmosphere. In the case of Earth's atmosphere, this optical phenomenon causes the night sky to never be completely dark .-Development:The airglow phenomenon was first identified in 1868 by Swedish scientist...
  
  
• Alcator C-Mod
  Alcator C-Mod
  Alcator C-Mod is a tokamak, a magnetically confined nuclear fusion device, at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center. It is the tokamak with the highest magnetic field and highest plasma pressure in the world...
  
  
• Alfvén wave
  Alfvén wave
  An Alfvén wave, named after Hannes Alfvén, is a type of magnetohydrodynamic wave.-Definition:An Alfvén wave in a plasma is a low-frequency travelling oscillation of the ions and the magnetic field...
  
  
• Ambipolar diffusion
  Ambipolar diffusion
  Ambipolar diffusion is diffusion of positive and negative particles in a plasma at the same rate due to their interaction via the electric field...
  
  
• Aneutronic fusion
  Aneutronic fusion
  Aneutronic fusion is any form of fusion power where neutrons carry no more than 1% of the total released energy. The most-studied fusion reactions release up to 80% of their energy in neutrons...
  
  
• Anisothermal plasma
  Anisothermal plasma
  An Anisothermal plasma is a plasma which thermal state can be approximated by more than one temperature for the different degrees of freedom of the plasma.The degrees of freedom refer to translation , rotation, vibration of each particle type....
  
  
• Anisotropy
  Anisotropy
  Anisotropy is the property of being directionally dependent, as opposed to isotropy, which implies identical properties in all directions. It can be defined as a difference, when measured along different axes, in a material's physical or mechanical properties An example of anisotropy is the light...
  
  
• Antiproton Decelerator
  Antiproton Decelerator
  The Antiproton Decelerator is a storage ring at the CERN laboratory in Geneva. It was built as a successor to the Low Energy Antiproton Ring and started operation in the year 2000...
  
  
• Appleton-Hartree equation
  Appleton-Hartree equation
  The Appleton-Hartree equation, sometimes also referred to as the Appleton-Lassen equation is a mathematical expression that describes the refractive index for electromagnetic wave propagation in a cold magnetized plasma...
  
  
• Arcing horns
  Arcing horns
  Arcing horns are projecting conductors used to protect insulators on high voltage electric power transmission systems from damage during flashover. Overvoltages on transmission lines, due to atmospheric electricity, lightning strikes, or electrical faults, can cause arcs across insulators that...
  
  
• Arc lamp
  Arc lamp
  "Arc lamp" or "arc light" is the general term for a class of lamps that produce light by an electric arc . The lamp consists of two electrodes, first made from carbon but typically made today of tungsten, which are separated by a gas...
  
  
• Arc suppression
  Arc suppression
  Arc suppression is a method of attempting to reduce to near elimination the luminous discharge of electrical current , between two electrodes, through a gas...
  
  
• ASDEX Upgrade
  ASDEX Upgrade
  ASDEX Upgrade is a divertor tokamak, that went into operation at the Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Garching in 1991...
  
   ,Axially Symmetric Divertor EXperiment
• Astron (fusion reactor)
  Astron (fusion reactor)
  The Astron is a type of fusion power device pioneered by Nicholas Christofilos and built at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory during the 1960s and 70s. Astron used a unique confinement system that avoided several of the problems found in contemporary designs like the stellarator and...
  
  
• Astronomy
  Astronomy
  Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
  
  
• Astrophysical plasma
  Astrophysical plasma
  An astrophysical plasma is a plasma the physical properties of which are studied as part of astrophysics. Much of the baryonic matter of the universe is thought to consist of plasma, a state of matter in which atoms and molecules are so hot, that they have ionized by breaking up into their...
  
  
• Astrophysical X-ray source
  Astrophysical X-ray source
  Astrophysical X-ray sources are astronomical objects with physical properties which result in the emission of X-rays.There are a number of types of astrophysical objects which emit X-rays, from galaxy clusters, through black holes in active galactic nuclei to galactic objects such as supernova...
  
  
• Atmospheric dynamo
  Atmospheric dynamo
  The Atmospheric dynamo is a pattern of electrical currents that are set up in the Earth's ionosphere by multiple effects, mostly the Sun's solar wind, but also the tides of the moon and Sun.The currents flow in circuits between the poles and the equator, but they are not well understood....
  
  
• Atmospheric escape
  Atmospheric escape
  Atmospheric escape is the loss of planetary atmospheric gases to outer space.- Thermal escape mechanisms :One classical thermal escape mechanism is Jeans escape. In a quantity of gas, the average velocity of a molecule is determined by temperature, but the velocity of individual molecules varies...
  
  
• Atmospheric pressure discharge
  Atmospheric pressure discharge
  An atmospheric pressure discharge is an electrical discharge in air at atmospheric pressure.An electrical discharge is a plasma, which is an ionized gas. Plasmas are sustained if there is a continuous source of energy to maintain the required degree of ionization and overcome the recombination...
  
  
• Atmospheric-pressure plasma
  Atmospheric-pressure plasma
  Atmospheric-pressure plasma is the name given to the special case of a plasma in which the pressure approximately matches that of the surrounding atmosphere – the so-called normal pressure....
  
  
• Atomic emission spectroscopy
  Atomic emission spectroscopy
  Atomic emission spectroscopy is a method of chemical analysis that uses the intensity of light emitted from a flame, plasma, arc, or spark at a particular wavelength to determine the quantity of an element in a sample...
  
  
• Aurora (astronomy)
  Aurora (astronomy)
  An aurora is a natural light display in the sky particularly in the high latitude regions, caused by the collision of energetic charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere...
  
  

B

• Babcock Model
  Babcock Model
  The Babcock Model describes a mechanism which can explain magnetic and sunspot patterns observed on the Sun.A modern understanding of sunspots starts with George Ellery Hale, in which magnetic fields and sunspots are linked. Hale suggested that the sunspot cycle period is 22 years, covering two...
  
  
• Ball lightning
  Ball lightning
  Ball lightning is an unexplained atmospheric electrical phenomenon. The term refers to reports of luminous, usually spherical objects which vary from pea-sized to several metres in diameter. It is usually associated with thunderstorms, but lasts considerably longer than the split-second flash of a...
  
  
• Ballooning instability
  Ballooning instability
  The ballooning instability, or ballooning mode, is a form of plasma instability seen in tokamak fusion power reactors. The name refers to the shape and action of the instability, which acts like the elongations formed in a balloon when it is squeezed....
  
  
• Baryon acoustic oscillations
  Baryon acoustic oscillations
  In cosmology, baryon acoustic oscillations refers to an overdensity or clustering of baryonic matter at certain length scales due to acoustic waves which propagated in the early universe. In the same way that supernova experiments provide a "standard candle" for astronomical observations, BAO...
  
  
• Beam-powered propulsion
  Beam-powered propulsion
  Beam-powered propulsion is a class of aircraft or spacecraft propulsion mechanisms that use energy beamed to the spacecraft from a remote power plant to provide energy...
  
  
• Beta (plasma physics)
  Beta (plasma physics)
  The beta of a plasma, symbolized by β, is the ratio of the plasma pressure to the magnetic pressure...
  
  
• Birkeland current
  Birkeland current
  A Birkeland current is a set of currents which flow along geomagnetic field line connecting the Earth’s magnetosphere to the Earth's high latitude ionosphere. They are a specific class of magnetic field-aligned currents. Lately, the term Birkeland currents has been expanded by some authors to...
  
  
• Blazar
  Blazar
  A blazar is a very compact quasar associated with a presumed supermassive black hole at the center of an active, giant elliptical galaxy...
  
  
• Bohm diffusion
• Bohr–van Leeuwen theorem
  Bohr–van Leeuwen theorem
  The Bohr–van Leeuwen theorem is a theorem in the field of statistical mechanics. The theorem shows that when statistical mechanics and classical mechanics are applied consistently, the thermal average of the magnetization is always zero...
  
  
• Boltzmann relation
  Boltzmann relation
  In a plasma, the Boltzmann relation describes the number density of an isothermal charged particle fluid when the thermal and the electrostatic forces acting on the fluid have reached equilibrium...
  
  
• Bow shock
  Bow shock
  A bow shock is the area between a magnetosphere and an ambient medium. For stars, this is typically the boundary between their stellar wind and the interstellar medium....
  
  
• Bremsstrahlung
  Bremsstrahlung
  Bremsstrahlung is electromagnetic radiation produced by the deceleration of a charged particle when deflected by another charged particle, typically an electron by an atomic nucleus. The moving particle loses kinetic energy, which is converted into a photon because energy is conserved. The term is...
  
  
• Bussard ramjet
  Bussard ramjet
  The Bussard ramjet is a theoretical method of spacecraft propulsion proposed in 1960 by the physicist Robert W. Bussard, popularized by Larry Niven in his Known Space series of books, and referred to by Carl Sagan in the television series and book Cosmos....
  
  

C

• Capacitive discharge
• Capacitively coupled plasma
  Capacitively coupled plasma
  A capacitively coupled plasma is one of the most common types of industrial plasma sources. It essentially consists of two metal electrodes separated by a small distance, placed in a reactor. The gas pressure in the reactor can be lower than atmosphere or it can be atmospheric.A typical CCP system...
  
  
• Carbon nanotube metal matrix composites
  Carbon nanotube metal matrix composites
  Carbon nanotube metal matrix composites are an emerging class of new materials that are being developed to take advantage of the high tensile strength and electrical conductivity of carbon nanotube materials...
  
  
• Cassini–Huygens ,Cassini Plasma Spectrometer
• Cathode ray
  Cathode ray
  Cathode rays are streams of electrons observed in vacuum tubes. If an evacuated glass tube is equipped with two electrodes and a voltage is applied, the glass opposite of the negative electrode is observed to glow, due to electrons emitted from and travelling perpendicular to the cathode Cathode...
  
  
• Cathodic arc deposition
  Cathodic Arc Deposition
  Cathodic arc deposition or Arc-PVD is a physical vapor deposition technique in which an electric arc is used to vaporize material from a cathode target. The vaporized material then condenses on a substrate, forming a thin film...
  
  
• Ceramic discharge metal-halide lamp
• Charge carrier
  Charge carrier
  In physics, a charge carrier is a free particle carrying an electric charge, especially the particles that carry electric currents in electrical conductors. Examples are electrons and ions...
  
  
• Charged-device model
  Charged-device model
  The charged-device model is a model for characterizing the susceptibility of an electronic device to damage from electrostatic discharge . The model is an alternative to the human-body model ....
  
  
• Charged particle
  Charged particle
  In physics, a charged particle is a particle with an electric charge. It may be either a subatomic particle or an ion. A collection of charged particles, or even a gas containing a proportion of charged particles, is called a plasma, which is called the fourth state of matter because its...
  
  
• Chemical vapor deposition
  Chemical vapor deposition
  Chemical vapor deposition is a chemical process used to produce high-purity, high-performance solid materials. The process is often used in the semiconductor industry to produce thin films. In a typical CVD process, the wafer is exposed to one or more volatile precursors, which react and/or...
  
  
• Chemical vapor deposition of diamond
  Chemical vapor deposition of diamond
  Chemical vapor deposition of diamond or CVD is a method of producing synthetic diamond by creating the circumstances necessary for carbon atoms in a gas to settle on a substrate in crystalline form....
  
  
• Chirikov criterion
  Chirikov criterion
  The Chirikov criterion or Chirikov resonance-overlap criterionwas established by the Russian physicist Boris Chirikov.Back in 1959, he published a seminal article ,...
  
  
• Chirped pulse amplification
  Chirped pulse amplification
  Chirped pulse amplification is a technique for amplifying an ultrashort laser pulse up to the petawatt level with the laser pulse being stretched out temporally and spectrally prior to amplification...
  
  
• Chromatography detector
  Chromatography detector
  A chromatography detector is a device used in gas chromatography or liquid chromatography to visualize components of the mixture being eluted off the chromatography column. There are two general types of detectors: destructive and non-destructive...
  
  
• Chromo–Weibel instability
• Classical-map hypernetted-chain method
• Cnoidal wave
  Cnoidal wave
  In fluid dynamics, a cnoidal wave is a nonlinear and exact periodic wave solution of the Korteweg–de Vries equation. These solutions are in terms of the Jacobi elliptic function cn, which is why they are coined cnoidal waves...
  
  
• Colored-particle-in-cell
  Colored-particle-in-cell
  A particle in cell simulation for non-Abelian particles and fields. Can be used to simulate an equilibrium or non-equilibrium quark-gluon plasma.-References:...
  
  
• Coilgun
  Coilgun
  A coilgun is a type of projectile accelerator that consists of one or more coils used as electromagnets in the configuration of a synchronous linear motor which accelerate a magnetic projectile to high velocity...
  
  
• Cold plasma ,Ozone generator
• Collisionality
• Colored-particle-in-cell
  Colored-particle-in-cell
  A particle in cell simulation for non-Abelian particles and fields. Can be used to simulate an equilibrium or non-equilibrium quark-gluon plasma.-References:...
  
  
• Columbia Non-neutral Torus
  Columbia Non-neutral Torus
  The Columbia Non-neutral Torus is a small stellarator at the Columbia University Plasma Physics Laboratory designed by Thomas Sunn Pedersen with the aid of Wayne Reiersen and Fred Dahlgren of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory to conduct the first investigation of non-neutral plasmas confined...
  
  
• Comet tail
  Comet tail
  A comet tail and coma are illuminated by the Sun and may become visible from Earth when a comet passes through the inner Solar System, the dust reflecting sunlight directly and the gases glowing from ionisation...
  
  
• Compact toroid
  Compact toroid
  Compact toroids are a class of toroidal plasma configurations that are self-stable, and whose configuration does not require magnet coils running through the center of the toroid. They are studied primarily in the field of fusion energy, where the lack of complex magnets and a simple geometry may...
  
  
• Compton–Getting effect
  Compton–Getting effect
  The Compton–Getting effect is an apparent anisotropy in the intensity of radiation or particles due to the relative motion between the observer and the source. This effect was first identified in the intensity of cosmic rays by Arthur Compton and Ivan A. Getting in 1935...
  
  
• Convection cell
  Convection cell
  A convection cell is a phenomenon of fluid dynamics that occurs in situations where there are density differences within a body of liquid or gas. The convection usually requires a gravitational field but in microgravity experiments, thermal convection has been observed without gravitational effects...
  
  
• Corona
  Corona
  A corona is a type of plasma "atmosphere" of the Sun or other celestial body, extending millions of kilometers into space, most easily seen during a total solar eclipse, but also observable in a coronagraph...
  
  
• Corona discharge
  Corona discharge
  In electricity, a corona discharge is an electrical discharge brought on by the ionization of a fluid surrounding a conductor that is electrically energized...
  
  
• Corona ring
  Corona ring
  A corona ring, also called anti-corona ring, is a toroid of conductive material located in the vicinity of a terminal of a high voltage device. It is electrically insulated. Stacks of more spaced rings are often used...
  
  
• Corona treatment
  Corona treatment
  Corona treatment is a surface modification technique that uses a low temperature corona discharge plasma to impart changes in the properties of a surface. The corona plasma is generated by the application of high voltage to sharp electrode tips which forms plasma at the ends of the sharp tips...
  
   ,Atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment, Chemical plasma , Flame plasma
• Coronal seismology
  Coronal seismology
  Coronal seismology is a technique of studying the plasma of the Sun's corona with the use of magnetohydrodynamic waves and oscillations. Magnetohydrodynamics studies the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids - in this case the fluid is the coronal plasma. Observed properties of the waves...
  
  
• Coronal loop
  Coronal loop
  Coronal loops form the basic structure of the lower corona and transition region of the Sun. These highly structured and elegant loops are a direct consequence of the twisted solar magnetic flux within the solar body. The population of coronal loops can be directly linked with the solar cycle; it...
  
  
• Coronal radiative losses
  Coronal radiative losses
  In astronomy and in astrophysics, for radiative losses of the solar corona, it is meant the energy flux irradiated from the external atmosphere of the Sun , and, in particular, the processes of production of the radiation coming from the solar corona and transition region, where the plasma is...
  
  
• Coronal seismology
  Coronal seismology
  Coronal seismology is a technique of studying the plasma of the Sun's corona with the use of magnetohydrodynamic waves and oscillations. Magnetohydrodynamics studies the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids - in this case the fluid is the coronal plasma. Observed properties of the waves...
  
  
• Cosmic microwave background radiation
  Cosmic microwave background radiation
  In cosmology, cosmic microwave background radiation is thermal radiation filling the observable universe almost uniformly....
  
  
• Cotton–Mouton effect
• Coulomb collision
  Coulomb collision
  A Coulomb collision is a binary elastic collision between two charged particles interacting through their own Electric Field. As with any inverse-square law, the resulting trajectories of the colliding particles is a hyperbolic Keplerian orbit...
  
  
• Coulomb explosion
  Coulomb explosion
  A Coulomb explosion is a mechanism for coupling electronic excitation energy from intense electromagnetic fields into atomic motion. The atomic motion can break the bonds that hold solids together...
  
  
• Columbia Non-neutral Torus
  Columbia Non-neutral Torus
  The Columbia Non-neutral Torus is a small stellarator at the Columbia University Plasma Physics Laboratory designed by Thomas Sunn Pedersen with the aid of Wayne Reiersen and Fred Dahlgren of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory to conduct the first investigation of non-neutral plasmas confined...
  
  
• Crackle tube
  Crackle tube
  A crackle tube is a type of plasma lamp that is used most commonly in museums, night clubs, movie sets, and other applications where its appearance may be appealing for entertainment. Such a device consists of a double walled glass tube with a hollow center. The cavity between the inner and outer...
  
  
• Critical ionization velocity
  Critical ionization velocity
  Critical ionization velocity is the relative velocity between a neutral gas and plasma , at which the neutral gas will start to ionize...
  
  
• Crookes tube
  Crookes tube
  A Crookes tube is an early experimental electrical discharge tube, invented by English physicist William Crookes and others around 1869-1875, in which cathode rays, that is electrons, were discovered....
  
  
• Current sheet
  Current sheet
  A current sheet is an electric current that is confined to a surface, rather than being spread through a volume of space. Current sheets feature in magnetohydrodynamics , the study of the behavior of electrically conductive fluids: if there is an electric current through part of the volume of such...
  
  
• Cutoff frequency
  Cutoff frequency
  In physics and electrical engineering, a cutoff frequency, corner frequency, or break frequency is a boundary in a system's frequency response at which energy flowing through the system begins to be reduced rather than passing through.Typically in electronic systems such as filters and...
  
  
• Cyclotron radiation
  Cyclotron radiation
  Cyclotron radiation is electromagnetic radiation emitted by moving charged particles deflected by a magnetic field. The Lorentz force on the particles acts perpendicular to both the magnetic field lines and the particles' motion through them, creating an acceleration of charged particles that...
  
  

D

• Debye length
  Debye length
  In plasma physics, the Debye length , named after the Dutch physicist and physical chemist Peter Debye, is the scale over which mobile charge carriers screen out electric fields in plasmas and other conductors. In other words, the Debye length is the distance over which significant charge...
  
  
• Debye sheath
  Debye sheath
  The Debye sheath is a layer in a plasma which has a greater density of positive ions, and hence an overall excess positive charge, that balances an opposite negative charge on the surface of a material with which it is in contact...
  
  
• Degenerate matter
  Degenerate matter
  Degenerate matter is matter that has such extraordinarily high density that the dominant contribution to its pressure is attributable to the Pauli exclusion principle. The pressure maintained by a body of degenerate matter is called the degeneracy pressure, and arises because the Pauli principle...
  
  
• Degree of ionization
  Degree of ionization
  The degree of ionization refers to the proportion of neutral particles, such as those in a gas or aqueous solution, that are ionized into charged particles...
  
  
• DEMO
  DEMO
  DEMO is a proposed nuclear fusion power plant that is intended to build upon the expected success of the ITER experimental nuclear fusion reactor. Whereas ITER's goal is to produce 500 megawatts of fusion power for at least 500 seconds, the goal of DEMO will be to produce at least four times that...
  
   ,DEMOnstration Power Plant
• Dense plasma focus
  Dense plasma focus
  A dense plasma focus is a machine that produces, by electromagnetic acceleration and compression, a short-lived plasma that is so hot and dense that it can cause nuclear fusion and emit X-rays. The electromagnetic compression of the plasma is called a pinch. It was invented in the early 1960s by...
  
  
• Diffusion damping
  Diffusion damping
  In modern cosmological theory, diffusion damping, also called photon diffusion damping, is a physical process which reduced density inequalities in the early universe, making the universe itself and the cosmic microwave background radiation more uniform...
  
  
• Dimensional analysis
  Dimensional analysis
  In physics and all science, dimensional analysis is a tool to find or check relations among physical quantities by using their dimensions. The dimension of a physical quantity is the combination of the basic physical dimensions which describe it; for example, speed has the dimension length per...
  
  
• Diocotron instability
  Diocotron instability
  A diocotron instability is a plasma instability created by two sheets of charge slipping past each other. Energy is dissipated in the form of two surface waves propagating in opposite directions, with one flowing over the other. This instability is the plasma analog of the Kelvin-Helmholtz...
  
  
• Direct-current discharge
  Direct-current discharge
  A direct-current discharge is an electrical discharge, also known as plasma, sustained by a direct current through an ionized medium, e.g. a gas.Examples of applications of DC discharges include welding and light generation....
  
  
• Directed-energy weapon
  Directed-energy weapon
  A directed-energy weapon emits energy in an aimed direction without the means of a projectile. It transfers energy to a target for a desired effect. Intended effects may be non-lethal or lethal...
  
  
• Direct bonding
  Direct bonding
  Direct bonding describes a wafer bonding process without any additional intermediate layers. The bonding process is based on chemical bonds between two surfaces of any material possible meeting numerous requirements....
  
  
• Distribution function
  Distribution function
  In molecular kinetic theory in physics, a particle's distribution function is a function of seven variables, f, which gives the number of particles per unit volume in phase space. It is the number of particles per unit volume having approximately the velocity near the place and time...
  
  
• Doppler broadening
  Doppler broadening
  In atomic physics, Doppler broadening is the broadening of spectral lines due to the Doppler effect caused by a distribution of velocities of atoms or molecules. Different velocities of the emitting particles result in different shifts, the cumulative effect of which is the line broadening.The...
  
  
• Doppler effect
  Doppler effect
  The Doppler effect , named after Austrian physicist Christian Doppler who proposed it in 1842 in Prague, is the change in frequency of a wave for an observer moving relative to the source of the wave. It is commonly heard when a vehicle sounding a siren or horn approaches, passes, and recedes from...
  
  
• Double layer (plasma)
  Double layer (plasma)
  A double layer is a structure in a plasma and consists of two parallel layers with opposite electrical charge. The sheets of charge cause a strong electric field and a correspondingly sharp change in voltage across the double layer. Ions and electrons which enter the double layer are accelerated,...
  
  
• Dual segmented Langmuir probe
  Dual segmented Langmuir probe
  Dual Segmented Langmuir Probe is an instrument developed primarily by Czech researchers and engineers to study the magnetospheric background plasma flown on-board the spacecraft of the European Space Agency Proba 2....
  
   ,Non-Maxwellian Features in Ionospheric Plasma
• Duoplasmatron
  Duoplasmatron
  Duoplasmatron, an invention of Manfred von Ardenne, is a type of ion beam source. The duoplasmatron operates as follows: a cathode filament emits electrons into a vacuum chamber. A gas such as argon is introduced in very small quantities into the chamber, where it becomes charged or ionized through...
  
  
• Dusty plasma
  Dusty plasma
  A dusty plasma is a plasma containing nanometer or micrometer-sized particles suspended in it. Dust particles may be charged and the plasma and particles behave as a plasma, following electromagnetic laws for particles up to about 10 nm...
  
  
• Dynamo theory
  Dynamo theory
  In geophysics, dynamo theory proposes a mechanism by which a celestial body such as the Earth or a star generates a magnetic field. The theory describes the process through which a rotating, convecting, and electrically conducting fluid can maintain a magnetic field over astronomical time...
  
  

E

• EAST
  EAST
  The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak is an experimental superconducting tokamak magnetic fusion energy reactor in Hefei, the capital city of Anhui Province, in eastern China. The experiment is being conducted by the Hefei-based Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of...
  
   , Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak
• Eddington luminosity
  Eddington luminosity
  The Eddington luminosity in a star is defined as the point where the gravitational force inwards equals the continuum radiation force outwards, assuming hydrostatic equilibrium and spherical symmetry. When exceeding the Eddington luminosity, a star would initiate a very intense continuum-driven...
  
  
• Edge-localized mode
• Ekman number
  Ekman number
  The Ekman number is a dimensionless number used in describing geophysical phenomena in the oceans and atmosphere. It characterises the ratio of viscous forces in a fluid to the fictitious forces arising from planetary rotation...
  
  
• Elastic collision
  Elastic collision
  An elastic collision is an encounter between two bodies in which the total kinetic energy of the two bodies after the encounter is equal to their total kinetic energy before the encounter...
  
  
• Electrical breakdown
  Electrical breakdown
  The term electrical breakdown or electric breakdown has several similar but distinctly different meanings. For example, the term can apply to the failure of an electric circuit....
  
  
• Electrical conductor
  Electrical conductor
  In physics and electrical engineering, a conductor is a material which contains movable electric charges. In metallic conductors such as copper or aluminum, the movable charged particles are electrons...
  
  
• Electrical mobility
  Electrical mobility
  Electrical mobility is the ability of charged particles to move through a medium in response to an electric field that is pulling them...
  
  
• Electrical resistance and conductance
• Electrical resistivity and conductivity
  Electrical resistivity and conductivity
  Electrical resistivity is a measure of how strongly a material opposes the flow of electric current. A low resistivity indicates a material that readily allows the movement of electric charge. The SI unit of electrical resistivity is the ohm metre...
  
  
• Electrically powered spacecraft propulsion
• Electric-field screening
• Electric arc
  Electric arc
  An electric arc is an electrical breakdown of a gas which produces an ongoing plasma discharge, resulting from a current flowing through normally nonconductive media such as air. A synonym is arc discharge. An arc discharge is characterized by a lower voltage than a glow discharge, and relies on...
  
  
• Electric arc furnace
  Electric arc furnace
  An electric arc furnace is a furnace that heats charged material by means of an electric arc.Arc furnaces range in size from small units of approximately one ton capacity up to about 400 ton units used for secondary steelmaking...
  
   ,Plasma arc furnace
• Electric current
  Electric current
  Electric current is a flow of electric charge through a medium.This charge is typically carried by moving electrons in a conductor such as wire...
  
  
• Electric discharge
  Electric discharge
  Electric discharge describes any flow of electric charge through a gas, liquid or solid. Electric discharges include:*Electric glow discharge*Electric arc*Electrostatic discharge*Electric discharge in gases*Leader *Partial discharge...
  
  
• Electric glow discharge
  Electric glow discharge
  An electric glow discharge is a plasma formed by the passage of current at 100 V to several kV through a gas, often argon or another noble gas. It is found in products such as neon lamps and plasma-screen televisions, and is used in plasma physics and analytical chemistry.-Basic operating...
  
  
• Electric spark
  Electric spark
  An electric spark is a type of electrostatic discharge that occurs when an electric field creates an ionized electrically conductive channel in air producing a brief emission of light and sound. A spark is formed when the electric field strength exceeds the dielectric field strength of air...
  
  
• Electric Tokamak
  Electric Tokamak
  The UCLA Electric Tokamak is a low field magnetic fusion tokamak device with a large aspect ratio.The machine has a major radius of 5 metres, a minor radius of 1 metre, plasma current of 45 kiloamperes and can produce a core electron plasma temperature of 300 electronvolts. First plasma was...
  
  
• Electrothermal-chemical technology
  Electrothermal-chemical technology
  Electrothermal-chemical technology is an attempt to increase accuracy and muzzle energy of future tank, artillery, and close-in weapon system guns by improving the predictability and rate of expansion of propellants inside the barrel....
  
   ,uses plasma cartridge, Triple coaxial plasma igniter
• Electrodeless plasma excitation
• Electrodeless plasma thruster
  Electrodeless plasma thruster
  The electrodeless plasma thruster is a spacecraft propulsion engine. It was created by Mr. Gregory Emsellem based on technology developed by French Atomic Energy Commission scientist Dr Richard Geller and Dr...
  
  
• Electrodynamic tether
  Electrodynamic tether
  Electrodynamic tethers are long conducting wires, such as one deployed from a tether satellite, which can operate on electromagnetic principles as generators, by converting their kinetic energy to electrical energy, or as motors, converting electrical energy to kinetic energy...
  
   , Flowing Plasma Effect
• Electrohydrodynamic thruster
  Electrohydrodynamic thruster
  An electrohydrodynamic thruster is a high voltage device that propels air or fluids to achieve relative motion. EHD thrusters, unlike ion thrusters, do not carry their own propellant and thus cannot operate in space or vacuum....
  
  
• Electrolaser
  Electrolaser
  An electrolaser is a type of electroshock weapon which is also a directed-energy weapon. It uses lasers to form an electrically conductive laser-induced plasma channel...
  
   ,Laser-induced plasma channel
• Electromagnetic electron wave
  Electromagnetic electron wave
  An electromagnetic electron wave is a wave in a plasma which has a magnetic field component and in which primarily the electrons oscillate.In an unmagnetized plasma, an electromagnetic electron wave is simply a light wave modified by the plasma...
  
  
• Electromagnetic field
  Electromagnetic field
  An electromagnetic field is a physical field produced by moving electrically charged objects. It affects the behavior of charged objects in the vicinity of the field. The electromagnetic field extends indefinitely throughout space and describes the electromagnetic interaction...
  
  
• Electromagnetic spectrum
  Electromagnetic spectrum
  The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all possible frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. The "electromagnetic spectrum" of an object is the characteristic distribution of electromagnetic radiation emitted or absorbed by that particular object....
  
  
• Electromagnetic weapon
  Electromagnetic Weapon
  Electromagnetic weapons are a type of directed energy weapons which use electromagnetic radiation to deliver heat, mechanical, or electrical energy to a target to cause various, sometimes very subtle, effects. They can be used against humans, electronic equipment, and military targets generally,...
  
  
• Electron-cloud effect
  Electron-Cloud Effect
  The electron-cloud effect is a phenomenon associated with particle accelerators.- Explanation :Electron clouds are created when accelerated charged particles disturb stray electrons already floating in the tube, and bounce or slingshot the electrons into the wall. These stray electrons can be...
  
  
• Electron avalanche
  Electron avalanche
  An electron avalanche is a process in which a number of free electrons in a medium are subjected to strong acceleration by an electric field, ionizing the medium's atoms by collision , thereby forming "new" electrons to undergo the same process in successive cycles...
  
  
• Electron beam ion trap
  Electron beam ion trap
  Electron beam ion trap is used in physics to denote an electromagnetic bottle that produces and confines highly charged ions.It was invented by M. Levine and R...
  
  
• Electron cyclotron resonance
  Electron cyclotron resonance
  Electron cyclotron resonance is a phenomenon observed both in plasma physics and condensed matter physics. An electron in a static and uniform magnetic field will move in a circle due to the Lorentz force...
  
  
• Electron gun
  Electron gun
  An electron gun is an electrical component that produces an electron beam that has a precise kinetic energy and is most often used in television sets and computer displays which use cathode ray tube technology, as well as in other instruments, such as electron microscopes and particle...
  
  
• Electron spiral toroid
  Electron spiral toroid
  Electron Power Systems, Inc. of Acton, Massachusetts, United States, claims to have developed a technology for maintaining small stable plasma toroids called electron spiral toroids which remain stable in Earth's atmosphere without the use of any special magnetic fields...
  
  
• Electron temperature
  Electron temperature
  If the velocities of a group of electrons, e.g., in a plasma, follow a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, then the electron temperature is well-defined as the temperature of that distribution...
  
  
• Electronvolt
  Electronvolt
  In physics, the electron volt is a unit of energy equal to approximately joule . By definition, it is equal to the amount of kinetic energy gained by a single unbound electron when it accelerates through an electric potential difference of one volt...
  
  
• Electron wake
  Electron wake
  Electron wake is the disturbance left after a high-energy charged particle passesthrough condensed matter or plasma. Ions passing through can introduce periodic oscillations in the crystal lattice or plasma wave with the characteristic frequency of the crystal or plasma frequency...
  
  
• Electrostatic discharge
  Electrostatic discharge
  Electrostatic discharge is a serious issue in solid state electronics, such as integrated circuits. Integrated circuits are made from semiconductor materials such as silicon and insulating materials such as silicon dioxide...
  
  
• Electrostatic ion cyclotron wave
  Electrostatic ion cyclotron wave
  An electrostatic ion cyclotron wave is a longitudinal oscillation of the ions in a magnetized plasma, propagating nearly perpendicular to the magnetic field...
  
  
• Electrostatic ion thruster
  Electrostatic ion thruster
  An electrostatic ion thruster is a design for ion thrusters . These designs use high voltage electrodes in order to accelerate ions with electrostatic forces.-History:...
  
  
• Electrothermal instability
  Electrothermal instability
  The electrothermal instability is a magnetohydrodynamic instability appearing in magnetized non-thermal plasmas used in MHD converters...
  
  
• Electroweak epoch
  Electroweak epoch
  In physical cosmology the electroweak epoch was the period in the evolution of the early universe when the temperature of the universe was high enough to merge electromagnetism and the weak interaction into a single electroweak interaction . The electroweak epoch began when the strong force...
  
  
• Elliptic flow
  Elliptic flow
  The elliptic flow is described as one of the most important observations measured at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider . It is one of the strongest evidences for the Quark-gluon plasma discovery. It describes the azimuthal momentum space anisotropy of particle emission from non-central heavy-ion...
  
  
• Emission spectrum
  Emission spectrum
  The emission spectrum of a chemical element or chemical compound is the spectrum of frequencies of electromagnetic radiation emitted by the element's atoms or the compound's molecules when they are returned to a lower energy state....
  
  
• Energetic neutral atom
  Energetic neutral atom
  Energetic neutral atom imaging, often described as "seeing with atoms", is a technology used to create global images of otherwise invisible phenomena in the magnetospheres of planets and at the boundary of the heliosphere - the far flung outer edge of the solar system.ENA images are constructed...
  
  
• Energy density
  Energy density
  Energy density is a term used for the amount of energy stored in a given system or region of space per unit volume. Often only the useful or extractable energy is quantified, which is to say that chemically inaccessible energy such as rest mass energy is ignored...
  
  
• Evanescent wave
  Evanescent wave
  An evanescent wave is a nearfield standing wave with an intensity that exhibits exponential decay with distance from the boundary at which the wave was formed. Evanescent waves are a general property of wave-equations, and can in principle occur in any context to which a wave-equation applies...
  
  
• Evershed effect
  Evershed effect
  The Evershed effect, named after the British astronomer John Evershed, is the radial flow of gas across the photospheric surface of the penumbra of sunspots from the inner border with the umbra towards the outer edge....
  
  
• Extreme ultraviolet lithography
  Extreme ultraviolet lithography
  Extreme ultraviolet lithography is a next-generation lithography technology using an extreme ultraviolet wavelength, currently expected to be 13.5 nm.-EUVL light source:...
  
  

F

• Far-infrared laser
• Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer
  Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer
  The Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on board a Pegasus XL rocket on August 21, 1996. One in the series of NASA's Small Explorer spacecraft, FAST was designed to observe and measure the plasma physics of the auroral phenomena which occur around both poles...
  
  
• Ferritic nitrocarburizing
  Ferritic nitrocarburizing
  Ferritic nitrocarburizing is a range of case hardening processes that diffuse nitrogen and carbon into ferrous metals at sub-critical temperatures. The processing temperature ranges from to , but usually occurs at...
  
   ,Plasma-assisted ferritic nitrocarburizing, plasma ion nitriding
• Ferrofluid
  Ferrofluid
  A ferrofluid is a liquid which becomes strongly magnetized in the presence of a magnetic field.Ferrofluids are colloidal liquids made of nanoscale ferromagnetic, or ferrimagnetic, particles suspended in a carrier fluid . Each tiny particle is thoroughly coated with a surfactant to inhibit clumping...
  
  
• Field line
  Field line
  A field line is a locus that is defined by a vector field and a starting location within the field. Field lines are useful for visualizing vector fields, which are otherwise hard to depict...
  
  
• Field-reversed configuration
  Field-Reversed Configuration
  A Field-Reversed Configuration is a device developed for magnetic fusion energy research that confines a plasma on closed magnetic field lines without a central penetration....
  
  
• Filament propagation
  Filament propagation
  In nonlinear optics, filament propagation is propagation of a beam of light through a medium without diffraction. This is possible because the Kerr effect causes an index of refraction change in the medium, resulting in self-focusing of the beam....
  
  
• Fire
  Fire
  Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
  
  
• Fisher's equation
  Fisher's equation
  In mathematics, Fisher's equation, also known as the Fisher-Kolmogorov equation and the Fisher-KPP equation, named after R. A. Fisher and A. N...
  
  
• Flare spray
• Flashtube
  Flashtube
  A flashtube, also called a flashlamp, is an electric arc lamp designed to produce extremely intense, incoherent, full-spectrum white light for very short durations. Flashtubes are made of a length of glass tubing with electrodes at either end and are filled with a gas that, when triggered, ionizes...
  
  
• Flowing-afterglow mass spectrometry
• Fluid dynamics
  Fluid dynamics
  In physics, fluid dynamics is a sub-discipline of fluid mechanics that deals with fluid flow—the natural science of fluids in motion. It has several subdisciplines itself, including aerodynamics and hydrodynamics...
  
  
• Fluorescent lamp
  Fluorescent lamp
  A fluorescent lamp or fluorescent tube is a gas-discharge lamp that uses electricity to excite mercury vapor. The excited mercury atoms produce short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor to fluoresce, producing visible light. A fluorescent lamp converts electrical power into useful...
  
  
• Forbidden mechanism
  Forbidden mechanism
  In physics, a forbidden mechanism or forbidden line is a spectral line emitted by atoms undergoing nominally "forbidden" energy transitions not normally allowed by the selection rules of quantum mechanics. In formal physics, this means that the process cannot proceed via the most efficient route...
  
  
• Force-free magnetic field
  Force-free magnetic field
  A force-free magnetic field is a type of field which arises as a special case from the magnetostatic equation in plasmas. This special case arises when the plasma pressure is so small, relative to the magnetic pressure, that the plasma pressure may be ignored, and so only the magnetic pressure is...
  
  
• Free electron model
  Free electron model
  In solid-state physics, the free electron model is a simple model for the behaviour of valence electrons in a crystal structure of a metallic solid. It was developed principally by Arnold Sommerfeld who combined the classical Drude model with quantum mechanical Fermi-Dirac statistics and hence it...
  
  
• Frequency classification of plasmas
  Frequency classification of plasmas
  Electrical discharges applied in a plasma source for the generation of plasmas can be classified by the frequency of the exciting field. A rough classification is:*Direct current discharge *Pulsed DC discharge...
  
  
• Fusion energy gain factor
  Fusion energy gain factor
  The fusion energy gain factor, usually expressed with the symbol Q, is the ratio of fusion power produced in a nuclear fusion reactor to the power required to maintain the plasma in steady state. The condition of Q = 1 is referred to as breakeven.In a fusion power reactor a plasma must be...
  
  
• Fusion power
  Fusion power
  Fusion power is the power generated by nuclear fusion processes. In fusion reactions two light atomic nuclei fuse together to form a heavier nucleus . In doing so they release a comparatively large amount of energy arising from the binding energy due to the strong nuclear force which is manifested...
  
  
• fusor
  Fusor
  The Farnsworth–Hirsch fusor, or simply fusor, is an apparatus designed by Philo T. Farnsworth to create nuclear fusion. It has also been developed in various incarnations by researchers including Elmore, Tuck, and Watson, and more recently by George H. Miley and Robert W. Bussard...
  
  

G

• Galactic halo
  Galactic halo
  The term galactic halo is used to denote an extended, roughly spherical component of a galaxy, which extends beyond the main, visible component. It can refer to any of several distinct components which share these properties:* the galactic spheroid...
  
   ,galactic corona
• Gas-filled tube
  Gas-filled tube
  A gas-filled tube, also known as a discharge tube, is an arrangement of electrodes in a gas within an insulating, temperature-resistant envelope. Although the envelope is typically glass, power tubes often use ceramics, and military tubes often use glass-lined metal...
  
  
• Gas core reactor rocket
  Gas core reactor rocket
  Gas core reactor rockets are a conceptual type of rocket that is propelled by the exhausted coolant of a gaseous fission reactor. The nuclear fission reactor core may be either a gas or plasma...
  
  
• Gas cracker
  Gas cracker
  A gas cracker is any device that splits the molecules in a gas or liquid, usually by electrolysis, into atoms. The end product is usually a gas. A hydrocracker is an example of a gas cracker. In nature, molecules are split often, such as in food digestion and microbial digestion activity. A gas...
  
   ,plasma cracking
• Gas focusing
  Gas focusing
  Gas focusing, also known as ionic focusing.Rather than being dispersed, a beam of charged particles travelling in an inert gas environment sometimes becomes narrower...
  
  
• Gasification
  Gasification
  Gasification is a process that converts organic or fossil based carbonaceous materials into carbon monoxide, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and methane. This is achieved by reacting the material at high temperatures , without combustion, with a controlled amount of oxygen and/or steam...
  
   , Plasma gasifier
• Geissler tube
  Geissler tube
  A Geissler tube is an early gas discharge tube used to demonstrate the principles of electrical glow discharge. The tube was invented by the German physicist and glassblower Heinrich Geissler in 1857...
  
  
• General Fusion
  General Fusion
  General Fusion is a Canadian company based in Burnaby, British Columbia created for the development of nuclear fusion.They hope to demonstrate their magnetized target fusion technology by 2013...
  
  
• Geomagnetic storm
  Geomagnetic storm
  A geomagnetic storm is a temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere caused by a disturbance in the interplanetary medium. A geomagnetic storm is a major component of space weather and provides the input for many other components of space weather...
  
  
• Geothermal Anywhere
  Geothermal Anywhere
  Geothermal Anywhere is a research company headquartered in Bratislava, Slovakia founded in 1994. Its core business is research and developments in deep drilling applications based on technology of high-energetic electrical plasma. GA has developed an innovative deep drilling system whose aim is to...
  
  
• Glasser effect
  Glasser effect
  The Glasser effect describes the creation of singularities in the flow field of a magnetically confined plasma when small resonant preturbations modify the gradient of the pressure field.- External links :*...
  
  
• Glass frit bonding
  Glass frit bonding
  Glass frit bonding, also referred to as glass soldering or seal glass bonding, describes a wafer bonding technique with an intermediate glass layer. It is a widely used encapsulation technology for surface micro-machined structures, i.e. accelerometers or gyroscopes. This technique utilizes low...
  
  
• Grad–Shafranov equation
• Granule (solar physics)
  Granule (solar physics)
  Granules on the photosphere of the Sun are caused by convection currents of plasma within the Sun's convective zone. The grainy appearance of the solar photosphere is produced by the tops of these convective cells and is called granulation.The rising part of the granules is located in the center...
  
  
• Great Rift (astronomy)
  Great Rift (astronomy)
  In astronomy, the Great Rift is a series of overlapping, non-luminous, molecular dust clouds that are located between the Solar System and the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy at a distance of about 100 parsecs or about 300 light years from Earth...
  
  
• GreenSun Energy
  GreenSun Energy
  GreenSun Energy is a Jerusalem-based Israeli company that has developed a new process for producing electricity from solar energy. As The Economist points our, solar energy is a logical development since "Israel is a country with plenty of sunshine, lots of sand and quite a few clever physicists...
  
  
• Guiding center
  Guiding center
  In many cases of practical interest, the motion in a magnetic field of an electrically charged particle can be treated as the superposition of a relatively fast circular motion around a point called the guiding center and a relatively slow drift of this point...
  
  
• GYRO
  GYRO
  GYRO is a computational plasma physics code developed and maintained at General Atomics. It solves the 5-D coupled gyrokinetic-Maxwell equations using a combination of finite difference, finite element and spectral methods. Given plasma equilibrium data, GYRO can determine the rate of turbulent...
  
  
• Gyrokinetic ElectroMagnetic
  Gyrokinetic ElectroMagnetic
  GEM is short for Gyrokinetic ElectroMagnetic. GEM is a gyrokinetic plasma turbulence simulation that uses the \delta f particle-in-cell method. It is used to study waves, instabilities and nonlinear behavior of tokamak fusion plasmas...
  
  
• Gyrokinetics
  Gyrokinetics
  Gyrokinetics is a branch of plasma physics derived from kinetics and electromagnetism used to describe the low-frequency phenomena in a plasma. The trajectory of charged particles in a magnetic field is a helix that winds around the field line...
  
  
• Gyroradius

H

• Hadronization
  Hadronization
  In particle physics, hadronization is the process of the formation of hadrons out of quarks and gluons. This occurs after high-energy collisions in a particle collider in which free quarks or gluons are created. Due to postulated colour confinement, these cannot exist individually...
  
  
• Hagedorn temperature
  Hagedorn temperature
  The Hagedorn temperature in theoretical physics is the temperature above which the partition sum diverges in a system with exponential growth in the density of states. It is named after German physicist Rolf Hagedorn.Phase transitions The Hagedorn temperature in theoretical physics is the...
  
   , Transition to Quark-Gluon Plasma
• Hall effect thruster
  Hall effect thruster
  In spacecraft propulsion, a Hall thruster is a type of ion thruster in which the propellant is accelerated by an electric field. Hall thrusters trap electrons in a magnetic field and then use the electrons to ionize propellant, efficiently accelerate the ions to produce thrust, and neutralize the...
  
  
• Hasegawa–Mima equation
• Heat shield
  Heat shield
  A heat shield is designed to shield a substance from absorbing excessive heat from an outside source by either dissipating, reflecting or simply absorbing the heat...
  
  
• Heat torch
  Heat Torch
  A heat torch is a tool or device that is used to heat up a substance quickly, whether it is air, metal, plastic, or other materials. Heat Torches typically provide a way to quickly heat a concentrated area of material for uses such as molding, metallurgy, hardening, and solidification.-Medical...
  
  
• Helically Symmetric Experiment
  Helically Symmetric Experiment
  The Helically Symmetric eXperiment is an experimental plasma confinement device at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose design principles are hoped to be incorporated into a fusion reactor...
  
  
• Helicon Double Layer Thruster
  Helicon Double Layer Thruster
  The Helicon Double Layer Thruster is a prototype spacecraft propulsion engine. It was created by Australian scientist Dr. Christine Charles, based on a technology invented by Professor Rod Boswell, both of the Australian National University....
  
  
• Helicon (physics)
  Helicon (physics)
  A helicon is a low frequency electromagnetic wave that can exist in plasmas in the presence of a magnetic field. The first helicons observed were atmospheric whistlers, but they also exist in solid conductors or any other electromagnetic plasma....
  
  
• Heliosphere
  Heliosphere
  The heliosphere is a bubble in space "blown" into the interstellar medium by the solar wind. Although electrically neutral atoms from interstellar volume can penetrate this bubble, virtually all of the material in the heliosphere emanates from the Sun itself...
  
  
• Heliospheric current sheet
  Heliospheric current sheet
  The heliospheric current sheet is the surface within the Solar System where the polarity of the Sun's magnetic field changes from north to south. This field extends throughout the Sun's equatorial plane in the heliosphere. The shape of the current sheet results from the influence of the Sun's...
  
  
• Helium line ratio
  Helium line ratio
  The brightness of an atomic spectral line emitted by atoms in a gas can be proportional to the gas's temperature, pressure or a weighted sum of both....
  
  
• Helmet streamer
  Helmet streamer
  Helmet streamers are bright loop-like structures which develop over active regions on the sun. They are closed magnetic loops which connect regions of opposite magnetic polarity. Electrons are captured in these loops, and cause them to glow very brightly. The solar wind elongates these loops to...
  
  
• Hessdalen light
  Hessdalen light
  The Hessdalen Light is unexplained light usually seen in the Hessdalen valley in the municipality of Holtålen in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway.-History and description:Unusual lights have been reported here since 1940s or earlier...
  
  
• High energy nuclear physics
• High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program
  High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program
  The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program is an ionospheric research program jointly funded by the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, the University of Alaska, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ....
  
  
• High-intensity discharge lamp
  High-intensity discharge lamp
  High-intensity discharge lamps are a type of electrical lamp which produces light by means of an electric arc between tungsten electrodes housed inside a translucent or transparent fused quartz or fused alumina arc tube. This tube is filled with both gas and metal salts. The gas facilitates the...
  
  
• High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering
  High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering
  High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering is a method for physical vapor deposition of thin films which is based on magnetron sputter deposition...
  
  
• High voltage
  High voltage
  The term high voltage characterizes electrical circuits in which the voltage used is the cause of particular safety concerns and insulation requirements...
  
  
• HiPER
  HiPER
  The High Power laser Energy Research facility , is an experimental laser-driven inertial confinement fusion device undergoing preliminary design for possible construction in the European Union starting around 2010...
  
   ,High Power laser Energy Research facility
• Hiss (electromagnetic)
  Hiss (electromagnetic)
  Electromagnetic hiss is a naturally occurring Extremely Low Frequency/Very Low Frequency electromagnetic wave that is generated in the plasma of either the Earth's ionosphere or magnetosphere...
  
   ,Plasmaspheric hiss
• History of X-ray astronomy
  History of X-ray astronomy
  History of X-ray astronomy begins in the 1920's with interest in short wave communications for the U.S. Navy. This led to the study of the ionosphere. By 1927 interest in going beyond studies with short waves led to developing theories pertaining to putting Goddard's rockets into the upper...
  
  
• Hollow-cathode lamp
• Holtsmark distribution
  Holtsmark distribution
  The Holtsmark distribution is a continuous probability distribution. The Holtsmark distribution is a special case of a stable distribution with the index of stability or shape parameter \alpha equal to 3/2 and skewness parameter \beta of zero. Since \beta equals zero, the distribution is...
  
  
• Homopolar generator
  Homopolar generator
  A homopolar generator is a DC electrical generator comprising an electrically conductive disc rotating in a plane perpendicular to a uniform static magnetic field. A potential difference is created between the center of the disc and the rim, the electrical polarity depending on the direction of...
  
  
• Horizon problem
  Horizon problem
  The horizon problem is a problem with the standard cosmological model of the Big Bang which was identified in the 1970s. It points out that different regions of the universe have not "contacted" each other because of the great distances between them, but nevertheless they have the same temperature...
  
  
• Hypernova
  Hypernova
  Hypernova , also known as a type 1c Supernova, refers to an incredibly large star that collapses at the end of its lifespan...
  
  
• Hypersonic speed
• Hypersonic wind tunnel
  Hypersonic wind tunnel
  A hypersonic wind tunnel is designed to generate a hypersonic flow field in the working section. The speed of these tunnels vary from Mach 5 to 15. As with supersonic wind tunnels, these types of tunnels must run intermittently with very high pressure ratios when initializing.Since the temperature...
  
  
• Hypervelocity
  Hypervelocity
  The term hypervelocity usually refers to a very high velocity, approximately over 3,000 meters per second . In particular, it refers to velocities so high that the strength of materials upon impact is very small compared to inertial stresses. Thus, even metals behave like fluids under hypervelocity...
  
  

I

• IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society
  IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society
  The IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society is a transnational group of about 3000 professional engineers and scientists. The IEEE-affiliated Society sponsors 5 major annual, and six biennial conferences and symposia...
  
  
• IGNITOR
  IGNITOR
  IGNITOR is the Italian name for a nuclear research project of magnetic confinement fusion, developed by ENEA Laboratories in Frascati.The project theory is based on ignited plasma in tokamak. Started in 1977 by Prof...
  
  
• IMPACT
  IMPACT
  This article is on the international collaboration called IMPACT. For the charitable organisation, see IMPACT . For the Irish trade union, see Irish Municipal, Public and Civil Trade Union...
  
  
• Impalefection
  Impalefection
  Impalefection is a method of gene delivery using nanomaterials, such as carbon nanofibers, carbon nanotubes, nanowires Ref.1. Needle-like nanostructures are synthesized perpendicular to the surface of a substrate. Plasmid DNA containing the gene, intended for intracellular delivery, is attached to...
  
  
• Impulse generator
  Impulse generator
  An Impulse generator is an electrical apparatus which produces very short high-voltage or high-current surges. Such devices can be classified into two types: impulse voltage generators and impulse current generators. High impulse voltages are used to test the strength of electric power equipment...
  
  
• Incoherent scatter
  Incoherent scatter
  Incoherent scattering is a type of scattering phenomenon in physics, which may involve various particles, such as neutrons or photons.One application is a ground-based technique for studying the Earth's ionosphere. A radar beam scattering off electrons in the ionospheric plasma creates an...
  
  
• Induction plasma technology
  Induction plasma technology
  The 1960s were the incipient period of Thermal Plasma Technology, driven by the necessity of aerospace programs. Among the various methods of thermal plasma generation, induction plasma takes up an important role....
  
  
• Inductively coupled plasma
  Inductively coupled plasma
  An inductively coupled plasma is a type of plasma source in which the energy is supplied by electric currents which are produced by electromagnetic induction, that is, by time-varying magnetic fields.-Operation:...
  
  
• inertial confinement fusion
  Inertial confinement fusion
  Inertial confinement fusion is a process where nuclear fusion reactions are initiated by heating and compressing a fuel target, typically in the form of a pellet that most often contains a mixture of deuterium and tritium....
  
  
• Inertial electrostatic confinement
  Inertial electrostatic confinement
  Inertial electrostatic confinement is a concept for retaining a plasma using an electrostatic field. The field accelerates charged particles radially inward, usually in a spherical but sometimes in a cylindrical geometry. Ions can be confined with IEC in order to achieve controlled nuclear fusion...
  
  
• Inertial fusion power plant
  Inertial fusion power plant
  An inertial fusion power plant is intended to produce electric power by use of inertial confinement fusion techniques on an industrial scale. This type of power plant is still in a research phase....
  
  
• Instability
  Instability
  In numerous fields of study, the component of instability within a system is generally characterized by some of the outputs or internal states growing without bounds...
  
  
• Insulated-gate bipolar transistor
• Insulator (electrical)
• Intergalactic medium
• International Reference Ionosphere
  International Reference Ionosphere
  International Reference Ionosphere is a common permanent scientific project of the Committee on Space Research and the International Union of Radio Science started 1968/69...
  
  
• Interplanetary magnetic field
  Interplanetary Magnetic Field
  The interplanetary magnetic field is the term for the solar magnetic field carried by the solar wind among the planets of the Solar System....
  
  
• Interplanetary medium
  Interplanetary medium
  The interplanetary medium is the material which fills the solar system and through which all the larger solar system bodies such as planets, asteroids and comets move.-Composition and physical characteristics:...
  
  
• Interplanetary scintillation
  Interplanetary scintillation
  In astronomy, interplanetary scintillation refers to random fluctuations in the intensity of radio waves of celestial origin, on the timescale of a few seconds. It is analogous to the twinkling one sees looking at stars in the sky at night, but in the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum...
  
  
• Interstellar medium
  Interstellar medium
  In astronomy, the interstellar medium is the matter that exists in the space between the star systems in a galaxy. This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, dust, and cosmic rays. It fills interstellar space and blends smoothly into the surrounding intergalactic space...
  
  
• Interstellar nebula
  Nebula
  A nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas, helium gas and other ionized gases...
  
  
• Interstellar travel
  Interstellar travel
  Interstellar space travel is manned or unmanned travel between stars. The concept of interstellar travel in starships is a staple of science fiction. Interstellar travel is much more difficult than interplanetary travel. Intergalactic travel, or travel between different galaxies, is even more...
  
  
• Intracluster medium
  Intracluster medium
  In astronomy, the intracluster medium is the superheated plasma present at the center of a galaxy cluster. This is gas heated to temperatures of between roughly 10 and 100 megakelvins and consisting mainly of ionised hydrogen and helium, containing most of the baryonic material in the cluster...
  
  
• Io
  IO
  Io, IO, I/O, i/o, or i.o. may refer to:-An abbreviation:* I.O., a theater in Chicago, Illinois dedicated to improvisational comedy* i.o., "in illo ordine", Latin phrase meaning "respectively"...
  
  -Jupiter
  Jupiter
  Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
  
   flux tube
  Flux tube
  A flux tube is a generally tube-like region of space containing a magnetic field, such that the field at the side surfaces is parallel to those surfaces...
  
  
• Ionized-air glow
• Ion acoustic wave
  Ion acoustic wave
  An ion acoustic wave is one type of longitudinal oscillation of the ions and electrons in a plasma, much like acoustic waves traveling in neutral gas. However, because the waves propagate through positively charged ions, ion acoustic waves can interact with their electromagnetic fields, as well as...
  
  
• Ion beam
  Ion beam
  An ion beam is a type of charged particle beam consisting of ions. Ion beams have many uses in electronics manufacturing and other industries. A variety of ion beam sources exist, some derived from the mercury vapor thrusters developed by NASA in the 1960s.-Ion beam etching or sputtering:One type...
  
  
• Ion Beam Shepherd
  Ion Beam Shepherd
  An Ion Beam Shepherd is a concept in which the orbit and/or attitude of a spacecarft or a generic orbiting body is modified by having a beam of quasi-neutral plasma impinging against its surface to create a force and/or a torque on the target...
  
  
• Ion cyclotron resonance
  Ion cyclotron resonance
  Ion cyclotron resonance is a phenomenon related to the movement of ions in a magnetic field. It is used for accelerating ions in a cyclotron, and for measuring the masses of an ionized analyte in mass spectrometry, particularly with Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometers...
  
  
• Ion laser
  Ion laser
  An ion laser is a gas laser which uses an ionized gas as its lasing medium.Like other gas lasers, ion lasers feature a sealed cavity containing the laser medium and mirrors forming a Fabry–Pérot resonator. Unlike HeNe lasers, the energy level transitions that contribute to laser action come from ions...
  
  
• Ion plating
  Ion plating
  Ion plating is a physical vapor deposition process that is sometimes called ion assisted deposition or ion vapor deposition and is a version of vacuum deposition. Ion plating utilizes concurrent or periodic bombardment of the substrate and depositing film by atomic-sized energetic particles...
  
  
• Ion source
  Ion source
  An ion source is an electro-magnetic device that is used to create charged particles. These are used primarily to form ions for mass spectrometers, optical emission spectrometers, particle accelerators, ion implanters and ion engines.- Electron ionization :...
  
  
• Ion wind
  Ion wind
  Ion wind, ionic wind, or coronal wind is a stream of ionized fluid generated by a strong electric field. Francis Hauksbee, curator of instruments for the Royal Society of London, made the earliest report of electric wind in 1709...
  
  
• Ionosphere
  Ionosphere
  The ionosphere is a part of the upper atmosphere, comprising portions of the mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere, distinguished because it is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere...
  
  

K

• Kinetics (physics)
  Kinetics (physics)
  In physics and engineering, kinetics is a term for the branch of classical mechanics that is concerned with the relationship between the motion of bodies and its causes, namely forces and torques...
  
   , kinetic plasmas
• Kink instability
• Kirchhoff's circuit laws
  Kirchhoff's circuit laws
  Kirchhoff's circuit laws are two equalities that deal with the conservation of charge and energy in electrical circuits, and were first described in 1845 by Gustav Kirchhoff...
  
  
• Kite applications
  Kite applications
  The kite is used to do certain things; one kite or many kites are applied to achieve certain purposes, objectives, or tasks, that is: applications. Humans have applied the kite to bring perceived benefits during peace and war alike. New applications for the kite continue to be found...
  
   ,plasma kite
• KSTAR
  KSTAR
  The KSTAR, or Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research is a magnetic fusion device being built at the National Fusion Research Institute in Daejon, South Korea. It is intended to study aspects of magnetic fusion energy which will be pertinent to the ITER fusion project as part of that...
  
   ,Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research
• Kværner-process
  Kværner-process
  The Kværner-process or Kvaerner carbon black & hydrogen process is a method, developed in the 1980s by Aker Solutions of Norway, for the production of hydrogen from hydrocarbons , such as methane, natural gas and biogas.- Description :...
  
   ,Plasma burner, Plasma variation

L

• Lagrange point colonization
  Lagrange Point Colonization
  Lagrange point colonization is the colonization of the five equilibrium points in the orbit of a planet or its primary moon, called Lagrange points. The most obvious points for colonization are the points in the Earth-Moon system and the points in the Sun-Earth system...
  
  
• Landau damping
  Landau damping
  In physics, Landau damping, named after its discoverer, the eminent Soviet physicist Lev Davidovich Landau, is the effect of damping of longitudinal space charge waves in plasma or a similar environment. This phenomenon prevents an instability from developing, and creates a region of stability in...
  
  
• Langmuir probe
  Langmuir probe
  A Langmuir probe is a device named after Nobel Prize winning physicist Irving Langmuir, used to determine the electron temperature, electron density, and electric potential of a plasma. It works by inserting one or more electrodes into a plasma, with a constant or time-varying electric potential...
  
  
• large hadron collider
  Large Hadron Collider
  The Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is expected to address some of the most fundamental questions of physics, advancing the understanding of the deepest laws of nature....
  
  
• Large Helical Device
  Large Helical Device
  The is a fusion research device in Toki, Gifu, Japan and is the largest superconducting stellarator in the world, employing a heliotron magnetic field originally developed in Japan. The objective of the project is to conduct fusion plasma confinement research in a steady state in order to elucidate...
  
  
• Large Plasma Device
  Large Plasma Device
  The Large Plasma Device is an experimental physics device at UCLA. It is designed as a general-purpose laboratory for experimental plasma physics research. The current version of the device began operation in 2001...
  
  
• Mounir Laroussi
  Mounir Laroussi
  Mounir Laroussi, is a Tunisian-American scientist. He is known for his work in plasma science, especially low temperature plasmas and their biomedical applications.Early Life...
  
  
• Laser-hybrid welding
  Laser-hybrid welding
  Laser Hybrid welding is a type of welding process that combines the principles of laser beam welding and arc welding.The combination of laser light and an electrical arc into an amalgamated welding process has existed since the 1970s, but has only recently been used in industrial applications...
  
  
• Laser-induced fluorescence
  Laser-induced fluorescence
  Laser-induced fluorescence is a spectroscopic method used for studying structure of molecules, detection of selective species and flow visualization and measurements....
  
  
• Laser-induced plasma channel
• Laser-produced plasmas
• Laser ablation
  Laser ablation
  Laser ablation is the process of removing material from a solid surface by irradiating it with a laser beam. At low laser flux, the material is heated by the absorbed laser energy and evaporates or sublimates. At high laser flux, the material is typically converted to a plasma...
  
  
• Laser ablation synthesis in solution
  Laser ablation synthesis in solution
  LASiS is the acronym for Laser Ablation Synthesis in Solution and it is a commonly used method for obtaining colloidal solution of nanoparticles in a variety of solvents....
  
  
• Lawson criterion
  Lawson criterion
  In nuclear fusion research, the Lawson criterion, first derived on fusion reactors by John D. Lawson in 1955 and published in 1957, is an important general measure of a system that defines the conditions needed for a fusion reactor to reach ignition, that is, that the heating of the plasma by the...
  
  
• Lerche–Newberger sum rule
• Le Sage's theory of gravitation
  Le Sage's theory of gravitation
  Le Sage's theory of gravitation is a kinetic theory of gravity originally proposed by Nicolas Fatio de Duillier in 1690 and later by Georges-Louis Le Sage in 1748. The theory proposed a mechanical explanation for Newton's gravitational force in terms of streams of tiny unseen particles impacting...
  
  
• Levitated dipole
  Levitated Dipole
  A Levitated Dipole is a proposed nuclear fusion reactor technology using a solid superconducting torus, magnetically levitated in the reactor chamber...
  
  
• Lightcraft
  Lightcraft
  A lightcraft is a space- or air-vehicle driven by laser propulsion. Laser propulsion is currently in early stages of development. Lightcraft use an external source of laser or maser energy to provide power for producing thrust. The laser/maser energy is focused to a high intensity in order to...
  
  
• Lightning
  Lightning
  Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
  
  
• List of hydrodynamic instabilities
• List of plasma physicists
• List of waves named after people
• Longitudinal wave
  Longitudinal wave
  Longitudinal waves, as known as "l-waves", are waves that have the same direction of vibration as their direction of travel, which means that the movement of the medium is in the same direction as or the opposite direction to the motion of the wave. Mechanical longitudinal waves have been also...
  
  
• Lorentz force
  Lorentz force
  In physics, the Lorentz force is the force on a point charge due to electromagnetic fields. It is given by the following equation in terms of the electric and magnetic fields:...
  
  
• Lower hybrid oscillation
  Lower hybrid oscillation
  A lower hybrid oscillation is a longitudinal oscillation of ions and electrons in a magnetized plasma. The direction of propagation must be very nearly perpendicular to the stationary magnetic field, within about √ radians...
  
  
• Low-pressure discharge
• Lundquist number
  Lundquist number
  In plasma physics, the Lundquist number is the dimensionless ratio of an Alfvén wave crossing timescale to a resistive diffusion timescale...
  
  

M

• Madison Symmetric Torus
  Madison Symmetric Torus
  The Madison Symmetric Torus is a reversed field pinch physics experiment with applications to both fusion energy research and astrophysical plasmas located at University of Wisconsin-Madison...
  
  
• MagBeam
  Magbeam
  MagBeam is the name given to an ion propulsion system for space travel initially proposed by Professor Robert Winglee of the Earth and Space Sciences Department at the University of Washington for the October 2004 meeting of the NIAC...
  
   ,also called Magnetized beamed plasma propulsion  ,plasma wind
• Magnetic braking
  Magnetic braking
  Magnetic braking is a theory explaining the loss of solar angular momentum due to material getting captured by the solar magnetic field and thrown out at great distance from the surface of the Sun.-The problem:...
  
  
• Magnetic cloud
  Magnetic cloud
  A magnetic cloud is a transient event observed in the solar wind. It was defined in 1981 by Burlaga et al. 1981 as a region of enhanced magnetic field strength, smooth rotation of the magnetic field vector and low proton density and temperature . Magnetic clouds are a possible manifestation of a...
  
  
• Magnetic confinement fusion
  Magnetic confinement fusion
  Magnetic confinement fusion is an approach to generating fusion power that uses magnetic fields to confine the hot fusion fuel in the form of a plasma. Magnetic confinement is one of two major branches of fusion energy research, the other being inertial confinement fusion. The magnetic approach is...
  
  
• Magnetic diffusivity
• Magnetic field oscillating amplified thruster
  Magnetic field oscillating amplified thruster
  The Magnetic Field Oscillating Amplified Thruster is a versatile electrothermodynamic system, which is able to accelerate nearly every medium to extremely high velocities, thereby generating a high energetic plasma jet in the exhaust.To do so, MOA utilises a so-called Alfvén wave, a physical...
  
   , Plasma Engine
• Magnetic helicity
  Magnetic helicity
  In plasma physics, magnetic helicity is the extent to which a magnetic field "wraps around itself". It is a generalization of the topological concept of linking number to the differential quantities required to describe the magnetic field...
  
  
• Magnetic mirror
  Magnetic mirror
  A magnetic mirror is a magnetic field configuration where the field strength changes when moving along a field line. The mirror effect results in a tendency for charged particles to bounce back from the high field region....
  
  
• Magnetic Prandtl number
  Magnetic Prandtl number
  The Magnetic Prandtl number is a dimensionless quantity occurring in magnetohydrodynamics which approximates the ratio of momentum diffusivity and magnetic diffusivity...
  
  
• Magnetic pressure
  Magnetic pressure
  Magnetic pressure is an energy density associated with the magnetic field. It is identical to any other physical pressure except that it is carried by the magnetic field rather than kinetic energy of the gas molecules. Interplay between magnetic pressure and ordinary gas pressure is important to...
  
  
• Magnetic proton recoil neutron spectrometer
  Magnetic proton recoil neutron spectrometer
  Magnetic Proton Recoil neutron spectrometer is a large high-resolution neutron spectrometer installed at JET.-History:The Magnetic Proton Recoil neutron spectrometer is a thin-foil spectrometer which was installed at JET in 1996 and upgraded 2001-2005.-Principle:In the MPR the fusion neutrons are...
  
  
• Magnetic radiation reaction force
  Magnetic radiation reaction force
  In the physics of electromagnetism, one can derive an electric radiation reaction force for an accelerating charged particle caused by the particle emitting electromagnetic radiation...
  
  
• Magnetic reconnection
  Magnetic reconnection
  Magnetic reconnection is a physical process in highly conducting plasmas in which the magnetic topology is rearranged and magnetic energy is converted to kinetic energy, thermal energy, and particle acceleration...
  
  
• Magnetic Reynolds number
  Magnetic Reynolds number
  The Magnetic Reynolds number is a dimensionless group thatoccurs in magnetohydrodynamics. It gives an estimate of the effects of magnetic advection to magnetic diffusion, and is typically defined by:where* U is a typical velocity scale of the flow...
  
  
• Magnetic sail
  Magnetic sail
  A magnetic sail or magsail is a proposed method of spacecraft propulsion which would use a static magnetic field to deflect charged particles radiated by the Sun as a plasma wind, and thus impart momentum to accelerate the spacecraft...
  
   , Mini-magnetospheric plasma propulsion
• Magnetic tension force
• Magnetic weapon
  Magnetic weapon
  A magnetic weapon is one that uses magnetic fields to accelerate and propel projectiles, or to focus charged particle beams. There are many hypothesised magnetic weapons, such as the railgun and coilgun which accelerate a magnetic mass to a high velocity, or ion cannons and plasma cannons which...
  
  
• Magnetization reversal by circularly polarized light
  Magnetization reversal by circularly polarized light
  Discovered only recently by C.D. Stanciu and F. Hansteen and published in Physical Review Letters this effect is generally called all-optical magnetization reversal. This magnetization reversal technique refers to a method of reversing magnetization in a magnet simply by circularly polarized light...
  
  
• Magnetized target fusion
  Magnetized target fusion
  Magnetized target fusion is a relatively new approach to producing fusion power that combines features of the more widely studied magnetic confinement fusion and inertial confinement fusion approaches. Like the magnetic approach, the fusion fuel is confined at lower density by magnetic fields...
  
  
• Magnetogravity wave
  Magnetogravity wave
  A Magnetogravity wave is a type of plasma wave. A magnetogravity wave is an acoustic gravity wave which is associated with fluctuations in the background magnetic field. In this context, gravity wave refers to a classical fluid wave, and is completely unrelated to the relativistic gravitational...
  
  
• Magnetohydrodynamic drive
  Magnetohydrodynamic drive
  A magnetohydrodynamic drive or MHD propulsor is a method for propelling seagoing vessels using only electric and magnetic fields with no moving parts, using magnetohydrodynamics. The working principle involves electrification of the propellant which can then be directed by a magnetic field,...
  
  
• MHD generator
  MHD generator
  The MHD generator or dynamo transforms thermal energy or kinetic energy directly into electricity. MHD generators are different from traditional electric generators in that they can operate at high temperatures without moving parts...
  
  
• Magnetohydrodynamics
  Magnetohydrodynamics
  Magnetohydrodynamics is an academic discipline which studies the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids. Examples of such fluids include plasmas, liquid metals, and salt water or electrolytes...
  
  
• Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
  Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
  Magnetohydrodynamics deals with what is a quasi-neutral fluid with very high conductivity. The fluid approximation implies that the we focus at macro length and time scales which are much larger than the collision length and collision time respectively...
  
  
• Magneto-optical trap
  Magneto-optical trap
  A magneto-optical trap is a device that uses both laser cooling with magneto-optical trapping in order to produce samples of cold, trapped, neutral atoms at temperatures as low as several microkelvins, two or three times the recoil limit.By combining the small momentum of a single photon with a...
  
  
• Magnetopause
  Magnetopause
  The magnetopause is the abrupt boundary between a magnetosphere and the surrounding plasma. For planetary science, the magnetopause is the boundary between the planet’s magnetic field and the solar wind. The location of the magnetopause is determined by the balance between the pressure of the...
  
  
• Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster
  Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster
  The Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster is a form of electrically powered spacecraft propulsion which uses the Lorentz force to generate thrust...
  
  
• Magnetosheath
  Magnetosheath
  The magnetosheath is the region of space between the magnetopause and the bow shock of a planet's magnetosphere. The regularly organized magnetic field generated by the planet becomes weak and irregular in the magnetosheath due to interaction with the incoming solar wind, and is incapable of fully...
  
  
• Magnetosonic wave
  Magnetosonic wave
  A magnetosonic wave is a longitudinal wave of ions in a magnetized plasma propagating perpendicular to the stationary magnetic field...
  
   , also magnetoacoustic wave
• Magnetosphere
  Magnetosphere
  A magnetosphere is formed when a stream of charged particles, such as the solar wind, interacts with and is deflected by the intrinsic magnetic field of a planet or similar body. Earth is surrounded by a magnetosphere, as are the other planets with intrinsic magnetic fields: Mercury, Jupiter,...
  
  
• Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission
  Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission
  The Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission is a NASA unmanned space mission, to study the Earth's magnetosphere using four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation...
  
  
• MAGPIE
  MAGPIE
  MAGPIE stands for Mega Ampere Generator for Plasma Implosion Experiments and is a pulsed power generator based at Imperial College London, United Kingdom. The generator was originally designed to produce a current pulse with a maximum of 1.8 million Amperes in 240 nanoseconds...
  
   , stands for Mega Ampere Generator for Plasma Implosion Experiments
• MARAUDER
  MARAUDER
  MARAUDER is, or was, a United States Government research project. It is an acronym of Magnetically Accelerated Ring to Achieve Ultra-high Directed Energy and Radiation. It was first reported on August 1, 1993....
  
   ,acronym of Magnetically Accelerated Ring to Achieve Ultra-high Directed Energy and Radiation
• Marchywka Effect
  Marchywka Effect
  The Marchywka Effect refers to electrochemical cleaning of diamond using an electric field induced with remote electrodes.-Discovery and development:...
  
  
• Marfa lights
  Marfa lights
  The Marfa lights, also known as the Marfa ghost lights, have been observed near U.S. Route 67 on Mitchell Flat east of Marfa, Texas, in the United States...
  
  
• Many-body problem
  Many-body problem
  The many-body problem is a general name for a vast category of physical problems pertaining to the properties of microscopic systems made of a large number of interacting particles. Microscopic here implies that quantum mechanics has to be used to provide an accurate description of the system...
  
  
• Mass driver
  Mass driver
  A mass driver or electromagnetic catapult is a proposed method of non-rocket spacelaunch which would use a linear motor to accelerate and catapult payloads up to high speeds. All existing and contemplated mass drivers use coils of wire energized by electricity to make electromagnets. Sequential...
  
   ,or electromagnetic catapult
• Mass spectrometry
  Mass spectrometry
  Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique that measures the mass-to-charge ratio of charged particles.It is used for determining masses of particles, for determining the elemental composition of a sample or molecule, and for elucidating the chemical structures of molecules, such as peptides and...
  
  
• Material Point Method
  Material Point Method
  The Material Point Method , is an extension of the Particle-in-cell Method in computational fluid dynamics to computational solid dynamics, and is a Finite element method -based particle method. It is primarily used for multiphase simulations, because of the ease of detecting contact without...
  
  
• Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution
• Maxwell's equations
  Maxwell's equations
  Maxwell's equations are a set of partial differential equations that, together with the Lorentz force law, form the foundation of classical electrodynamics, classical optics, and electric circuits. These fields in turn underlie modern electrical and communications technologies.Maxwell's equations...
  
  
• Mechanically Stimulated Gas Emission
  Mechanically Stimulated Gas Emission
  - Phenomenology :Mechanically stimulated gas emission is a complex phenomenon embracing various physical and chemical processes occurring on the surface and in the bulk of a solid under applied mechanical stress and resulting in emission of gases. MSGE is a part of a more general phenomenon of...
  
  
• Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak
  Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak
  The Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak, or MAST experiment is a nuclear fusion experiment in operation at Culham, Oxfordshire, England since December 1999. It follows the highly successful START experiment...
  
  
• Metallizing
  Metallizing
  Metallizing is the general name for the technique of coating metal on the surface of non-metallic objects.Techniques for metallization started as early as mirror making. In 1835, Justus von Liebig discovered the process of coating a glass surface with metallic silver, making the glass mirror one of...
  
  
• Microplasma
  Microplasma
  Microplasmas are plasmas of small dimensions, ranging from tens to thousands of micrometers. They can be generated at a variety of temperatures and pressures, existing as either thermal or non-thermal plasmas...
  
  
• Microstructured optical arrays
  Microstructured optical arrays
  Microstructured optical arrays are instruments for focusing x-rays. MOAs utilise total external reflection at grazing incidence from an array of small channels in order to bring x-rays to a common focus. This method of focusing means that MOAs exhibit low absorption...
  
  
• Microturbulence
  Microturbulence
  Microturbulence is a form of turbulence that varies over small distance scales. -Stellar:Microturbulence is one of several mechanisms that can cause broadening of the absorption lines in the stellar spectrum...
  
  
• Microwave digestion
  Microwave digestion
  Microwave digestion is a common technique used by elemental scientists to dissolve heavy metals in the presence of organic molecules prior to analysis by inductively coupled plasma, atomic absorption, or atomic emission measurement...
  
  
• Microwave discharge
• Microwave plasma-assisted CVD
• Microwave plasma
  Microwave plasma
  Microwave plasma is a type of plasma, that has high frequency electromagnetic radiation in the GHz range. It is capable of exciting electrodeless gas discharges.-Properties of microwave-excited plasma:...
  
  
• Migma
  Migma
  Migma was a proposed inertial electrostatic confinement fusion reactor designed by Bogdan Maglich in the early 1970s. Migma uses self-intersecting beams of ions from small particle accelerators to force the ions to fuse. It was an area of some research in the 1970s and early 1980s, but lack of...
  
  
• MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center
  MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center
  The Plasma Science and Fusion Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a research laboratory for the study of plasma physics and nuclear fusion...
  
  
• Moreton wave
  Moreton wave
  A Moreton wave is the chromospheric signature of a large-scale solar coronal shock wave. Described as a kind of solar 'tsunami', they are generated by solar flares. They are named for American astronomer Gail Moreton, an observer at the Lockheed Solar Observatory in Burbank who spotted them in 1959...
  
  
• Multipactor effect
  Multipactor effect
  The multipactor effect is a phenomenon in radio frequency amplifier vacuum tubes and waveguides, where, under certain conditions, secondary electron emission in resonance with an alternating electric field leads to exponential electron multiplication, possibly damaging and even destroying the RF...
  
  

N

• Nanoflares
  Nanoflares
  A nanoflare is a very small solar flare which happens in the corona, the external atmosphere of the Sun.The hypothesis of "microflares" as a possible explanation of the coronal heating was first suggested by Gold and then later developed by Eugene Parker....
  
  
• Nanoparticle
  Nanoparticle
  In nanotechnology, a particle is defined as a small object that behaves as a whole unit in terms of its transport and properties. Particles are further classified according to size : in terms of diameter, coarse particles cover a range between 10,000 and 2,500 nanometers. Fine particles are sized...
  
  
• National Compact Stellarator Experiment
  National Compact Stellarator Experiment
  The National Compact Stellarator Experiment is a plasma confinement experiment that was being conducted at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. NCSX used magnets and layout designed through massively parallel computing to find the optimal shape for the reactor vessel, leading to a compact device...
  
  
• National Spherical Torus Experiment
  National Spherical Torus Experiment
  The National Spherical Torus Experiment is an innovative magnetic fusion device based on the spherical tokamak concept that was constructed by the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Columbia University, and the University of Washington at...
  
  
• Navier–Stokes equations
• Negative resistance
  Negative resistance
  Negative resistance is a property of some electric circuits where an increase in the current entering a port results in a decreased voltage across the same port. This is in contrast to a simple ohmic resistor, which exhibits an increase in voltage under the same conditions. Negative resistors are...
  
  
• Negative temperature
  Negative temperature
  In physics, certain systems can achieve negative temperatures; that is, their thermodynamic temperature can be a negative quantity. Negative temperatures can be expressed as negative numbers on the kelvin scale....
  
  
• Neon lighting
  Neon lighting
  Neon lighting is created by brightly glowing, electrified glass tubes or bulbs that contain rarefied neon or other gases. Georges Claude, a French engineer and inventor, presented neon tube lighting in essentially its modern form at the Paris Motor Show from December 3–18, 1910...
  
  
• Neon sign
  Neon sign
  Neon signs are made using electrified, luminous tube lights that contain rarefied neon or other gases. They are the most common use for neon lighting, which was first demonstrated in a modern form in December, 1910 by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show. While they are used worldwide, neon signs...
  
  
• Neutral beam injection
  Neutral Beam Injection
  To initiate a sustained fusion reaction, it is usually necessary to use many methods to heat the plasma, including RF heating, electron cyclotron resonance heating , ion cyclotron resonance heating , and neutral beam injection....
  
  
• Neutron generator
  Neutron generator
  Neutron generators are neutron source devices which contain compact linear accelerators and that produce neutrons by fusing isotopes of hydrogen together. The fusion reactions take place in these devices by accelerating either deuterium, tritium, or a mixture of these two isotopes into a metal...
  
  
• New Horizons
  New Horizons
  New Horizons is a NASA robotic spacecraft mission currently en route to the dwarf planet Pluto. It is expected to be the first spacecraft to fly by and study Pluto and its moons, Charon, Nix, Hydra and S/2011 P 1. Its estimated arrival date at the Pluto-Charon system is July 14th, 2015...
  
   ,Plasma and high energy particle spectrometer suite (PAM)
• Nonequilibrium Gas and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory
• Non-line-of-sight propagation
  Non-line-of-sight propagation
  Non-line-of-sight or near-line-of-sight is a term used to describe radio transmission across a path that is partially obstructed, usually by a physical object in the innermost Fresnel zone....
  
  
• Non-thermal microwave effect
  Non-thermal microwave effect
  Non-thermal microwave effects have been posited in order to explain unusual observations in microwave chemistry. As the name suggests, the effects are supposed not to require the transfer of microwave energy into thermal energy. Instead, the microwave energy itself directly couples to energy modes...
  
  
• Nonthermal plasma
  Nonthermal plasma
  A nonthermal plasma is in general any plasma which is not in thermodynamic equilibrium, either because the ion temperature is different from the electron temperature, or because the velocity distribution of one of the species does not follow a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution.- Applications :In the...
  
   ,Cold plasma
• Nuclear fusion
  Nuclear fusion
  Nuclear fusion is the process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, or "fuse", to form a single heavier nucleus. This is usually accompanied by the release or absorption of large quantities of energy...
  
   , Bremsstrahlung losses in quasineutral, isotropic plasmas
• Nuclear pulse propulsion
  Nuclear pulse propulsion
  Nuclear pulse propulsion is a proposed method of spacecraft propulsion that uses nuclear explosions for thrust. It was first developed as Project Orion by DARPA, after a suggestion by Stanislaw Ulam in 1947...
  
  
• Numerical diffusion
  Numerical diffusion
  Numerical diffusion is a difficulty with computer simulations of continua wherein the simulated medium exhibits a higher diffusivity than the true medium...
  
  
• Numerical resistivity
  Numerical resistivity
  Numerical resistivity is a problem in computer simulations of ideal magnetohydrodynamics . It is a form of numerical diffusion. In near-ideal MHD systems, the magnetic field can diffuse only very slowly through the plasma or fluid of the system; it is rate-limited by the resistivity of the fluid...
  
  

P

• Particle accelerator
  Particle accelerator
  A particle accelerator is a device that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to high speeds and to contain them in well-defined beams. An ordinary CRT television set is a simple form of accelerator. There are two basic types: electrostatic and oscillating field accelerators.In...
  
  
• Particle-in-cell
  Particle-in-cell
  The Particle-in-Cell method refers to a technique used to solve a certain class of partial differential equations. In this method, individual particles in a Lagrangian frame are tracked in continuous phase space, whereas moments of the distribution such as densities and currents are computed...
  
  
• Paschen's law
  Paschen's law
  Paschen's Law, named after Friedrich Paschen, was first stated in 1889. He studied the breakdown voltage of gas between parallel plates as a function of pressure and gap distance. The voltage necessary to arc across the gap decreased up to a point as the pressure was reduced. It then increased,...
  
  
• Peek's law
  Peek's law
  In physics, Peek's law is a description of the conditions necessary for corona discharge between two wires:e_v = m_v g_v \delta r \ln \left...
  
  
• Pegasus Toroidal Experiment
  Pegasus Toroidal Experiment
  The Pegasus Toroidal Experiment is a plasma confinement experiment relevant to fusion power production, run by the Department of Engineering Physics of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It is a spherical tokamak, a very low-aspect-ratio version of the tokamak configuration, i.e...
  
  
• Penning mixture
  Penning mixture
  A Penning mixture , named after Frans Michel Penning, is a mixture of gases used in electric lighting or displaying fixtures. Although the popular phrase for the most common of these is a neon lamp, it's more efficient to have the glass tube filled not with pure neon, but with a Penning mixture,...
  
  
• Penrose criterion
  Penrose criterion
  The Penrose Criterion in Plasma Physics is a criterion for kinetic stability of a plasma with a given velocity-space distribution function. This criterion can be used to determine that all so-called "single-humped" distributions , are kinetically stable....
  
  
• Perhapsatron
  Perhapsatron
  The Perhapsatron was an early fusion power device based on the pinch concept. Dreamt up by James Tuck while working at Los Alamos National Laboratory , he named the device whimsically on the off chance that it might be able to create fusion reactions.The first example was built in the winter of...
  
  
• Phased plasma gun
  Phased plasma gun
  The Phased Plasma Gun is a fictional weapon from the television series Babylon 5. It fires a small charge of superheated helium. This gas retains both its shape and small volume via a residual magnetic field. Upon impact with an object, the magnetic field is dissipated and the heat discharged...
  
  
• Photonics
  Photonics
  The science of photonics includes the generation, emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, detection and sensing of light. The term photonics thereby emphasizes that photons are neither particles nor waves — they are different in that they have both particle...
  
  
• Physical cosmology
  Physical cosmology
  Physical cosmology, as a branch of astronomy, is the study of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and is concerned with fundamental questions about its formation and evolution. For most of human history, it was a branch of metaphysics and religion...
  
  
• Physical vapor deposition
  Physical vapor deposition
  Physical vapor deposition is a variety of vacuum deposition and is a general term used to describe any of a variety of methods to deposit thin films by the condensation of a vaporized form of the desired film material onto various workpiece surfaces...
  
  
• Pinch (plasma physics)
  Pinch (plasma physics)
  A pinch is the compression of an electrically conducting filament by magnetic forces. The conductor is usually a plasma, but could also be a solid or liquid metal...
  
  
• Planetary nebula luminosity function
  Planetary nebula luminosity function
  Planetary nebula luminosity function is a secondary distance indicator used in astronomy. It makes use of the [O III] λ5007 forbidden line found in all planetary nebula which are members of the old stellar populations ....
  
  
• Plasma-desorption mass spectrometry
• Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition
  Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition
  Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition is a process used to deposit thin films from a gas state to a solid state on a substrate. Chemical reactions are involved in the process, which occur after creation of a plasma of the reacting gases...
  
  
• Plasma-immersion ion implantation
• Plasma-powered cannon
  Plasma-powered cannon
  A plasma cannon is an experimental projectile weapon, which accelerates a projectile by means of a plasma discharge between electrodes at the rear of the barrel, generating a rapid increase in pressure. It functions similarly to other type of firearm, except that it uses a plasma discharge instead...
  
  
• Plasma (physics)
  Plasma (physics)
  In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...
  
  
• Plasma acceleration
  Plasma acceleration
  Plasma Wakefield acceleration is a technique for accelerating charged particles, such as electrons, positrons and ions, using an electric field associated with an electron plasma wave. The wave is created either using electron pulses or through the passage of a very brief laser pulses, a technique...
  
  
• Plasma Acoustic Shield System
  Plasma Acoustic Shield System
  The Plasma Acoustic Shield System, or PASS, is in the process of being developed by Stellar Photonics. The company received a $2.7 million contract from the U.S. Government to build the PASS. It is part of a project supervised by the United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering...
  
  
• Plasma activated bonding
  Plasma activated bonding
  Plasma activated bonding is a derivative, directed to lower processing temperatures for direct bonding with hydrophilic surfaces. The main requirements for lowering temperatures of direct bonding are the use of materials melting at low temperatures and with different coefficients of thermal...
  
  
• Plasma activation
  Plasma activation
  Plasma activation . It is done with the intent to alter or improve adhesion properties of surfaces prior to coating, painting, etc...
  
  
• Plasma actuator
  Plasma actuator
  Plasma actuators are a type of actuator currently being developed for aerodynamic flow control. Plasma actuators impart force in a similar way to ionocraft....
  
  
• Plasma antenna
  Plasma antenna
  A plasma antenna is a type of radio antenna currently in development in which plasma is used instead of the metal elements of a traditional antenna. A plasma antenna can be used for both transmission and reception...
  
  
• Plasma arc waste disposal
  Plasma arc waste disposal
  Plasma arc gasification or Plasma Gasification Process abbreviated PGP is a waste treatment technology that uses electrical energy and the high temperatures created by an electric arc gasifier. This arc breaks down waste primarily into elemental gas and solid waste , in a device called a plasma...
  
   ,Incineration
  Incineration
  Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of organic substances contained in waste materials. Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are described as "thermal treatment". Incineration of waste materials converts the waste into ash, flue gas, and...
  
  
• Plasma arc welding
  Plasma arc welding
  Plasma arc welding is an arc welding process similar to gas tungsten arc welding . The electric arc is formed between an electrode and the workpiece...
  
  
• Plasma channel
  Plasma channel
  A plasma channel is a conductive channel of plasma. A plasma channel can be formed in these ways:-*With a high-powered laser that operates at a certain frequency that will provide enough energy for an atmospheric gas to break into its ions, or form a plasma, such as in a Laser-Induced Plasma...
  
  
• Plasma cleaning
  Plasma cleaning
  Plasma cleaning involves the removal of impurities and contaminants from surfaces through the use of an energetic plasma created from gaseous species. Gases such as argon and oxygen, as well as mixtures such as air and hydrogen/nitrogen are used...
  
  
• Plasma Contactor
• Plasma containment
  Plasma containment
  In nuclear physics, plasma containment refers to the act of maintaining a plasma in a discreet volume. For example, a toroidal fusion reactor is a plasma containment device. Electromagnetic interaction must often be used since a plasma by definition has a temperature orders of magnitude higher than...
  
  
• Plasma cosmology
  Plasma cosmology
  Plasma cosmology is a non-standard cosmology generally attributed to a 1970 Nobel laureate named Hannes Alfvén. Ionized gases, or plasmas, play the central part in plasma cosmology's explanation for the development of the universe, thus dominated largely by electrodynamic forces rather than...
  
   ,ambiplasma
• Plasma cutting
  Plasma cutting
  Plasma cutting is a process that is used to cut steel and other metals of different thicknesses using a plasma torch...
  
   , Plasma gouging
• Plasma deep drilling technology
  Plasma deep drilling technology
  In the recent past, there were several attempts to develop new drilling technology which would be able to substitute conventional contact-based rotary systems. These concepts were based on different principles such as water jet, hydrothermal spallation or laser. Worldwide there are several research...
  
  
• Plasma diagnostics
  Plasma diagnostics
  Plasma diagnostics are experimental techniques used to measure properties of a plasma such as temperature and density.-Langmuir probe:Measurements with electric probes, called Langmuir probes, are the oldest and most often used procedures for low-temperature plasmas...
  
   ,Self Excited Electron Plasma Resonance Spectroscopy (SEERS)
• Plasma display
  Plasma display
  A plasma display panel is a type of flat panel display common to large TV displays or larger. They are called "plasma" displays because the technology utilizes small cells containing electrically charged ionized gases, or what are in essence chambers more commonly known as fluorescent...
  
  
• Plasma effect
  Plasma effect
  The plasma effect is a computer-based visual effect animated in real-time. It uses cycles of changing colours warped in various ways to give an illusion of liquid, organic movement....
  
  
• Plasma electrolytic oxidation
  Plasma electrolytic oxidation
  Plasma electrolytic oxidation , also known as microarc oxidation , is an electrochemical surface treatment process for generating oxide coatings on metals. It is similar to anodizing, but it employs higher potentials, so that discharges occur and the resulting plasma modifies the structure of the...
  
  
• Plasma etching
  Plasma etching
  Plasma etching is a form of plasma processing used to fabricate integrated circuits. It involves a high-speed stream of glow discharge of an appropriate gas mixture being shot at a sample. The plasma source, known as etch species, can be either charged or neutral...
  
  
• Plasma functionalization
• Plasma globe
• Plasma lamp
  Plasma lamp
  Plasma globes, or plasma lamps , are novelty items that were most popular in the 1980s...
  
  
• Pulsed laser deposition
  Pulsed laser deposition
  Pulsed laser deposition is a thin film deposition technique where a high power pulsed laser beam is focused inside a vacuum chamber to strike a target of the material that is to be deposited...
  
  
• Plasma medicine
  Plasma medicine
  Plasma medicine is an innovative and emerging field combining plasma physics, life sciences and clinical medicine to use physical plasma for therapeutic applications. Initial experiments confirm that plasma can be effective in in vivo antiseptics without affecting surrounding tissue and, moreover,...
  
  
• Plasma modeling
  Plasma modeling
  Plasma Modeling refers to solving equations of motion that describe the state of a plasma. It is generally coupled with Maxwell's Equations for electromagnetic fields...
  
  
• Plasma nitriding
• Plasma oscillation
  Plasma oscillation
  Plasma oscillations, also known as "Langmuir waves" , are rapid oscillations of the electron density in conducting media such as plasmas or metals. The oscillations can be described as an instability in the dielectric function of a free electron gas. The frequency only depends weakly on the...
  
  
• Plasma parameter
  Plasma parameter
  The plasma parameter is a dimensionless number, denoted by capital Lambda, Λ. The plasma parameter is usually interpreted to be the argument of the Coulomb logarithm, which is the ratio of the maximum impact parameter to the classical distance of closest approach in Coulomb scattering...
  
  
• Plasma parameters
  Plasma parameters
  Plasma parameters define various characteristics of a plasma, an electrically conductive collection of charged particles that responds collectively to electromagnetic forces. Plasma typically takes the form of neutral gas-like clouds or charged ion beams, but may also include dust and grains. The...
  
  
• Plasma polymerization
  Plasma polymerization
  Plasma polymerization uses plasma sources to generate a gas discharge that provides energy to activate or fragment gaseous or liquid monomer, often containing a vinyl group, in order to initiate polymerization. Polymers formed from this technique are generally highly branched and highly...
  
  
• Plasma processing
  Plasma processing
  Plasma processing is a plasma-based material processing technology that aims at modifying the chemical and physical properties of a surface.Plasma processing techniques include:*Plasma activation*Plasma etching*Plasma modification*Plasma functionalization...
  
  
• Plasma propulsion engine
  Plasma propulsion engine
  A plasma propulsion engine is a type of Ion thruster which uses plasma in some or all parts of the thrust generation process. Though far less powerful than conventional rocket engines, plasma engines are able to operate at higher efficiencies and for longer periods of time...
  
  
• Plasma Pyrolysis Waste Treatment and Disposal
  Plasma Pyrolysis Waste Treatment and Disposal
  - Plasma Waste Treatment Process :Plasma pyrolysis is used to safely treat various types of waste, either in a furnace or in a reactor. This process allows for full decomposition and disintegration of organic components. The main element of plasma technology is a plasma arc torch...
  
  
• Plasma receiver
  Plasma receiver
  A plasma receiver is an instrument capable of detecting the vibrations in outer space plasma.It may have been Donald Gurnett, University of Iowa Professor of Physics, who invented the Plasma receiver...
  
  
• Plasma scaling
  Plasma scaling
  The parameters of plasmas, including their spatial and temporal extent, vary by many orders of magnitude. Nevertheless, there are significant similarities in the behaviors of apparently disparate plasmas. Understanding the scaling of plasma behavior is of more than theoretical value...
  
  
• Plasma scanner
• Plasma shaping
  Plasma shaping
  Magnetically confined fusion plasmas such as those generated in tokamaks and stellarators are characterized by a typical shape. Plasma shaping is the study of the plasma shape in such devices, and is particularly important for next step fusion devices such as ITER. This shape is conditioning partly...
  
  
• Plasma sound source
• Plasma source
  Plasma source
  Plasma sources generate plasmas.Excitation of a plasma requires partial ionization of neutral atoms and/or molecules of a medium.There are several ways to cause ionization:collisions of energetic particles, strong electric fields acting on bond...
  
  
• Plasma speaker
  Plasma speaker
  Plasma speakers are a form of loudspeaker which varies air pressure via a high-energy electrical plasma instead of a solid diaphram. Connected to the output of an audio amplifier, plasma speakers vary the size of a plasma glow discharge, corona discharge or electric arc which then acts as a...
  
  
• Plasma spray
• Plasma spraying , Thermal spraying
  Thermal spraying
  Thermal spraying techniques are coating processes in which melted materials are sprayed onto a surface. The "feedstock" is heated by electrical or chemical means ....
  
   , Surface finishing
  Surface finishing
  Surface finishing is a broad range of industrial processes that alter the surface of a manufactured item to achieve a certain property. Finishing processes may be employed to: improve appearance, adhesion or wettability, solderability, corrosion resistance, tarnish resistance, chemical resistance,...
  
  
• Plasma stability
  Plasma stability
  An important field of plasma physics is the stability of the plasma. It usually only makes sense to analyze the stability of a plasma once it has been established that the plasma is in equilibrium. "Equilibrium" asks whether there are net forces that will accelerate any part of the plasma...
  
  
• Plasma stealth
  Plasma stealth
  Plasma stealth is a proposed process to use ionized gas to reduce the radar cross section of an aircraft. Interactions between electromagnetic radiation and ionized gas have been extensively studied for many purposes, including concealing aircraft from radar as stealth technology...
  
  
• Plasma torch
  Plasma torch
  A plasma torch is a device for generating a directed flow of plasma. The plasma jet can be used for applications including plasma cutting, plasma spraying, and plasma arc waste disposal....
  
  
• Plasma transferred wire arc thermal spraying
• Plasma valve
• Plasma weapon
• Plasma weapon (fiction)
• Plasma window
  Plasma window
  The plasma window is a technology that fills a volume of space with plasma confined by a magnetic field...
  
  
• Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory
  Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory
  Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory is a University of Michigan laboratory facility for electric propulsion and plasma application research. The primary goals of PEPL is to increase efficiency of electric propulsion systems, understand integration issues of plasma thrusters with...
  
  
• Plasmaphone
  Plasmaphone
  A plasmaphone is a musical instrument that produces sound in plasma, or ionized gas, with or without later amplification, processing, or the like....
  
  
• Plasmapper
  Plasmapper
  PlasMapper is a comprehensive web server that automatically generates and annotates high-quality circular plasmid maps. Taking only the plasmid/vector DNA sequence as input, PlasMapper uses sequence pattern matching and BLAST alignment to automatically identify and label common promoters,...
  
  
• Plasmarok
  Plasmarok
  Plasmarok is a registered name for the fully recovered vitrified aggregate created by the Advanced Plasma Power Gasplasma waste to energy process....
  
  
• Plasmaron
  Plasmaron
  In physics, a plasmaron is a quasiparticle arising in a system that has strong plasmon-electron interactions. It is a quasiparticle formed by quasiparticle-quasiparticle interactions, since both plasmons and electron holes are collective modes of different kinds.It has recently been observed in...
  
  
• Plasmasphere
  Plasmasphere
  The plasmasphere, or inner magnetosphere, is a region of the Earth's magnetosphere consisting of low energy plasma. It is located above the ionosphere...
  
  
• Plasmoid
  Plasmoid
  A plasmoid is a coherent structure of plasma and magnetic fields. Plasmoids have been proposed to explain natural phenomena such as ball lightning, magnetic bubbles in the magnetosphere, and objects in cometary tails, in the solar wind, in the solar atmosphere, and in the heliospheric current sheet...
  
  
• Plasmaron
  Plasmaron
  In physics, a plasmaron is a quasiparticle arising in a system that has strong plasmon-electron interactions. It is a quasiparticle formed by quasiparticle-quasiparticle interactions, since both plasmons and electron holes are collective modes of different kinds.It has recently been observed in...
  
  
• Plasmonic metamaterials
  Plasmonic metamaterials
  Plasmonic metamaterials are negative index metamaterials that exploit surface plasmons, which are produced from the interaction of light with metal-dielectric materials. Under specific conditions, the incident light couples with the surface plasmons to create self-sustaining, propagating...
  
  
• Plasmonic nanolithography
  Plasmonic nanolithography
  Plasmonic nanolithography is a nanolithographic process that may enable a new generation of microchip technology. Plasmonic lithography can potentially cost much less than current lithographic techniques. It may take 3 to 5 years for the technology to be implemented.-Source:*...
  
  
• Plasmoid
  Plasmoid
  A plasmoid is a coherent structure of plasma and magnetic fields. Plasmoids have been proposed to explain natural phenomena such as ball lightning, magnetic bubbles in the magnetosphere, and objects in cometary tails, in the solar wind, in the solar atmosphere, and in the heliospheric current sheet...
  
  
• Plasmon
  Plasmon
  In physics, a plasmon is a quantum of plasma oscillation. The plasmon is a quasiparticle resulting from the quantization of plasma oscillations just as photons and phonons are quantizations of light and mechanical vibrations, respectively...
  
  
• Polarization density
  Polarization density
  In classical electromagnetism, polarization density is the vector field that expresses the density of permanent or induced electric dipole moments in a dielectric material. When a dielectric is placed in an external electric field, its molecules gain electric dipole moment and the dielectric is...
  
  
• Polywell
  Polywell
  A polywell device is a type of fusion reactor that was originated by Robert Bussard under a U.S. Navy research contract. It traps electrons in a magnetic confinement inside its hollow center. The negatively charged electrons then accelerate positively charged ions for the purpose of achieving...
  
  
• Ponderomotive force
• Primordial plasma
• Propulsive Fluid Accumulator
  Propulsive Fluid Accumulator
  A Propulsive Fluid Accumulator is an artificial Earth satellite which collects and stores oxygen and other atmospheric gases for in-situ refuelling of high-thrust rockets. This eliminates the need to lift oxidizer to orbit and therefore brings significant cost benefits.- Propulsive Fluid...
  
  
• Proton beam
  Proton beam
  Proton beams, a type of ion beams, are the result of proton particle acceleration by means of a cyclotron or a synchrotron and can be used e.g. in Proton Beam Therapy for cancer treatment or for proton beam writing in lithography....
  
  
• Pseudospark switch
  Pseudospark switch
  The pseudospark switch, also known as a cold-cathode thyratron due to the similarities with regular thyratrons, is a gas-filled tube capable of high speed switching. Advantages of pseudospark switches include the ability to carry reverse currents , low pulse, high lifetime, and a high current rise...
  
  
• Pulsed Energy Projectile
  Pulsed Energy Projectile
  Pulsed Energy Projectile or PEP is a technology of non-lethal weaponry currently under development by the U.S. military. It involves the emission of an invisible laser pulse which, upon contact with the target, ablates the surface and creates a small amount of exploding plasma...
  
  
• Pulsed laser deposition
  Pulsed laser deposition
  Pulsed laser deposition is a thin film deposition technique where a high power pulsed laser beam is focused inside a vacuum chamber to strike a target of the material that is to be deposited...
  
   ,Dynamic of the plasma
• Pulsed plasma thruster
  Pulsed plasma thruster
  Pulsed plasma thrusters are a method of spacecraft propulsion also known as Plasma Jet Engines in general. They use an arc of electric current adjacent to a solid propellant, to produce a quick and repeatable burst of impulse...
  
   ,also Plasma Jet Engines

Q

• Q-machine
  Q-machine
  A Q-machine is a device that is used in experimental plasma physics.The name Q-machine stems from the original intention of creating aquiescent plasma that is free from the fluctuations that arepresent in plasmas created in electric discharges...
  
  
• QCD matter
  QCD matter
  Quark matter or QCD matter refers to any of a number of theorized phases of matter whose degrees of freedom include quarks and gluons. These theoretical phases would occur at extremely high temperatures and densities, billions of times higher than can be produced in equilibrium in laboratories...
  
  
• Quadrupole ion trap
  Quadrupole ion trap
  A quadrupole ion trap exists in both linear and 3D varieties and refers to an ion trap that uses constant DC and radio frequency oscillating AC electric fields to trap ions. It is commonly used as a component of a mass spectrometer...
  
  
• Quantum cascade laser
  Quantum cascade laser
  Quantum cascade lasers are semiconductor lasers that emit in the mid- to far-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and were first demonstrated by Jerome Faist, Federico Capasso, Deborah Sivco, Carlo Sirtori, Albert Hutchinson, and Alfred Cho at Bell Laboratories in 1994.Unlike typical...
  
  
• Quark–gluon plasma
• Quasar
  Quasar
  A quasi-stellar radio source is a very energetic and distant active galactic nucleus. Quasars are extremely luminous and were first identified as being high redshift sources of electromagnetic energy, including radio waves and visible light, that were point-like, similar to stars, rather than...
  
  
• Quasiparticle
  Quasiparticle
  In physics, quasiparticles are emergent phenomena that occur when a microscopically complicated system such as a solid behaves as if it contained different weakly interacting particles in free space...
  
  

R

• Radiation
  Radiation
  In physics, radiation is a process in which energetic particles or energetic waves travel through a medium or space. There are two distinct types of radiation; ionizing and non-ionizing...
  
  
• Radiation damage
  Radiation damage
  Radiation damage is a term associated with ionizing radiation.-Causes:This radiation may take several forms:*Cosmic rays and subsequent energetic particles caused by their collision with the atmosphere and other materials....
  
  
• Radical polymerization
  Radical polymerization
  Free radical polymerization is a method of polymerization by which a polymer forms by the successive addition of free radical building blocks. Free radicals can be formed via a number of different mechanisms usually involving separate initiator molecules...
  
  
• Radioactive waste
  Radioactive waste
  Radioactive wastes are wastes that contain radioactive material. Radioactive wastes are usually by-products of nuclear power generation and other applications of nuclear fission or nuclear technology, such as research and medicine...
  
  
• Radio galaxy
  Radio galaxy
  Radio galaxies and their relatives, radio-loud quasars and blazars, are types of active galaxy that are very luminous at radio wavelengths, with luminosities up to 1039 W between 10 MHz and 100 GHz. The radio emission is due to the synchrotron process...
  
  
• Radio halo
  Radio halo
  Radio halos are large-scale areas of radio emission found in clusters of galaxies. They do not have an obvious galaxy counterpart, as opposed, for example, to radio galaxies which have AGN counterparts...
  
  
• Radio relics
  Radio relics
  Radio Relics are diffuse synchrotron radio emission found in the peripheral regions of galaxy clusters. Similar to the case of radio halos, they do not have any obvious galaxy counterpart, but their shapes are much more elongated and irregular compared to those of radio halos...
  
  
• Railgun
  Railgun
  A railgun is an entirely electrical gun that accelerates a conductive projectile along a pair of metal rails using the same principles as the homopolar motor. Railguns use two sliding or rolling contacts that permit a large electric current to pass through the projectile. This current interacts...
  
  
• Ray tracing (physics)
  Ray tracing (physics)
  In physics, ray tracing is a method for calculating the path of waves or particles through a system with regions of varying propagation velocity, absorption characteristics, and reflecting surfaces. Under these circumstances, wavefronts may bend, change direction, or reflect off surfaces,...
  
  
• Reactive-ion etching
• Reaction engine
  Reaction engine
  A reaction engine is an engine or motor which provides propulsion by expelling reaction mass, in accordance with Newton's third law of motion...
  
  
• Rectifier
  Rectifier
  A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current , which periodically reverses direction, to direct current , which flows in only one direction. The process is known as rectification...
  
   ,Plasma type
• Relativistic beaming
  Relativistic beaming
  Relativistic beaming is the process by which relativistic effects modify the apparent luminosity of emitting matter that is moving at speeds close to the speed of light...
  
  
• Relativistic jet
  Relativistic jet
  Relativistic jets are extremely powerful jets of plasma which emerge from presumed massive objects at the centers of some active galaxies, notably radio galaxies and quasars. Their lengths can reach several thousand or even hundreds of thousands of light years...
  
  
• Relativistic particle
  Relativistic particle
  A relativistic particle is a particle which moves with a relativistic speed; that is, a speed comparable to the speed of light. This is achieved by photons to the extent that effects described by special relativity are able to describe those of such particles themselves...
  
  
• Relativistic plasma
  Relativistic plasma
  Relativistic plasmas in physics are plasmas for which relativistic corrections to a particle's mass and velocity are important. Such corrections typically become important when a significant number of electrons reach speeds greater than 0.86c .Such plasmas may be created either by heating a gas to...
  
  
• Relativistic similarity parameter
• Remote plasma-enhanced CVD
• Resistive ballooning mode
  Resistive ballooning mode
  The resistive ballooning mode is an instability occurring in magnetized plasmas, particularly in magnetic confinement devices such as tokamaks, when the pressure gradient is opposite to the effective gravity created by a magnetic field....
  
  
• Resolved sideband cooling
  Resolved sideband cooling
  Resolved sideband cooling is a laser cooling technique that can be used to cool strongly trapped atoms to the quantum ground state of their motion. The atoms are usually precooled using the Doppler laser cooling...
  
  
• Resonant magnetic perturbations
  Resonant magnetic perturbations
  Resonant magnetic perturbations are a special type of magnetic field perturbations used to control burning plasma instabilities called edge-localized modes in magnetic fusion devices such as tokamaks. The efficiency of RMPs for controlling ELMs was first demonstrated on the tokamak DIII-D in 2003....
  
  
• Resonator mode
  Resonator mode
  In the resonator mode, the plasma density does not exceed thecritical density.A standing electromagnetic wave, which is confined by aresonator cavity, penetrates the plasma and sustains it in the regions of highest field...
  
  
• Reversed field pinch
  Reversed field pinch
  A reversed-field pinch is a device used to produce and contain near-thermonuclear plasmas. It is a toroidal pinch which uses a unique magnetic field configuration as a scheme to magnetically confine a plasma, primarily to study magnetic fusion energy. Its magnetic geometry is somewhat different...
  
  
• Richtmyer–Meshkov instability
• Riggatron
  Riggatron
  A Riggatron is a magnetic confinement fusion reactor design created by Robert W. Bussard in the late 1970s. It is tokamak on the basis of its magnetic geometry, but some unconventional engineering choices were made, in particular the use of copper magnets positioned inside the blanket, which was...
  
  
• Ring current
  Ring current
  A ring current is an electric current carried by charged particles trapped in a planet's magnetosphere. It is caused by the longitudinal drift of energetic particles.-Earth's ring current:...
  
  
• Rocket engine nozzle
• Runaway breakdown
  Runaway breakdown
  Runaway breakdown is a theory of lightning initiation proposed by Alex Gurevich in 1992.Electrons in air have a mean free path of ~1cm. Fast electrons which move at a large fraction of the speed of light have a mean free path up to 100 times longer...
  
  
• Rydberg atom
  Rydberg atom
  thumb|right|300px|Figure 1: Energy levels in atomic [[lithium]] showing the Rydberg series of the lowest 3 values of [[Angular momentum#Angular momentum in quantum mechanics|orbital angular momentum]] converging on the first ionization energy....
  
  

S

• Safe-cracking
  Safe-cracking
  Safe-cracking is the process of opening a safe without either the combination or key. It may also refer to a computer hacker's attempts to break into a secured computer system, in which case it may be shortened to "cracking" or black hat hacking....
  
  
• Safety factor (plasma physics)
  Safety factor (plasma physics)
  In a toroidal fusion power reactor, the magnetic fields confining the plasma are formed in a helical shape, winding around the interior of the reactor...
  
  
• Saha ionization equation
  Saha ionization equation
  The Saha ionization equation, also known as the Saha–Langmuir equation, was developed by the Indian astrophysicist Meghnad Saha in 1920, and later by Irving Langmuir. One of the important applications of the equation was in explaining the spectral classification of stars...
  
  
• Sceptre (fusion reactor)
  Sceptre (fusion reactor)
  Sceptre was an early fusion power device based the Z-pinch concept of plasma confinement, built in the UK starting in 1957. They were the ultimate versions of a series of devices tracing their history to the original pinch machines, built at Imperial College London by Cousins and Ware in 1947...
  
  
• Scramjet
  Scramjet
  A scramjet is a variant of a ramjet airbreathing jet engine in which combustion takes place in supersonic airflow...
  
  
• Screened Poisson equation
  Screened Poisson equation
  In Physics, the screened Poisson equation is the following partial differential equation:\left[ \Delta - \lambda^2 \right] u = - f...
  
  
• Self-focusing
  Self-focusing
  Self-focusing is a non-linear optical process induced by the change in refractive index of materials exposed to intense electromagnetic radiation. A medium whose refractive index increases with the electric field intensity acts as a focusing lens for an electromagnetic wave characterised by an...
  
  
• Semiconductor device fabrication
• Sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe
• Shiva laser
  Shiva laser
  The Shiva laser was a powerful 20-beam infrared neodymium glass laser built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1977 for the study of inertial confinement fusion and long-scale-length laser-plasma interactions. The device was named after the multi-armed form of the Hindu god Shiva, due...
  
  
• Shocks and discontinuities (magnetohydrodynamics)
• Shock wave
  Shock wave
  A shock wave is a type of propagating disturbance. Like an ordinary wave, it carries energy and can propagate through a medium or in some cases in the absence of a material medium, through a field such as the electromagnetic field...
  
   ,Oblique shock
  Oblique shock
  An oblique shock wave, unlike a normal shock, is inclined with respect to the incident upstream flow direction. It will occur when a supersonic flow encounters a corner that effectively turns the flow into itself and compresses. The upstream streamlines are uniformly deflected after the shock wave...
  
  
• Skip zone
  Skip zone
  A skip zone, also called a silent zone or zone of silence, is a region where a radio transmission can not be received located between regions both nearer and further from the transmitter where reception is possible....
  
  
• Sky brightness
  Sky brightness
  The fact that the sky is not completely dark at night can be easily observed. Were the sky absolutely dark, one would not be able to see the silhouette of an object against the sky....
  
  
• Slapper detonator
  Slapper detonator
  A slapper detonator, also called exploding foil initiator , is a relatively recent kind of a detonator developed in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory...
  
  
• Small Tight Aspect Ratio Tokamak
  Small Tight Aspect Ratio Tokamak
  The Small Tight Aspect Ratio Tokamak, or START was a nuclear fusion experiment that used magnetic confinement to hold plasma. The experiment began at the Culham Science Centre in the United Kingdom in 1991 and was retired in 1998. It was built as a low cost design, largely using parts already...
  
  
• Solar cycle
  Solar cycle
  The solar cycle, or the solar magnetic activity cycle, is a periodic change in the amount of irradiation from the Sun that is experienced on Earth. It has a period of about 11 years, and is one component of solar variation, the other being aperiodic fluctuations. Solar variation causes changes in...
  
   ,Cosmic ray
  Cosmic ray
  Cosmic rays are energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space. They may produce secondary particles that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The term ray is historical as cosmic rays were thought to be electromagnetic radiation...
  
   flux
• Solar flare
  Solar flare
  A solar flare is a sudden brightening observed over the Sun surface or the solar limb, which is interpreted as a large energy release of up to 6 × 1025 joules of energy . The flare ejects clouds of electrons, ions, and atoms through the corona into space. These clouds typically reach Earth a day...
  
  
• Solar transition region
  Solar transition region
  The solar transition region is a region of the Sun's atmosphere, between the chromosphere and corona. It is visible from space using telescopes that can sense ultraviolet...
  
  
• Solar wind
  Solar wind
  The solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It mostly consists of electrons and protons with energies usually between 1.5 and 10 keV. The stream of particles varies in temperature and speed over time...
  
  
• Solenoid
  Solenoid
  A solenoid is a coil wound into a tightly packed helix. In physics, the term solenoid refers to a long, thin loop of wire, often wrapped around a metallic core, which produces a magnetic field when an electric current is passed through it. Solenoids are important because they can create...
  
  
• Solution precursor plasma spray
  Solution precursor plasma spray
  Solution Precursor Plasma Spray is a thermal spray process where a feedstock solution is heated and then deposited onto a substrate. Basic properties of the process are fundamentally similar to other plasma spraying processes. However, instead of injecting a powder into the plasma plume, a liquid...
  
   ,Plasma plume
• Sonoluminescence
  Sonoluminescence
  Sonoluminescence is the emission of short bursts of light from imploding bubbles in a liquid when excited by sound.-History:The effect was first discovered at the University of Cologne in 1934 as a result of work on sonar. H. Frenzel and H. Schultes put an ultrasound transducer in a tank of...
  
  
• Southern Hemisphere Auroral Radar Experiment
  Southern Hemisphere Auroral Radar Experiment
  The Southern Hemisphere Auroral Radar Experiment , started 1988, is an Antarctic research project designed to observe velocities and irregularities of electrical fields in the ionosphere and magnetosphere...
  
  
• Space physics
  Space physics
  Space physics, also known as space plasma physics, is the study of plasmas as they occur naturally in the universe. As such, it encompasses a far-ranging number of topics, including the sun, solar wind, planetary magnetospheres and ionospheres, auroras, cosmic rays, and synchrotron radiation...
  
  
• Space Shuttle
  Space Shuttle
  The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
  
  
• Space Shuttle thermal protection system
  Space Shuttle thermal protection system
  The Space Shuttle thermal protection system is the barrier that protects the Space Shuttle Orbiter during the searing heat of atmospheric reentry...
  
  
• Space tether missions
  Space tether missions
  A number of space tethers have been deployed in space missions.Tether satellites can be used for various purposes including research into tether propulsion, tidal stabilisation and orbital plasma dynamics....
  
  
• Spark plasma sintering
  Spark plasma sintering
  Spark plasma sintering , also known as field assisted sintering technique or pulsed electric current sintering , is a sintering technique....
  
  
• Spectral line
  Spectral line
  A spectral line is a dark or bright line in an otherwise uniform and continuous spectrum, resulting from a deficiency or excess of photons in a narrow frequency range, compared with the nearby frequencies.- Types of line spectra :...
  
  
• Spherical tokamak
  Spherical tokamak
  A spherical tokamak is a type of fusion power device based on the tokamak principle. It is notable for its very narrow profile, or "aspect ratio". A traditional tokamak has a toroidal confinement area that gives it an overall shape similar to a donut, complete with a large hole in the middle...
  
  
• Spheromak
  Spheromak
  A spheromak is an arrangement of plasma formed into a toroidal shape similar to a smoke ring. The spheromak contains large internal electrical currents and their associated magnetic fields arranged so the magnetohydrodynamic forces within the spheromak are nearly balanced, resulting in long-lived ...
  
  
• Spinplasmonics
  Spinplasmonics
  Spinplasmonics is a field nanotechnology combining spintronics and plasmonics. The field was pioneered by Professor Abdulhakem Elezzabi at the University of Alberta in Canada. In a simple spinplasmonic device, light waves couple to electron spin states in a metallic structure...
  
  
• Spontaneous emission
  Spontaneous emission
  Spontaneous emission is the process by which a light source such as an atom, molecule, nanocrystal or nucleus in an excited state undergoes a transition to a state with a lower energy, e.g., the ground state and emits a photon...
  
  
• Sprite (lightning)
  Sprite (lightning)
  Sprites are large-scale electrical discharges that occur high above thunderstorm clouds, or cumulonimbus, giving rise to a quite varied range of visual shapes flickering in the night sky. They are triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between an underlying thundercloud and the...
  
  
• Sputter cleaning
  Sputter cleaning
  Sputter cleaning is the cleaning of a solid surface in a vacuum by using physical sputtering of the surface. Sputter cleaning is often used in vacuum deposition and ion plating. In 1955 Farnsworth, Schlier, George, and Burger reported using sputter cleaning in an ultra-high-vacuum system to prepare...
  
  
• Sputter deposition
  Sputter deposition
  Sputter deposition is a physical vapor deposition method of depositing thin films by sputtering, that is ejecting, material from a "target," that is source, which then deposits onto a "substrate," such as a silicon wafer...
  
  
• Sputtering
  Sputtering
  Sputtering is a process whereby atoms are ejected from a solid target material due to bombardment of the target by energetic particles. It is commonly used for thin-film deposition, etching and analytical techniques .-Physics of sputtering:...
  
  
• SST-1 (tokamak)
  SST-1 (tokamak)
  SST-1 is a plasma confinement experimental device under construction in the Institute for Plasma Research in India. It is designed as a medium-sized tokamak with superconducting magnets....
  
   ,Steady State Tokamak
• Star
  Star
  A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
  
  
• State of matter
  State of matter
  States of matter are the distinct forms that different phases of matter take on. Solid, liquid and gas are the most common states of matter on Earth. However, much of the baryonic matter of the universe is in the form of hot plasma, both as rarefied interstellar medium and as dense...
  
  
• Static forces and virtual-particle exchange
  Static forces and virtual-particle exchange
  Static force fields are fields, such as a simple electric, magnetic or gravitational fields, that exist without excitations. The most common approximation method that physicists use for scattering calculations can be interpreted as static forces arising from the interactions between two bodies...
  
  
• Stellarator
  Stellarator
  A stellarator is a device used to confine a hot plasma with magnetic fields in order to sustain a controlled nuclear fusion reaction. It is one of the earliest controlled fusion devices, first invented by Lyman Spitzer in 1950 and built the next year at what later became the Princeton Plasma...
  
  
• Stellar-wind bubble
• St. Elmo's fire
  St. Elmo's fire
  St. Elmo's fire is a weather phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created by a coronal discharge from a grounded object in an electric field in the atmosphere St. Elmo's fire is named after St. Erasmus of Formiae St. Elmo's fire (also St. Elmo's light) is a weather phenomenon in which luminous...
  
  
• Strangeness production
  Strangeness production
  Strangeness production is a signature and a diagnostic tool of quark-gluon plasma formation and properties. Unlike up and down quarks, from which everyday matter is made, strange quarks are formed in pair production processes in collisions between constituents of the plasma...
  
  
• Structure formation
  Structure formation
  Structure formation refers to a fundamental problem in physical cosmology. The universe, as is now known from observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation, began in a hot, dense, nearly uniform state approximately 13.7 Gyr ago...
  
  
• Sudden ionospheric disturbance
  Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance
  A sudden ionospheric disturbance is an abnormally high ionization/plasma density in the D region of the ionosphere caused by a solar flare...
  
  
• Sun
  Sun
  The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
  
  
• SUNIST
  SUNIST
  SUNIST, the abbreviation of Sino-UNIted Spherical Tokamak, is a small spherical tokamak in the Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua Univerisy, Beijing, China.- The main parameters of SUNIST :- Current research activities :...
  
   ,Sino-UNIted Spherical Tokamak, Alfven wave current drive experiments in spherical tokamak plasmas
• Supernova remnants
• Sura Ionospheric Heating Facility
  Sura Ionospheric Heating Facility
  The Sura Ionospheric Heating Facility, located near the small town of Vasilsursk about 100 km eastward from Nizhniy Novgorod in Russia, is a laboratory for ionosphere research. Sura is capable of radiating about 190 MW, effective radiated power on short waves. This facility is operated by the...
  
  
• Surface-wave-sustained mode
  Surface-wave-sustained mode
  Plasmas that are excited by propagation of electromagnetic surface waves are called surface-wave-sustained. Surface wave plasma sources can be divided into two groups depending upon whether the plasma generates part of its own waveguide by ionisation or not. The former is called a self-guided plasma...
  
  
• Synchrotron light source

T

• Tanning bed
• Taylor state
  Taylor state
  In plasma physics, a Taylor state is the minimum energy state of a plasma satisfying the constraint of conserving magnetic helicity.- Derivation :...
  
  
• Teller–Ulam design ,Foam plasma pressure
• Tesla coil
  Tesla coil
  A Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. It is used to produce high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity. Tesla coils produce higher current than the other source of high voltage discharges, electrostatic machines...
  
  
• Test particle
  Test particle
  In physical theories, a test particle is an idealized model of an object whose physical properties are assumed to be negligible except for the property being studied, which is considered to be insufficient to alter the behavior of the rest of the system...
  
   ,in plasma physics or electrodynamics
• Thermal barrier coating
• Thermalisation
  Thermalisation
  In physics, thermalisation is the process of particles reaching thermal equilibrium through mutual interaction....
  
  
• Thermionic converter
  Thermionic converter
  A thermionic converter consists of a hot electrode which thermionically emits electrons over a potential energy barrier to a cooler electrode, producing a useful electric power output...
  
  
• Thermodynamic temperature
  Thermodynamic temperature
  Thermodynamic temperature is the absolute measure of temperature and is one of the principal parameters of thermodynamics. Thermodynamic temperature is an "absolute" scale because it is the measure of the fundamental property underlying temperature: its null or zero point, absolute zero, is the...
  
  
• Thomson scattering
  Thomson scattering
  Thomson scattering is the elastic scattering of electromagnetic radiation by a free charged particle, as described by classical electromagnetism. It is just the low-energy limit of Compton scattering: the particle kinetic energy and photon frequency are the same before and after the scattering...
  
  
• Thunder
  Thunder
  Thunder is the sound made by lightning. Depending on the nature of the lightning and distance of the listener, thunder can range from a sharp, loud crack to a long, low rumble . The sudden increase in pressure and temperature from lightning produces rapid expansion of the air surrounding and within...
  
  
• Tokamak
  Tokamak
  A tokamak is a device using a magnetic field to confine a plasma in the shape of a torus . Achieving a stable plasma equilibrium requires magnetic field lines that move around the torus in a helical shape...
  
  
• Tokamak à configuration variable
  Tokamak à configuration variable
  The Tokamak à configuration variable is a research fusion reactor of the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne. Its particularity is that its torus section is three times higher than wide...
  
  
• Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor
  Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor
  The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor was an experimental tokamak built at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory circa 1980. Following on from the PDX and PLT devices, it was hoped that TFTR would finally achieve fusion energy break-even. Unfortunately, the TFTR never achieved this goal...
  
  
• Toroidal ring model
  Toroidal ring model
  The toroidal ring model, known originally as the Parson magneton or magnetic electron, is also known as the plasmoid ring, vortex ring, or helicon ring...
  
  
• Townsend (unit)
• Transmission medium
  Transmission medium
  A transmission medium is a material substance that can propagate energy waves...
  
  
• Trisops
  Trisops
  Trisops was an experimental machine for the study of magnetic confinement of plasmas with the ultimate goal of producing fusion power. The configuration was a variation of a compact toroid, a toroidal structure of plasma and magnetic fields with no coils penetrating the center...
  
   ,Force Free Plasma Vortices
• Tweeter
  Tweeter
  A tweeter is a loudspeaker designed to produce high audio frequencies, typically from around 2,000 Hz to 20,000 Hz . Some tweeters can manage response up to 65 kHz...
  
   ,Plasma or Ion tweeter
• two-dimensional guiding-center plasma
• Two-dimensional point vortex gas
  Two-dimensional point vortex gas
  The two-dimensional point vortex gas is a discrete particle model used to study turbulence in two-dimensional ideal fluids. The two-dimensional guiding-center plasma is a completely equivalent model used in plasma physics.-General setup:...
  
  
• Two-fluid plasma
• Two-stream instability

U

• U-HID
  U-HID
  U-HID is a type of lamp. A mixture of two physical principles in lighting electronics, U-HID is the combination of Plasma and High Intensity Discharge technologies. The U-HID lamp produces a beam of light due to the formation of a plasma discharge arc...
  
   ,Ultra High Intensity Discharge
• UMIST linear system
  UMIST linear system
  The ULS is a gas target divertor simulator located on the former UMIST campus of the University of Manchester. It enables physicists to study the recombination processes of a detached plasma in a hydrogen target chamber....
  
  
• Upper hybrid oscillation
  Upper hybrid oscillation
  An upper hybrid oscillation is a mode of oscillation of a magnetized plasma. It consists of a longitudinal motion of the electrons perpendicular to the magnetic field with the dispersion relation...
  
  
• Upper-atmospheric lightning
  Upper-atmospheric lightning
  Upper-atmospheric lightning or upper-atmospheric discharge are terms sometimes used by researchers to refer to a family of short-lived electrical-breakdown phenomena that occur well above the altitudes of normal lightning and storm clouds. Upper-atmospheric lightning is believed to be electrically...
  
  

V

• Vacuum arc
  Vacuum arc
  A vacuum arc can arise when the surfaces of metal electrodes in contact with a good vacuum begin to emit electrons either through heating or via an electric field that is sufficient to cause field electron emission...
  
  
• Van Allen radiation belt
  Van Allen radiation belt
  The Van Allen radiation belt is a torus of energetic charged particles around Earth, which is held in place by Earth's magnetic field. It is believed that most of the particles that form the belts come from solar wind, and other particles by cosmic rays. It is named after its discoverer, James...
  
  
• Vapor–liquid–solid method
• Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket
  Variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket
  The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket is an electro-magnetic thruster for spacecraft propulsion. It uses radio waves to ionize and heat a propellant and magnetic fields to accelerate the resulting plasma to generate thrust...
  
  
• Vector inversion generator
  Vector inversion generator
  A vector inversion generator is an electric pulse compression and voltage multiplication device, allowing shaping a slower, lower voltage pulse to a narrower, higher-voltage one. VIGs are used in military technology, e.g...
  
  
• Versatile Toroidal Facility
  Versatile Toroidal Facility
  The Versatile Toroidal Facility is a research group within the Physics Research Division of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The VTF is a laboratory focused on studying the phenomenon of magnetic reconnection. For this purpose the group has a...
  
  
• Virial theorem
• Vlasov equation
  Vlasov equation
  The Vlasov equation is a differential equation describing time evolution of the distribution function of plasma consisting of charged particles with long-range interaction...
  
  
• Volatilisation
  Volatilisation
  Volatilization is the process whereby a dissolved sample is vaporised. In atomic spectroscopy this is usually a two step process. The analyte is turned into small droplets in a nebuliser which are entrained in a gas flow which is in turn volatilised in a high temperature flame in the case of AAS or...
  
  
• VORPAL
  VORPAL
  VORPAL is a computational plasmaframework that can predict the dynamics ofelectromagnetic systems, plasmas, andrarefied as well as dense gases...
  
  

W

• Warm dense matter
  Warm Dense Matter
  Warm dense matter, abbreviated WDM, is the non-equilibrium state of matter between a solid and a plasma. It can be defined as the state that is too dense to be described by weakly coupled plasma physics yet that is too energetic to be described by condensed matter physics...
  
  
• Wave equation
  Wave equation
  The wave equation is an important second-order linear partial differential equation for the description of waves – as they occur in physics – such as sound waves, light waves and water waves. It arises in fields like acoustics, electromagnetics, and fluid dynamics...
  
  
• Wave heated plasma
• Weibel instability
  Weibel instability
  The Weibel instability is a plasma instability present in homogeneous or nearly homogeneous electromagnetic plasmas which possess an anisotropy in momentum space. In other words, all the electrons are moving in one direction. In the linear limit the instability causes exponential growth of...
  
  
• Wendelstein 7-X
  Wendelstein 7-X
  Wendelstein 7-X is an experimental stellarator currently being built in Greifswald, Germany by the Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik , which will be completed by 2015. It is a further development of Wendelstein 7-AS...
  
  
• Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle
  Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle
  The Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle is a heavier than air flight system in development for NASA at the University of Florida. The aircraft uses electrodes on its undercarriage in order to ionize air, and it then propels the resultant plasma using electromagnets...
  
  

Z

• Zakharov system
• Zero-point energy
  Zero-point energy
  Zero-point energy is the lowest possible energy that a quantum mechanical physical system may have; it is the energy of its ground state. All quantum mechanical systems undergo fluctuations even in their ground state and have an associated zero-point energy, a consequence of their wave-like nature...
  
  
• ZETA (fusion reactor)
• Z machine
  Z machine
  The Z machine is the largest X-ray generator in the world and is designed to test materials in conditions of extreme temperature and pressure. Operated by Sandia National Laboratories, it gathers data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear weapons...
  
  
• Zonal and poloidal
  Zonal and poloidal
  In magnetic confinement fusion the zonal direction primarily connotes the poloidal direction , the corresponding coordinate being denoted by y in the slab approximation or θ in magnetic coordinates...
  
  
• Zonal flow (plasma)
  Zonal flow (plasma)
  In toroidally confined fusion plasma experiments the term zonal flow means a plasma flow within a magnetic surface primarily in the poloidal direction...