4 ECTS
The course is intended as the first plasma physics course however it is also suitable for senior undergraduate students and graduate students.
- Plasma phenomena on Earth and in the Universe; historical overview of plasma physics; contemporary research areas and technological applications of plasmas; studies of controlled nuclear fusion.
- Definition of plasma; quasineutrality, Debye length, plasma frequency.
- Coulomb collisions, Rutherford’s formula, Coulomb logarithm
- Motion of a single charged particle in magnetic field; Larmor radius, drifts, magnetic traps.
- Controlled nuclear fusion; Lawson criterion and ignition criterion.
- Principles of plasma heating with electromagnetic waves and neutral beam injection.
- Principles of plasma diagnostics, active and passive measurements, line-integral data, Doppler broadening