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21Complex Systems of Charged Particles and their Interactions with Electromagnetic Radiation 2019
DUSTY STRUCTURES AND CHAIN REACTIONS INITIATED IN REGOLITH BY PULSED RADIATION OF THE GYROTRON
N.N. Skvortsova1, S.A. Mayorov12, D.V. Malakhov1,3, V.D. Stepakhin1,3, E.A. Obraztsova4, A.S. Sokolov5, O.N. Shishilov5
1Prokhorov General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia,
e-mail: mukudori@mail.ru 2Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia,
e-mail: mayorov_sa@mail.ru 3Pirogov Russian National Medical University, Moscow, Russia, 4M.M. Shemyakin and Yu.A. Ovchinnikova Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy
of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: brenka@mail.ru 5 MIREA - Russian Technological University, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: dmc63@yandex.ru
Previously, plasma-dust clouds consisting of charged particles of micro and nano sizes were found above the surface of powder mixtures of metals and dielectric irradiated by thepulsed powerful microwave radiation of a gyrotron [1]. The experiments presented in this report showed the possibility of creating ensembles of levitating plasma-dust structures above the surface of the regolith.
Experiments were carried out on a special plasma chemical stand [2] in a mixture of oxide powders with a small metal additive with percentage composition and particle size distribution the same as in lunar regolith[3]. Exceeding the threshold for microwave energy of 1-3 kJ (at pulse duration of 1-4 ms) initiated an explosive process on the free regolith surface caused by Coulomb repulsion of charged particles. Self-propagating chain reactions of high-temperature plasma chemical synthesis developed in the reactor volume after the regolith mixture explosion. This process of auto-thermal secondary synthesis lasted up to tens of seconds, which is 3-4 orders of magnitude longer than the duration of the initiation pulse of the gyrotron. The energy produced during this process exceeds the initiation energy several hundredfold.
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Fig.1. (l)Particle levitation over the regolith surface (28 ms after the gyrotron pulse). (2)Particle levitation over the regolith surface (50 ms after the gyrotron pulse).(3)Particles depositedon the quartz tube at a distance of 10-20 cm above the surface of the regolith.
During this period, the suspended dust grains levitated several tens of centimeters above the powder mixture surface (Fig.1,1-2), and produced a levitating cloud, which occupied not only the entire reactor volume, but also raised to a height of up to 1 m above the rector (and this, in the terrestrial gravitation field). Melted regolith spheroids with diameters of 1-1000 p,m were deposited on the side surface of the reactor above the powder mixture (Fig.1, 3).
In this work, we note the possible analogy between this process and the raise of dusty plasma clouds above regolith surface on the Moon, which, similarly, could be caused by not only physical processes, but also plasma chemical chain processes caused by meteorite impact.
References
[1] N.N. Skvortsova et al. 2017 JETP Letters106 (4) 262.
[2] G.M. Batanov et al. 2016 J. Nanophotonics 10(1) 012520.
[3] K.P. Florensky et al.Lunar Soil: Properties and Analogues,Moscow, 1975, (in Russian).
