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Bochumer Plasmaforscher in Sheffield
The 1st International conference on HIPIMS was held in Sheffield, UK from 6th to 7th July, 2010. The aim of the conference is to promote High Impulse Power Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS), to provide a scientific forum for discussion of the fundamentals of plasma science and exchange new ideas of application of HIPIMS in industry. Main focus of the conference was on the topics such as generation of HIPIMS plasma, characterisation of Plasma and Coatings both in reactive and non-reactive HIPIMS processes and simulation of HIPIMS processes. Prof. Dr. Jörg Winter, Dr. Teresa de los Arcos, Dr. Ante Hecimovic, and Marina Prenzel attended the conference where they had a chance to find about the latest achievements in the field of HIPIMS, furthermore they made valuable contacts with experts from the field of HIPIMS and agreed on future collaboration that should bring the work on HIPIMS at RUB at the level with world leading laboratories.
International Conference on High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS)
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Bochumer Plasmaforscher auf der ICOPS
Professor Ralf Peter Brinkmann, Katharina Stapelmann und Benjamin Denis besuchten vom 20. bis 24. Juni 2010 die 37th IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS) in Norfolk, Virginia (USA). Auf der Konferenz konnten sie sich über verschiedene aktuelle Themen der Plasmasterilisation informieren sowie ihre Forschungsarbeiten zu diesem Thema anderen Forschern auf dem Gebiet durch einen Vortrag und ein Poster präsentieren. Die Konferenz war auf dem Gebiet der Plasmamedizin hochkarätig besetzt. Somit konnte der Forschungsstandort Bochum sowie das Research Department Plasmas with Complex Interactions und dessen Arbeit auf dem Gebiet der Plasmasterilisation international bekannter gemacht und vertreten werden. Zudem konnte die Kooperation mit der Gruppe von Mark Kushner (University of Michigan, USA) intensiviert werden. Der erste Besuch bei ihm konnte Anfang des Jahres dank des RD Plasma erfolgen. Zum einen konnten die Vorträge zu verschiedenen Themen der Plasmasimulation verfolgt werden, zum anderen durch verschiedene Gespräche mit einzelnen Forschern der Gruppe zukünftige Kooperationen besprochen werden.
37th IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS)
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Bochumer Plasmaphysiker auf der EPS 2010
Several scientists of the Research Department "Plasmas with Complex Interaction" participated - partly in prominent positions - in the EPS Conference Plasma Physics in Dublin from June 21 - 24, 2010. The conference was attended by a total of about 500 participants, of which about a quarter contributed papers (about 25 talks and 120 posters) in the field of low temperature plasma physics. The other major areas covered by this meeting are fusion - both magnetic and inertial fusion - and the fundamentals of plasma physics, but in which astrophysical issues are also covered.
Prof. Uwe. Czarnetzki from the Institute of Experimental Physics V of the RUB was awarded the "Innovation Prize" of the EPS there and was able to present the underlying ideas of the "electrical asymmetry effect" in a plenary lecture. Prof. Padma Shukla with the topic "Quantum Plasmas" and Prof. Achim von Keudell were invited for further plenary lectures. The latter presented the state of research in the Research Department Plasma of the RUB in the field of "Physics of Microplasmas". Further participants were Prof. Jörg Winter, Prof. Henning Soltwisch, Dr. Volker Schulz-von der Gathen and Brankica Sikimic.
The technical breadth of the conference allowed new impulses to be taken up from previously unconsidered perspectives. In the field of low-temperature plasmas, the dusty or complex plasmas and the microplasmas were represented as focal points, but these were complemented by the magnetron and helicon discharges, which were also investigated in the Research Department. Another lecture presented current results of research within the Physics Department and the research group FOR1123 "Physics of Microplasmas" on the dependence of the concentrations of atomic oxygen and ozone on the flow rate through a microjet. This contribution fitted extremely well with the central theme of surface treatment with 'microjets'. Here, several presentations showed that ignorance of the species present in microjets leads to ambiguous results and evaluations in surface treatment. This is of particular relevance as one of the main applications of microplasmas is seen in the field of biomedicine. Another application area for atmospheric pressure microdischarges seems to be possible modifications of fluxes over surfaces, e.g. airfoils. This could lead to the improvement of flight characteristics, but also a reduction of engine noise.
Numerous discussions, especially at the posters, gave new impulses for our further approach both to the microplasma issue, which is currently central for us, and to new possible diagnostic methods that could be used within the Research Department Plasma.
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Belgrade
26.06.2010 - Joint DAAD Project Bochum - Belgrade
After the ESCAMPIG conference Dr. Stefanović spent a week at the Institute of Physics in Belgrade. During his stay in Laboratory for Gaseous Electronics (Head Dr. Z. Lj. Petrović) he discussed the results and furture activities in the joint project of Research Unit FOR 1123 «Physics of Microplasmas» and Gaseous Electronic Laboratory, Belgrade, with the title: «Spatial Structure of Non-Equilibrium Microdischarges». The main purpose of this project finaced by DAAD is to strenghten the exchange of young scientist between two instututes who are working in the field of microplasmas. The next visit is organized for September 2010 when graduate student Thomas Kuschel from FOR 1123, Project A4, shall spent two weeks in Belgrade working on the experiment with his collegue from Belgrade Nikola Škoro.
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Dr. Ilija Stefanović's Visit to 20th ESCAMPIG
Dr. Ilija Stefanović from Research Department «Plasmas with Complex Interactions» has taken a part on 20th European Conference on the Atomic and Molecular Physics of Ionized Gases (ESCAMPIG XX), which was organized by the Institute of Physics, Belgrade, Serbia. The conference took place in Novi Sad, Serbia, on July 13 - 17, 2010.
Dr. Stefanović presented four posters with the results of activities in Research Department. Two different topics were in focus: dusty plasma afterglows (in collaboration with Prof. Nader Sadeghi from University Grenoble, France, Prof. Igor Denysenko from Harkov National University, Ukraine and Prof. Jürgen Röpcke from INP Greifswald) and microplasmas (in collaboration with Dr. Zoran Lj. Petrović and his group from Institute of Physics, Belgrade, Serbia). The ESCAMPIG conference is one of the most important European conferences of low-temperature plasma physics, which make it important forum for discussion with other colleagues from the same research field. Beside the presentation of the results of our Research Department, the intensive discussion on trends in low-temperature plasma physics took place as well as planning the future join activities. (Contributions to 20th ESCAMPIG could be found on http://www.escampig2010.ipb.ac.rs.)
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Dr. Horst Fichtner and Dr. Christian Schwarz at Swarthmore Collage
From June 9-11, 2010, the General Meeting of the Center of Magnetic Self-Organization (CMSO) has been held at Swarthmore Collage, near Philadelphia. From the Ruhr-University Bochum PD Horst Fichtner as representative of the "Research Group 1048: Cosmic Magnetic Fields") and Dr. Christian Schwarz of the "Research Department for Plasmas with Complex
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Jun.-Prof. Julia Becker at "Relativistic Whirlwind"
At the Relativistic Whirlwind conference (June 02-04, 2010) in Trieste, Italy, about 50 international scientists met to discuss the behavior of astrophysical plasmas in the vicinity of black holes. The conference has been held in honor of Prof. Dr. Marek Abramowicz, who turned 65 this year and has significantly shaped research in the field of black hole accretion. The conference featured a presentation by Jun-Prof Dr. Julia K. Becker, PI in the Research Department, on "Pinpointing Primordial Black Holes." Jun-Prof Becker has been working with Prof. Abramowicz on the topic of primordial black holes since 2007.
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Trip by Martino Olivo to the IceCube meeting in Annapolis, MD (May 2010)
IceCube is the best instrument for observing neutrinos from astrophysical plasmas. The measurement of neutrinos is essential for understanding the structure of shocked plasmas, which occur e.g. in supernova remnants, active galaxies and gamma ray bursts. Since July 2009, Jun.-Prof. Julia Becker's group and thus the Research Department "Plasmas with Complex Interactions" is a member of the IceCube collaboration. Every 6 months the members of IceCube meet to discuss the status of the experiment, new analysis techniques and the development of theoretical models for neutrino emission. The meetings are essential for the collaboration to advance the progress of IceCube and for us as a working group to take an active role in the experiment. PhD student Martino Olivo gave a talk on neutrino production in Gamma Ray Bursts at the Maryland meeting. At the collaboration meeting he was able to have discussions about the results of the Becker, Halzen, O'Murchada & Olivo, ApJ (2010) publication on neutrino emission from gamma-ray bursts with the IceCube collaboration specialists on this topic.
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Jens Dreyer at the IceCube Collaboration Meeting
The IceCube neutrino telescope is currently the most powerful instrument for observing neutrinos from astrophysical plasmas. All scientists involved in this project are united in the IceCube Collaboration. This international collaboration meets semi-annually, in the spring in the U.S. and in the fall in Europe. The collaboration meetings are used for exchange of ideas and discussion among the members, who come from the USA, New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium and Germany, among others. Mr. Dreyer and Mr. Olivo attended the collaboration meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, USA, from May 1 to 10, 2010. During the meeting, Mr. Dreyer presented a software project that is being conducted in Bochum at the RD. This project deals with the reprogramming and improvement of a central software component of the simulation chain of IceCube and was therefore received with great interest.
Furthermore, Mr. Dreyer was able to discuss ideas for future data analysis with many experts of the collaboration. Furthermore, Dr. Dreyer represented the interests of the Research Department within the IceCube collaboration on the Collaboration Board. Martino Olivo gave a talk on neutrino production in Gamma Ray Bursts, which was also received with great interest by the collaboration. Furthermore, Mr. Olivo was able to discuss the results of a publication dealing with neutrino production within shocked plasmas in Gamma Ray Bursts with the specialists of the IceCube collaboration.
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Dirk Luggenhölscher bei Prof. Yi-Kang Pu an der Tsinghua Universität in China
Vom 05.04. - 30.04.2010 war Dr. Dirk Luggenhölscher (Institut für Experimentalphysik V) für einen Forschungsaufenthalt bei Prof. Yi-Kang Pu im Department of Electrical Engineering der Tsinghua Universität in Beijing.
Ziel war der Aufbau eines Diodenlasersystems zur Messung von Dichte und Temperatur von metastabilen Helium-Atomen in verschiedenen Entladungstypen. Von besonderem Interesse sind dabei Atmosphärendruck Plasma-Jets, die ähnlich einer dielektrisch behinderten Entladung betrieben werden. Es wird vermutet, dass die Metastabilen eine tragende Rolle bei dem Energietransfer in den Bereich außerhalb der Anregungszone spielen, weshalb die Kenntnis der Dichte dieser Spezies besonders wichtig ist.
Der Besuch vertieft die Zusammenarbeit beider Gruppen mit ähnlichen Forschungsinteressen und soll weiter ausgebaut werden.
Dieser Aufenthalt wurde durch das Research Department ermöglicht.
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40th Saas-Fee Course: Astrophysics at Very-High Energies
The 40th Saas-Fee Course, organized by the Swiss Society of Astrophysics and Astronomy (SSAA), has been held in Les Deablerets in the Swiss Alps during March 14-20, 2010. The course has run annually since 1971, and this time the theme chosen was "Astrophysics at Very-High Energies."
Undergraduate and graduate students traveled to the course from almost every corner of the world. The lectures were given by the three world-leading scientists in the field of high-energy astrophysics. They are Prof. Felix Aharonian (DIAS, Dublin & MPIK, Heidelberg), Prof. Lars Bergström (Stockholm University), Dr. Charles Dermer (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory). The speakers presented the state of the science in the field of high-energy gamma rays, which has been revolutionized in recent years with the success of Cherenkov astronomy and finally with the launch of the NASA Fermi mission. Other topics such as the study of gamma rays from galactic and extragalactic sources and the detection of dark matter were also heavily laid out in the presentations. Many unanswered questions and predictions were also addressed to give the audience some ideas for their research.
Since the lectures were held in the morning and late in the afternoon, there was time for getting to know each other and for informal discussions with other course participants.
The Research Department "Plasmas with Complex Interactions" made it possible for Jenny Reimchen to participate in the Winter School.
- 2010-03-23 - FOR 1123: International Workshop "Diagnostics of Microplasmas"
- 2010-03-21-Trip to the DPG Particle Physics Conference in March 2010
- 18.03.2010-International Cooperation Agreement FOR 1048 and Center of Magnetic Self-Organization, USA
- 2010-03-09-Benedikt Niermann bei Prof. Ilday an der Bilkent Universität