Organization:Center for Plasma-Material Interactions

CPMI

Center for Plasma-Material Interactions
CPMI Logo
Laboratory type	Basic Science, Physics, Engineering
Research type	Experimental, theoretical, modeling
Field of research	Plasma
Director	David N. Ruzic
Faculty	4
Staff	3
Students	24
Address	201 South Goodwin Ave.
Location	Urbana, Illinois, United States
Campus	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Affiliations	Illinois Plasma Institute, Starfire Industries
Website	https://cpmi.illinois.edu/about-cpmi/

The Center for Plasma-Material Interactions is a research center that is housed in the Nuclear Radiation Laboratory within the Department of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The center studies all aspects of plasma-material interactions that are relevant to fusion, semiconductors, and plasma manufacturing. This is achieved through experimental, theoretical and computational methods via and extensive suite of experimental devices. Projects are supported by government grants and commercial partners to further the application and knowledge of plasma physics and engineering to various applications.

List of Current Researchers

Director

Abel Bliss Professor Dr. David N. Ruzic

Faculty

Donald Biggar Willet Professor Dr. R. Mohan Sankaran

Donlad Biggar Willet Faculty Scholar Associate Professor Dr. Davide Curreli

Research Associate Professor Dr. Daniel Andruczyk

Research Engineer

Dr. D. Eitan Barlaz

Post Doc

Dr. Rajesh Ganesan

Laboratory Technical Support

Michael Williams

Graduate Students

Currently there are approximately 25 graduate students that are working in the laboratory on all aspects of PMI research. These cover fusion and low temperature plasmas with all the faculty.

Undergraduate Students

There are over 30 undergraduate students that are working at any one time on the various projects with the graduate students, post-docs and faculty.

Affiliated Faculty

Dr. Xiuliung Li

Dr. Angus Rockett

Dr. Jean Paul Allain

Dr. Lynford Goddard

Dr. Joshua Rovey

Dr. Gang Logan Liu

Adjunct Faculty

Dr. Brian. E. Jurczyk

Dr. Robert Stubbers

Dr. Michael Stowell Jr

Current Research Devices

The Center for plasma Material interactions has several experimental devices for doing research.

High Temperature Plasma/Fusion Research

Device	Anacronym	Description
Actively Pumped Open-surface Lithium LOop	APOLLO	Flowing liquid lithium technology demonstrator consisting of liquid lithium pumps, flowmeters, safety systems, and PFCs all with real-time response
Compact Liquid Lithium Neutron Source	CoLLiNS	Examine the production of high energy neutrons through the D-Li7 reactions.
Hydrogen Desorption Experiment	HyDE	Distillation column system using thermal desorption as a means to remove hydrogen species from bulk lithium. This system has previously shown success at hydrogen removal in highly saturated lithium.
Hybrid Illinois Device for Research and Applications	HIDRA	Stellarator/tokamak hybrid toroidal fusion device. Based on the classical stellarator design. Studying PMI and LM PFC's in fusion devices. Former WEGA stellarator.
Material Analysis Tool	HIDRA-MAT	Surface analysis module attached to HIDRA able to perform in-vacuo measurements of a plasma exposed surface using TDS, LIBS and LIDS.
Impulse Coatings for Application in Reactor Unprotected Surfaces	ICARUS	Develop metallic coatings for vulnerable surfaces and make them more robust against lithium exposure. Allow for use of lithium in previously non-compatible environments.
Lithium Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy	LiAAS	Direct measurement of lithium (atomic) population densities using resonant spectral absorption.
Lithium Evaporation EXperiment	LEEX	Lithium evaporation experiments in HIDRA.
Lithium Vapor Cloud	LiVC	Vapor cloud measurements in a fusion environment and surface temperature locking in seeded impurity conditions.
Materials Attacked by Lithium Corrosion Experiment	MALiCE	Perform extend (>2000 hr) static lithium corrosion tests at a temperature of 300 oC. Materials tested include stainless steels, refractory metals, and incoloys, each possessing some use in fusion applications. Samples are characterized using a variety of optical and chemical techniques, including surface profilometry, ICP-OES, SIMS, FIB, and EDS.
Material Characterization Test Stand	MCATS	Allows for rapid testing of lithium wetting on attractive materials over a large range of temperatures from 200 oC – 750 oC.
Mock-up Entry Module for EAST	MEME	Plasma Facing component technology development based on the Lithium mounting box on EAST. Corrosion, erosion and wetting of large PFC surface being studied.
Spinning Lithium Attacking Potential Substrates	SLAPS	Investigating the effect of rotating lithium at relevant temperatures and the corrosion behavior of potential fusion materials.
Solid/Liquid Divertor Experiment	SLiDE	High vacuum experiment aimed to test a variety of divertor concepts. Uses an electron beam of up to 15 MWm−2 as a heat flux source with a magnetic field present.
TUnsten Fuzz Characterization by heliCON	TUFCON	Used to investigate the formation of tungsten fuzz in helium plasma exposure. More recently, used to determine the effect of hydrogen plasma parameters and radical density on the spitting of microdroplets from liquid metals (tin, lithium, tin-lithium).
Vacuum Oven	VO	Design and implementation of a vacuum oven to produce clean samples of SnLi alloys at multiple mass ratios.

Affiliated Institutions and Laboratories

Illinois Plasma Institute

The Illinois Plasma Institute (IPI) is an initiative of the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. IPI’s founding was driven by a desire to rethink existing path ways to commercialization of new technologies developed in academic research settings. Combining the best of both worlds, IPI provides a space where forward thinking industrial partners are able to pair their own research and development staff with academic researchers closer to the underlying science behind a new technology. Working in concert on a shared platform, advances made it the laboratory may be implemented onto production level equipment shortening the time to adoption in high volume manufacturing.

Complementary to cooperation in the lab, assignees from industrial partners also find easy access to the College’s Masters of Engineering in Plasma Engineering, a professional Masters program designed to prepare workers from a wide variety of technical fields for the unique opportunities that plasma processing has to offer.

Plasma Curriculum within NPRE

The Plasma curriculum within the NPRE department and taught by faculty members of CPMI is quite extensive and comprehensive. It offers topics covering not only basic plasma science but also plasma engineering.

NPRE 321 - Introduction to Plasmas and Applications

NPRE 397 - Independent Study

NPRE 421 - Plasma and Fusion

NPRE 423 - Plasma Laboratory

NPRE 429 - Plasma Engineering

NPRE 498 - Special Topics

NPRE 522 - Controlled Fusion Systems

NPRE 523 - Plasma Waves

NPRE 524 - Computational Plasmas (currently as NPRE 598))

NPRE 526 - Plasma Material Interactions

NPRE 527 - Plasma Technology and Gaseous Electronics

NPRE 428/528 - Fusion Engineering, Device and Operations (currently as NPRE 498)

NPRE 529 - Plasma Chemistry (currently at NPRE 598)

NPRE 598 - Special Topics

Master of Engineering in Plasma Engineering

A Professional Masters degree is offered within CPMI for anyone wanting to have an advanced degree in plasma engineering but not wanting to go to a PhD

External links

• Hybrid Illinois Device for Research and Applications (HIDRA)
• Center for Plasma Material Interactions (CPMI)
• Department of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering (NPRE)
• University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
• Illinois Plasma Institute