Fusion and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory

 

Choongki Sung

 

Plasma is widely used in various fields such as nuclear fusion energy, semiconductor manufacturing, medical or environmental applications. Especially, nuclear fusion is an ideal energy source, which is clean and safe. Fusion and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory studies plasma dynamics, e.g., instability and turbulence, and plasma engineering for fusion energy and other applications in various fields.

 

The base of our research is the understanding of the behavior of plasma, which is very dynamic. There are various waves, instabilities, and turbulence inside the plasma. Understanding these dynamic phenomena inside the plasmas is essential to utilize plasma as we want. For fusion energy, we should confine high pressure plasmas for sufficiently long time. That is, the minimized transport level is required for commercialized fusion energy. The transport inside fusion plasmas is mainly driven by turbulence and this is one of our main research areas. We are studying the turbulent transport inside fusion plasmas experimentally. We design and conduct the fusion experiments in major fusion devices such as KSTAR and investigate a driving or stabilizing mechanism of the turbulence. We are also trying to validate the cutting-edge transport model to find missing physics in this model and apply this model in future fusion reactor design. Developing the diagnostics based on mm or um wave is another research topic in our group. These diagnostics are used to understand plasma dynamics and validate the transport model by direct comparison with simulated turbulence. These research activities will contribute to improve fusion plasma’s performance in the future and to predict its performance.

 

We are also interested in developing efficient neutron source based on fusion reaction. The fusion reaction between two hydrogen isotopes (deuterium and tritium) generates high energy neutrons. This high energy neutron can be applied in various fields, e.g., non-destructive testing, isotope production, and material development for fusion reactor. In addition, we will also expand our research to low temperature plasmas for the application in the relevant industry such as semiconductor manufacturing.

 

 

Selected papers:

 

C. Sung, T. L. Rhodes, and W.A. Peebles, “Turbulence Measurements on the High and Low Magnetic Field Side of the DIII-D Tokamak,” Rev. Sci. Instrum 89 10H106 (2018)

 

C. Sung, T. L. Rhodes, G. Staebler, Z. Yan, G. McKee, S. Smith, T. Osborne, and W.A. Peebles, “Physics of increased edge electron temperature and density turbulence during ELM-free QH-mode operation on DIII-D,” Phys. Plasmas 25, 055904 (2018).

 

C. Sung, G. Wang, T. L. Rhodes, S. Smith, T. H. Osborne, M. Ono, G. R. McKee, Z. Yan, R. J. Groebner, E. M. Davis, L. Zeng, W. A. Peebles, and T. E. Evans, “Increased electron temperature turbulence during edge localized mode (ELM) suppression by resonant magnetic perturbations (RMP) in the DIII-D tokamak,” Phys. Plasmas 24, 112305 (2017)

 

C. Sung, A. E. White, D. R. Mikkelsen, M. Greenwald, C. Holland, N. T. Howard, R. Churchill, C. Theiler, and Alcator C-Mod Team, “Quantitative comparison of electron temperature fluctuations to nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations in C-Mod Ohmic L-mode discharges,” Phys. Plasmas 23, 042303 (2016)

 

C. Sung, A. E. White, N. T. Howard, C. Y. Oi, J. E. Rice, C. Gao, P. Ennever, M. Porkolab, F. Parra, D. Mikkelsen, D. Ernst, J. Walk, J. W. Hughes, J. Irby, C. Kasten, A. E. Hubbard, M. J. Greenwald, “Changes in core electron temperature fluctuations across the ohmic energy confinement transition in Alcator C-Mod plasmas,” Nucl. Fusion 53, 083010 (2013)