Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsm13a0344z&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SM13A-0344
Physics
2144 Interstellar Gas, 2151 Neutral Particles (7837), 2194 Instruments And Techniques
Scientific paper
This summer, The Society of Physics Students granted me the opportunity to participate in an internship for The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and The University of Maryland. Our chief interest was analyzing low energy neutral atoms that were created from random interactions of ions in space plasma. From detecting these neutrals one can project a image of what the plasma's composition is, and how this plasma changes through interactions with the solar wind. Presently, low energy neutral atom detectors have poor efficiency, typically in the range of 1%. Our goal was to increase this efficiency. To detect low energy neutrals we must first convert them from neutral molecules to negatively charged ions. Once converted, these "new" negatively charged ions can be easily detected and completely analyzed giving us information about their energy, mass, and instantaneous direction. The efficiency of the detector is drastically affected by the surface used for converting these neutrals. My job was first to create thin metal conversion surfaces. Then, using an X-ray photoelectron spectrometer, analyze atomic surface composition and gather work function values. Once the work function values were known we placed the surfaces in our neutral detector and measured their conversion efficiencies. Finally, a relation between the work function of the metal surface an its conversion efficiency was generated. With this relationship accurately measured one could use this information to help give suggestions on what surface would be the best to increase our detection efficiency. If we could increase the efficiency of these low energy neutral atom detectors by even 1% we would be able to decrease the size of the detector therefore making it cheaper and more applicable for space exploration.* * A special thanks to Dr. Michael Coplan of the University of Maryland for his support and guidance through all my research.
No associations
LandOfFree
Efficient Means of Detecting Neutral Atoms in Space does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Efficient Means of Detecting Neutral Atoms in Space, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Efficient Means of Detecting Neutral Atoms in Space will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-970502