Performance of new crystal cathode pressure gauges for long-pulse operation in the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator.

To improve the reliability of the ASDEX pressure gauges in the plasma vessel of the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator, nine of them were equipped with a LaB crystal electron emitter for the first time. These crystal cathode pressure gauges were operated during the last campaign in 2018 (operation phase 1.2b) with only 2 A heating current for over 40 h in a magnetic field of about 2.

Experimental determination of phase transitions by means of configurational entropies in finite Yukawa balls.

The phase transition of finite Yukawa balls (ordered systems of microspheres in a gaseous plasma environment) with less than 100 particles is studied experimentally by means of configurational entropies. We have developed cylindrical two- and three-particle-correlation functions to measure these entropies for multiple cluster sizes over a wide temperature range. The cluster temperature is finely tuned using a stochastic laser heating setup.

Nonequilibrium finite dust clusters: connecting normal modes and wakefields.

The dynamic properties of finite three-dimensional dust clusters in a dusty plasma under the influence of an ion focus are studied by normal modes. The mode analysis has been extended to account for the ion focus using the point-charge model for the horizontal interaction of the dust particles. From that, an analytical model for a few-particle system is derived accounting for three distinct dynamical regimes at different focus strengths, namely, absolutely unstable and fully stable configurations as well as an unstable oscillatory regime.

From transport to disorder: thermodynamic properties of finite dust clouds.

The quantities entropy and diffusion are measured for two- and three-dimensional (3D) dust clusters in the fluid state. Entropy and diffusion are predicted to be closely linked via unstable modes. The method of instantaneous normal modes is applied for various laser-heated clusters to determine these unstable modes and the corresponding diffusive properties.