This is a list of plasma physics topics.

A

Ablation Ablation ( la, ablatio – removal) is removal or destruction of something from an object by vaporization, chipping, erosion, erosive processes or by other means. Examples of ablative materials are described below, and include spacecraft materi ...

* Abradable coating *

Abraham–Lorentz force In the physics of electromagnetism, the Abraham–Lorentz force (also Lorentz–Abraham force) is the recoil force on an accelerating charged particle caused by the particle emitting electromagnetic radiation by self-interaction. It is also called ...

Absorption band According to quantum mechanics, atoms and molecules can only hold certain defined quantities of energy, or exist in specific states. When such quanta of electromagnetic radiation are emitted or absorbed by an atom or molecule, energy of the ...

* Accretion disk *

Active galactic nucleus An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that has a much-higher-than-normal luminosity over at least some portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with characteristics indicating that the luminosity is not pr ...

Adiabatic invariant A property of a physical system, such as the entropy of a gas, that stays approximately constant when changes occur slowly is called an adiabatic invariant. By this it is meant that if a system is varied between two end points, as the time for the ...

* ADITYA (tokamak) *

Aeronomy Aeronomy is the scientific study of the upper atmosphere of the Earth and corresponding regions of the atmospheres of other planets. It is a branch of both atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics. Scientists specializing in aeronomy, known a ...

Afterglow plasma A plasma afterglow (also afterglow) is the radiation emitted from a plasma after the source of ionization is removed. The external electromagnetic fields that sustained the plasma glow are absent or insufficient to maintain the discharge in the a ...

Airglow Airglow (also called nightglow) is a faint emission of light by a planetary atmosphere. In the case of Earth's atmosphere, this optical phenomenon causes the night sky never to be completely dark, even after the effects of starlight and diff ...

* Air plasma,

Corona treatment Corona treatment (sometimes referred to as air plasma) is a surface modification technique that uses a low temperature corona discharge plasma to impart changes in the properties of a surface. The corona plasma is generated by the application of ...

, Atmospheric-pressure plasma treatment *

Ayaks The Ayaks (russian: АЯКС, meaning also Ajax) is a hypersonic waverider aircraft program started in the Soviet Union and currently under development by the Hypersonic Systems Research Institute (HSRI) of Leninets Holding Company in Saint Pete ...

, Novel "Magneto-plasmo-chemical engine" *

Alcator C-Mod Alcator C-Mod was a tokamak (a type of magnetically confined fusion device) that operated between 1991 and 2016 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC). Notable for its high toroidal magnetic ...

Alfvén wave In plasma physics, an Alfvén wave, named after Hannes Alfvén, is a type of plasma wave in which ions oscillate in response to a restoring force provided by an effective tension on the magnetic field lines. Definition An Alfvén wave is ...

Ambipolar diffusion Ambipolar diffusion (ambipolar: relating to or consisting of both electrons and positive ions moving in opposite directions) is diffusion of positive and negative species with opposite electrical charge due to their interaction via an electric field ...

Aneutronic fusion Aneutronic fusion is any form of fusion power in which very little of the energy released is carried by neutrons. While the lowest-threshold nuclear fusion reactions release up to 80% of their energy in the form of neutrons, aneutronic reactions ...

* Anisothermal plasma *

Anisotropy Anisotropy () is the property of a material which allows it to change or assume different properties in different directions, as opposed to isotropy. It can be defined as a difference, when measured along different axes, in a material's physic ...

Antiproton Decelerator The Antiproton Decelerator (AD) is a storage ring at the CERN laboratory near Geneva. It was built from the Antiproton Collector (AC) to be a successor to the Low Energy Antiproton Ring (LEAR) and started operation in the year 2000. Antiprotons ...

* Appleton-Hartree equation *

Arcing horns Arcing horns (sometimes arc-horns) are projecting conductors used to protect insulators or switch hardware on high voltage electric power transmission systems from damage during flashover. Overvoltages on transmission lines, due to atmospheric ...

* Arc lamp * Arc suppression *

ASDEX Upgrade ASDEX Upgrade (''Axially Symmetric Divertor Experiment'') is a divertor tokamak, that went into operation at the Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Garching in 1991. At present, it is Germany's second largest fusion experiment after stella ...

, Axially Symmetric Divertor EXperiment *

Astron (fusion reactor) The Astron is a type of fusion power device pioneered by Nicholas Christofilos and built at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory during the 1960s and 70s. Astron used a unique confinement system that avoided several of the problems found in ...

Astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

Astrophysical plasma Astrophysical plasma is plasma outside of the Solar System. It is studied as part of astrophysics and is commonly observed in space. The accepted view of scientists is that much of the baryonic matter in the universe exists in this state. When ...

Astrophysical X-ray source Astrophysical X-ray sources are astronomical objects with physical properties which result in the emission of X-rays. Several types of astrophysical objects emit X-rays. They include galaxy clusters, black holes in active galactic nuclei (AGN), ...

Atmospheric dynamo The Atmospheric dynamo is a pattern of electrical currents that are set up in the Earth's ionosphere by multiple effects, mostly the Sun's solar wind, but also the tides of the Moon and Sun. The currents flow in circuits between the poles and the ...

Atmospheric escape Atmospheric escape is the loss of planetary atmospheric gases to outer space. A number of different mechanisms can be responsible for atmospheric escape; these processes can be divided into thermal escape, non-thermal (or suprathermal) escape, and ...

Atmospheric pressure discharge An atmospheric pressure discharge is an electrical discharge in air or another gas at atmospheric pressure. An electrical discharge in a gas forms plasma (physics), plasma. Plasmas are sustained if there is a continuous inflow of energy to maintain ...

* Atmospheric-pressure plasma *

Atom Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons. Every solid, liquid, gas, and ...

Atomic emission spectroscopy Atomic may refer to: * Of or relating to the atom, the smallest particle of a chemical element that retains its chemical properties * Atomic physics, the study of the atom * Atomic Age, also known as the "Atomic Era" * Atomic scale, distances com ...

Atomic physics Atomic physics is the field of physics that studies atoms as an isolated system of electrons and an atomic nucleus. Atomic physics typically refers to the study of atomic structure and the interaction between atoms. It is primarily concerned wit ...

Atomic-terrace low-angle shadowing Atomic Terrace Low Angle Shadowing (''ATLAS'') is a surface science technique which enables the growth of planar nanowire or nanodot arrays using molecular beam epitaxy on a Thin film, vicinal surface. ''ATLAS'' utilises the inherent step-and-terra ...

Auger electron spectroscopy file:HD.6C.037 (11856519893).jpg, A Hanford Site, Hanford scientist uses an Auger electron spectrometer to determine the elemental composition of surfaces. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES; pronounced in French) is a common analytical technique us ...

Aurora (astronomy) An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of br ...

B

Babcock Model The Babcock Model describes a mechanism which can explain magnetic and sunspot patterns observed on the Sun. History The modern understanding of sunspots starts with George Ellery Hale, who linked magnetic fields and sunspots. Hale suggested t ...

Ball lightning Ball lightning is a rare and unexplained phenomenon described as luminescent, spherical objects that vary from pea-sized to several meters in diameter. Though usually associated with thunderstorms, the observed phenomenon is reported to last ...

Ball-pen probe A ball-pen probe is a modified Langmuir probe used to measure the plasma potential in magnetized plasmas. The ball-pen probe balances the electron and ion saturation currents, so that its floating potential is equal to the plasma potential. Be ...

Ballooning instability The ballooning instability (a.k.a. ballooning mode instability) is a type of internal pressure-driven plasma instability usually seen in tokamak fusion power reactors or in space plasmas. It is important in fusion research as it determines a set of ...

Baryon acoustic oscillations In cosmology, baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) are fluctuations in the density of the visible baryonic matter (normal matter) of the universe, caused by acoustic density waves in the primordial plasma of the early universe. In the same way t ...

Beam-powered propulsion Beam-powered propulsion, also known as directed energy propulsion, is a class of aircraft or spacecraft propulsion that uses energy beamed to the spacecraft from a remote power plant to provide energy. The beam is typically either a microwave or a ...

Beta (plasma physics) The beta of a plasma, symbolized by ''β'', is the ratio of the plasma pressure (''p'' = ''n'' ''k''B ''T'') to the magnetic pressure (''p''mag = ''B''²/2 ''μ''0). The term is commonly used in studies of the Sun and Earth's magnetic field, a ...

Birkeland current A Birkeland current (also known as field-aligned current) is a set of electrical currents that flow along geomagnetic field lines connecting the Earth's magnetosphere to the Earth's high latitude ionosphere. In the Earth's magnetosphere, the curr ...

Blacklight Power Brilliant Light Power, Inc. (BLP), formerly BlackLight Power, Inc. of Cranbury, New Jersey, is a company founded by Randell L. Mills, who claims to have discovered a new energy source from observing that electron in a hydrogen atom can drop belo ...

Blazar A blazar is an active galactic nucleus (AGN) with a relativistic jet (a jet composed of ionized matter traveling at nearly the speed of light) directed very nearly towards an observer. Relativistic beaming of electromagnetic radiation from the ...

Bohm diffusion The diffusion of plasma across a magnetic field was conjectured to follow the Bohm diffusion scaling as indicated from the early plasma experiments of very lossy machines. This predicted that the rate of diffusion was linear with temperature and ...

* Bohr–van Leeuwen theorem *

Boltzmann relation In a plasma, the Boltzmann relation describes the number density of an isothermal charged particle fluid when the thermal and the electrostatic forces acting on the fluid have reached equilibrium. In many situations, the electron density of a ...

Bow shock In astrophysics, a bow shock occurs when the magnetosphere of an astrophysical object interacts with the nearby flowing ambient plasma such as the solar wind. For Earth and other magnetized planets, it is the boundary at which the speed of th ...

Bremsstrahlung ''Bremsstrahlung'' (), from "to brake" and "radiation"; i.e., "braking radiation" or "deceleration radiation", is electromagnetic radiation produced by the deceleration of a charged particle when deflected by another charged particle, typicall ...

Bussard ramjet The Bussard ramjet is a theoretical method of spacecraft propulsion proposed in 1960 by the physicist Robert W. Bussard, popularized by Poul Anderson's novel '' Tau Zero'', Larry Niven in his ''Known Space'' series of books, Vernor Vinge in h ...

C

Capacitively coupled plasma A capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) is one of the most common types of industrial plasma sources. It essentially consists of two metal electrodes separated by a small distance, placed in a reactor. The gas pressure in the reactor can be lower than ...

Carbon nanotube metal matrix composites Carbon nanotube metal matrix composites (CNT-MMC) are an emerging class of new materials that mix carbon nanotubes into metals and metal alloys to take advantage of the high tensile strength and electrical conductivity of carbon nanotube materi ...

Cassini–Huygens ''Cassini–Huygens'' ( ), commonly called ''Cassini'', was a space research, space-research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a space probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, i ...

, Cassini Plasma Spectrometer *

Cathode ray Cathode rays or electron beam (e-beam) are streams of electrons observed in discharge tubes. If an evacuated glass tube is equipped with two electrodes and a voltage is applied, glass behind the positive electrode is observed to glow, due to ele ...

Cathodic arc deposition {{Short description, Type of physical vapor deposition technique Cathodic arc deposition or Arc-PVD is a physical vapor deposition technique in which an electric arc is used to vaporize material from a cathode target. The vaporized material then ...

Ceramic discharge metal-halide lamp A ceramic metal-halide lamp (CMH), also generically known as a ceramic discharge metal-halide (CDM) lamp, is a type of metal-halide lamp that is 10–20% more efficient than the traditional quartz metal halide and produces a superior color rend ...

* Charge carrier *

Charged-device model The charged-device model (CDM) is a model for characterizing the susceptibility of an electronic device to damage from electrostatic discharge (ESD). The model is an alternative to the human-body model (HBM). Devices that are classified according ...

Charged particle In physics, a charged particle is a particle with an electric charge. It may be an ion, such as a molecule or atom with a surplus or deficit of electrons relative to protons. It can also be an electron or a proton, or another elementary pa ...

* Chemical plasma *

Chemical vapor deposition Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a vacuum deposition method used to produce high quality, and high-performance, solid materials. The process is often used in the semiconductor industry to produce thin films. In typical CVD, the wafer (substra ...

Chemical vapor deposition of diamond Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a vacuum deposition method used to produce high quality, and high-performance, solid materials. The process is often used in the semiconductor industry to produce thin films. In typical CVD, the wafer (electro ...

* Chirikov criterion *

Chirped pulse amplification Chirped pulse amplification (CPA) is a technique for amplifying an ultrashort pulse, ultrashort laser pulse up to the petawatt level, with the laser pulse being stretched out temporally and spectrally, then amplified, and then compressed again. The ...

Chromatography detector A chromatography detector is a device used in gas chromatography (GC) or liquid chromatography (LC) to detect components of the mixture being eluted off the chromatography column. There are two general types of detectors: destructive and non-destru ...

* Chromo–Weibel instability *

Classical-map hypernetted-chain method The classical-map hypernetted-chain method (CHNC method) is a method used in many-body theoretical physics for interacting uniform electron liquids in two and three dimensions, and for non-ideal plasmas. The method extends the famous hypernetted- ...

Cnoidal wave In fluid dynamics, a cnoidal wave is a nonlinear and exact periodic wave solution of the Korteweg–de Vries equation. These solutions are in terms of the Jacobi elliptic function ''cn'', which is why they are coined ''cn''oidal waves. They are ...

Colored-particle-in-cell A particle in cell simulation for non-Abelian (colored) particles and fields. Can be used to simulate an equilibrium or non-equilibrium quark-gluon plasma. References * * * Quantum chromodynamics Plasma physics {{plasma-stub ...

Coilgun A coilgun, also known as a Gauss rifle, is a type of mass driver consisting of one or more coils used as electromagnets in the configuration of a linear motor that accelerate a ferromagnetic or conducting projectile to high velocity. In almos ...

Cold plasma A nonthermal plasma, cold plasma or non-equilibrium plasma is a plasma which is not in thermodynamic equilibrium, because the electron temperature is much hotter than the temperature of heavy species (ions and neutrals). As only electrons are ther ...

Ozone generator Ozone (), or trioxygen, is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , breaking down in the lo ...

* Collisionality *

* Columbia Non-neutral Torus *

Comet tail A comet tail—and coma—are features visible in comets when they are illuminated by the Sun and may become visible from Earth when a comet passes through the inner Solar System. As a comet approaches the inner Solar System, solar radiation cau ...

Compact toroid Compact toroids are a class of toroidal plasma configurations that are self-stable, and whose configuration does not require magnet coils running through the center of the toroid. They are studied primarily in the field of fusion energy, where t ...

Compressibility In thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, the compressibility (also known as the coefficient of compressibility or, if the temperature is held constant, the isothermal compressibility) is a measure of the instantaneous relative volume change of a f ...

Compton–Getting effect The Compton–Getting effect is an apparent anisotropy in the intensity of radiation or particles due to the relative motion between the observer and the source. This effect was first identified in the intensity of cosmic rays by Arthur Compton a ...

Contact lithography Contact lithography, also known as contact printing, is a form of photolithography whereby the image to be printed is obtained by illumination of a photomask in direct contact with a substrate coated with an imaging photoresist layer. History The ...

Coupling (physics) In physics, two objects are said to be coupled when they are interacting with each other. In classical mechanics, coupling is a connection between two oscillating systems, such as pendulums connected by a spring. The connection affects the oscil ...

Convection cell In the field of fluid dynamics, a convection cell is the phenomenon that occurs when density differences exist within a body of liquid or gas. These density differences result in rising and/or falling currents, which are the key characteristics ...

Cooling flow A cooling flow occurs according to the theory that the intracluster medium (ICM) in the centres of galaxy clusters should be rapidly cooling at the rate of tens to thousands of solar masses per year. This should happen as the ICM (a plasma) is quic ...

Corona Corona (from the Latin for 'crown') most commonly refers to: * Stellar corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun or another star * Corona (beer), a Mexican beer * Corona, informal term for the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 di ...

Corona discharge A corona discharge is an electrical discharge caused by the ionization of a fluid such as air surrounding a conductor (material), conductor carrying a high voltage. It represents a local region where the air (or other fluid) has undergone e ...

Corona ring A corona ring, more correctly referred to as an anti-corona ring, is a toroid of conductive material, usually metal, which is attached to a terminal or other irregular hardware piece of high voltage equipment. The purpose of the corona ring is t ...

Coronal loop In solar physics, a coronal loop is a well-defined arch-like structure in the Sun's atmosphere made up of relatively dense plasma confined and isolated from the surrounding medium by magnetic flux tubes. Coronal loops begin and end at two footp ...

Coronal radiative losses In astronomy and in astrophysics, for radiative losses of the solar corona, it is meant the energy flux radiated from the external atmosphere of the Sun (traditionally divided into chromosphere, transition region and corona), and, in particula ...

Coronal seismology Coronal seismology is a technique of studying the plasma of the Sun's corona with the use of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves and oscillations. Magnetohydrodynamics studies the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids - in this case the fluid ...

Cosmic microwave background radiation In Big Bang cosmology the cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR) is electromagnetic radiation that is a remnant from an early stage of the universe, also known as "relic radiation". The CMB is faint cosmic background radiation filling all space ...

Cotton–Mouton effect In physical optics, the Cotton–Mouton effect is the birefringence in a liquid in the presence of a constant transverse magnetic field. It is a similar but stronger effect than the Voigt effect (in which the medium is a gas instead of a liquid ...

Coulomb collision A Coulomb collision is a binary elastic collision between two charged particles interacting through their own electric field. As with any inverse-square law, the resulting trajectories of the colliding particles is a hyperbolic Keplerian orbit. Th ...

Coulomb explosion In condensed-matter physics, Coulombic explosions are a mechanism for transforming energy in intense electromagnetic fields into atomic motion and are thus useful for controlled destruction of relatively robust molecules. The explosions are a pr ...

* Columbia Non-neutral Torus *

Crackle tube A crackle tube is a type of plasma lamp that is used most commonly in museums, night clubs, movie sets, and other applications where its appearance may be appealing for entertainment. Such a device consists of a double walled glass tube with a ...

Critical ionization velocity Critical ionization velocity (CIV), or critical velocity (CV), is the relative velocity between a neutral gas and plasma (an ionized gas), at which the neutral gas will start to ionize. If more energy is supplied, the velocity of the atoms or mole ...

Crookes tube A Crookes tube (also Crookes–Hittorf tube) is an early experimental electrical discharge tube, with partial vacuum, invented by English physicist William Crookes and others around 1869-1875, in which cathode rays, streams of electrons, were dis ...

Current sheet A current sheet is an electric current that is confined to a surface, rather than being spread through a volume of space. Current sheets feature in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), the study of the behavior of electrically conductive fluids: if the ...

Cutoff frequency In physics and electrical engineering, a cutoff frequency, corner frequency, or break frequency is a boundary in a system's frequency response at which energy flowing through the system begins to be reduced ( attenuated or reflected) rather than ...

Cyclotron radiation Cyclotron radiation is electromagnetic radiation emitted by non-relativistic accelerating charged particles deflected by a magnetic field. The Lorentz force on the particles acts perpendicular to both the magnetic field lines and the particles' mot ...

D

Debye length In plasmas and electrolytes, the Debye length \lambda_ (also called Debye radius), is a measure of a charge carrier's net electrostatic effect in a solution and how far its electrostatic effect persists. With each Debye length the charges are in ...

Debye sheath The Debye sheath (also electrostatic sheath) is a layer in a plasma which has a greater density of positive ions, and hence an overall excess positive charge, that balances an opposite negative charge on the surface of a material with which it is i ...

* Deep reactive-ion etching *

Degenerate matter Degenerate matter is a highly dense state of fermionic matter in which the Pauli exclusion principle exerts significant pressure in addition to, or in lieu of, thermal pressure. The description applies to matter composed of electrons, protons, neu ...

* Degree of ionization *

DEMO Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to: Music and film *Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release * ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes * ''Demo'' (Deafhea ...

, DEMOnstration Power Plant *

Dense plasma focus A dense plasma focus (DPF) is a type of plasma generating system originally developed as a fusion power device starting in the early 1960s. The system demonstrated scaling laws that suggested it would not be useful in the commercial power role, a ...

* Dielectric barrier discharge *

Diffusion damping In modern cosmological theory, diffusion damping, also called photon diffusion damping, is a physical process which reduced density inequalities (anisotropies) in the early universe, making the universe itself and the cosmic microwave background ...

DIII-D (tokamak) DIII-D is a tokamak that has been operated since the late 1980s by General Atomics (GA) in San Diego, USA, for the U.S. Department of Energy. The DIII-D National Fusion Facility is part of the ongoing effort to achieve magnetically confined fusio ...

Dimensional analysis In engineering and science, dimensional analysis is the analysis of the relationships between different physical quantities by identifying their base quantities (such as length, mass, time, and electric current) and units of measure (such as m ...

Diocotron instability A diocotron instability is a plasma instability created by two sheets of charge slipping past each other. Energy is dissipated in the form of two surface waves which propagate in opposite directions, one flowing over the other. This instability ...

* Direct-current discharge *

Directed-energy weapon A directed-energy weapon (DEW) is a ranged weapon that damages its target with highly focused energy without a solid projectile, including lasers, microwaves, particle beams, and sound beams. Potential applications of this technology include w ...

Direct bonding Direct bonding, or fusion bonding, describes a wafer bonding process without any additional intermediate layers. The bonding process is based on chemical bonds between two surfaces of any material possible meeting numerous requirements. These requir ...

* distribution function *

Doppler broadening In atomic physics, Doppler broadening is broadening of spectral lines due to the Doppler effect caused by a distribution of velocities of atoms or molecules. Different velocities of the emitting (or absorbing) particles result in different Dop ...

* Doppler effect *

Double layer (plasma) A double layer is a structure in a plasma consisting of two parallel layers of opposite electrical charge. The sheets of charge, which are not necessarily planar, produce localised excursions of electric potential, resulting in a relatively strong ...

Dual segmented Langmuir probe Dual Segmented Langmuir Probe (DSLP) is an instrument developed primarily by Czech researchers and engineers to study the magnetospheric background plasma flown on board the spacecraft of the European Space Agency ( ESA) Proba 2. Data acquired b ...

, Non-Maxwellian Features in Ionospheric Plasma *

Duoplasmatron The Duoplasmatron is an ion source in which a cathode filament emits electrons into a vacuum chamber. A gas such as argon is introduced in very small quantities into the chamber, where it becomes charged or ionized through interactions with the ...

Dusty plasma A dusty plasma is a plasma containing micrometer (10−6) to nanometer (10−9) sized particles suspended in it. Dust particles are charged and the plasma and particles behave as a plasma. Dust particles may form larger particles resulting in "gra ...

Dynamo theory In physics, the dynamo theory proposes a mechanism by which a celestial body such as Earth or a star generates a magnetic field. The dynamo theory describes the process through which a rotating, convecting, and electrically conducting fluid can ...

E

Earth's magnetic field Earth's magnetic field, also known as the geomagnetic field, is the magnetic field that extends from Earth's interior out into space, where it interacts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun. The magnetic f ...

EAST East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

, Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak *

Ectons Ectons are explosive electron emissions observed as individual packets or avalanches of electrons, occurring as microexplosions at the cathode. The electron Electric current, current in an ecton starts flowing as a result of overheating of the meta ...

Eddington luminosity The Eddington luminosity, also referred to as the Eddington limit, is the maximum luminosity a body (such as a star) can achieve when there is balance between the force of radiation acting outward and the gravitational force acting inward. The sta ...

Edge-localized mode An edge-localized mode (ELM) is a disruptive instability occurring in the edge region of a tokamak plasma due to the quasi-periodic relaxation of a transport barrier previously formed during a transition from low to high-confinement mode. This phen ...

* Ekman number *

Elastic collision In physics, an elastic collision is an encounter ( collision) between two bodies in which the total kinetic energy of the two bodies remains the same. In an ideal, perfectly elastic collision, there is no net conversion of kinetic energy into ...

Electrical breakdown Electrical breakdown or dielectric breakdown is a process that occurs when an electrical insulating material, subjected to a high enough voltage, suddenly becomes an electrical conductor and electric current flows through it. All insulating mate ...

Electrical conductor In physics and electrical engineering, a conductor is an object or type of material that allows the flow of charge (electric current) in one or more directions. Materials made of metal are common electrical conductors. Electric current is gener ...

* Electrical mobility *

Electrical resistance and conductance The electrical resistance of an object is a measure of its opposition to the flow of electric current. Its reciprocal quantity is , measuring the ease with which an electric current passes. Electrical resistance shares some conceptual parallel ...

Electrical resistivity and conductivity Electrical resistivity (also called specific electrical resistance or volume resistivity) is a fundamental property of a material that measures how strongly it resists electric current. A low resistivity indicates a material that readily allows ...

Electrical treeing In electrical engineering, treeing is an electrical pre-breakdown phenomenon in solid insulation. It is a damaging process due to partial discharges and progresses through the stressed dielectric insulation, in a path resembling the branches of ...

Electrically powered spacecraft propulsion Spacecraft electric propulsion (or just electric propulsion) is a type of spacecraft propulsion technique that uses electrostatic or electromagnetic fields to accelerate mass to high speed and thus generate thrust to modify the velocity of a s ...

Electric-field screening In physics, screening is the damping of electric fields caused by the presence of mobile charge carriers. It is an important part of the behavior of charge-carrying fluids, such as ionized gases (classical plasmas), electrolytes, and charge ...

Electric arc An electric arc, or arc discharge, is an electrical breakdown of a gas that produces a prolonged electrical discharge. The electric current, current through a normally Electrical conductance, nonconductive medium such as air produces a plasma (p ...

Electric arc furnace An electric arc furnace (EAF) is a furnace that heats material by means of an electric arc. Industrial arc furnaces range in size from small units of approximately one-tonne capacity (used in foundries for producing cast iron products) up to ab ...

, Plasma arc furnace *

Electric current An electric current is a stream of charged particles, such as electrons or ions, moving through an electrical conductor or space. It is measured as the net rate of flow of electric charge through a surface or into a control volume. The moving pa ...

Electric discharge An electric discharge is the release and transmission of electricity in an applied electric field through a medium such as a gas (ie., an outgoing flow of electric current through a non-metal medium).American Geophysical Union, National Research C ...

Electric spark An electric spark is an abrupt electrical discharge that occurs when a sufficiently high electric field creates an ionized, electrically conductive channel through a normally-insulating medium, often air or other gases or gas mixtures. Michael F ...

Electric Tokamak The Enormous Toroidal Plasma Device (ETPD) is an experimental physics device housed at the Basic Plasma Science Facility at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). It previously operated as the Electric Tokamak (ET) between 1999 and 2006 and ...

Electrothermal-chemical technology Electrothermal-chemical (ETC) technology is an attempt to increase accuracy and muzzle energy of future tank, artillery, and close-in weapon system guns by improving the predictability and rate of expansion of propellants inside the barrel. An elec ...

, uses plasma cartridge, Triple coaxial plasma igniter * Electrodeless plasma excitation * Electrodeless plasma thruster *

Electrodynamic tether Electrodynamic tethers (EDTs) are long conducting wires, such as one deployed from a tether satellite, which can operate on electromagnetism, electromagnetic principles as electrical generator, generators, by converting their kinetic energy to ele ...

, Flowing Plasma Effect * Electrohydrodynamic thruster *

Electrolaser An electrolaser is a type of electroshock weapon that is also a directed-energy weapon. It uses lasers to form an electrically conductive ''laser-induced plasma channel'' (LIPC). A fraction of a second later, a powerful electric current is sent d ...

, Laser-Induced Plasma Channel *

Electromagnetic electron wave In plasma physics, an electromagnetic electron wave is a wave in a plasma which has a magnetic field component and in which primarily the electrons oscillate. In an unmagnetized plasma, an electromagnetic electron wave is simply a light wave mod ...

Electromagnetic field An electromagnetic field (also EM field or EMF) is a classical (i.e. non-quantum) field produced by (stationary or moving) electric charges. It is the field described by classical electrodynamics (a classical field theory) and is the classical c ...

Electromagnetic pulse An electromagnetic pulse (EMP), also a transient electromagnetic disturbance (TED), is a brief burst of electromagnetic energy. Depending upon the source, the origin of an EMP can be natural or artificial, and can occur as an electromagnetic fie ...

Electromagnetic spectrum The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of frequencies (the spectrum) of electromagnetic radiation and their respective wavelengths and photon energies. The electromagnetic spectrum covers electromagnetic waves with frequencies ranging from ...

* Electron-cloud effect *

Electron The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no kn ...

Electron avalanche An electron avalanche is a process in which a number of free electrons in a transmission medium are subjected to strong acceleration by an electric field and subsequently collide with other atoms of the medium, thereby ionizing them (impact ionizat ...

* Electron beam ion trap *

Electron cyclotron resonance Electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) is a phenomenon observed in plasma physics, condensed matter physics, and accelerator physics. It happens when the frequency of incident radiation coincides with the natural frequency of rotation of electrons in ...

Electron density In quantum chemistry, electron density or electronic density is the measure of the probability of an electron being present at an infinitesimal element of space surrounding any given point. It is a scalar quantity depending upon three spatial va ...

Electron energy loss spectroscopy In electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) a material is exposed to a beam of electrons with a known, narrow range of kinetic energies. Some of the electrons will undergo inelastic scattering, which means that they lose energy and have their pa ...

Electron gun An electron gun (also called electron emitter) is an electrical component in some vacuum tubes that produces a narrow, collimated electron beam that has a precise kinetic energy. The largest use is in cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), used in nearly ...

Electron microprobe An electron microprobe (EMP), also known as an electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) or electron micro probe analyzer (EMPA), is an analytical tool used to non-destructively determine the chemical composition of small volumes of solid materials. It ...

Electron spiral toroid Electron Power Systems, Inc. of Acton, Massachusetts, United States, claims to have developed a technology for maintaining small stable plasma toroids called electron spiral toroids (ESTs) which remain stable in Earth's atmosphere without the use o ...

Electron temperature Plasma parameters define various characteristics of a plasma, an electrically conductive collection of charged particles that responds ''collectively'' to electromagnetic forces. Plasma typically takes the form of neutral gas-like clouds or char ...

Electronvolt In physics, an electronvolt (symbol eV, also written electron-volt and electron volt) is the measure of an amount of kinetic energy In physics, the kinetic energy of an object is the energy that it possesses due to its motion. It is defi ...

* Electron wake *

Electrostatic discharge Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is a sudden and momentary flow of electric current between two electrically charged objects caused by contact, an short circuit, electrical short or dielectric breakdown. A buildup of static electricity can be caused ...

Electrostatic ion cyclotron wave In plasma physics, an electrostatic ion cyclotron wave is a longitudinal oscillation of the ions (and electrons) in a magnetized plasma, propagating nearly (but not exactly) perpendicular to the magnetic field. The angle (in radians) between the d ...

Electrostatic ion thruster The gridded ion thruster is a common design for ion thrusters, a highly efficient low-thrust spacecraft propulsion method running on electrical power by using high-voltage grid electrodes to accelerate ions with electrostatic forces. History Th ...

Electrosurgery Electrosurgery is the application of a high-frequency (radio frequency) alternating polarity, electrical current to biological tissue as a means to cut, coagulate, desiccate, or fulgurate tissue.Hainer BL, "Fundamentals of electrosurgery", ''J ...

Electrothermal instability __NOTOC__ The electrothermal instability (also known as ionization instability, non-equilibrium instability or Velikhov instability in the literature) is a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instability appearing in magnetized non-thermal plasmas used ...

Electroweak epoch In physical cosmology, the electroweak epoch was the period in the evolution of the early universe when the temperature of the universe had fallen enough that the strong force separated from the electroweak interaction, but was high enough for ele ...

Elemental analysis Elemental analysis is a process where a sample of some material (e.g., soil, waste or drinking water, bodily fluids, minerals, chemical compounds) is analyzed for its elemental and sometimes isotopic composition. Elemental analysis can be qualita ...

* Elliptic flow *

Emission spectrum The emission spectrum of a chemical element or chemical compound is the spectrum of frequencies of electromagnetic radiation emitted due to an electron making a atomic electron transition, transition from a high energy state to a lower energy st ...

Energetic neutral atom Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) imaging, often described as "seeing with atoms", is a technology used to create global images of otherwise invisible phenomena in the magnetospheres of planets and throughout the heliosphere. The solar wind is compo ...

Energy density In physics, energy density is the amount of energy stored in a given system or region of space per unit volume. It is sometimes confused with energy per unit mass which is properly called specific energy or . Often only the ''useful'' or extract ...

Energy filtered transmission electron microscopy Energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy (EFTEM) is a technique used in transmission electron microscopy, in which only electrons of particular kinetic energies are used to form the image or diffraction pattern. The technique can be used to ...

Evanescent wave In electromagnetics, an evanescent field, or evanescent wave, is an oscillating electric and/or magnetic field that does not propagate as an electromagnetic wave but whose energy is spatially concentrated in the vicinity of the source (oscillati ...

* Evershed effect *

Excimer lamp An excimer lamp (or excilamp) is a source of ultraviolet light based on spontaneous emission of excimer (exciplex) molecules. Introduction Excimer lamps are quasimonochromatic light sources operating over a wide range of wavelengths in the ult ...

Excimer laser An excimer laser, sometimes more correctly called an exciplex laser, is a form of ultraviolet laser which is commonly used in the production of microelectronic devices, semiconductor based integrated circuits or "chips", eye surgery, and microm ...

* Extraordinary optical transmission *

Extreme ultraviolet Extreme ultraviolet radiation (EUV or XUV) or high-energy ultraviolet radiation is electromagnetic radiation in the part of the electromagnetic spectrum spanning wavelengths from 124 nm down to 10 nm, and therefore (by the Planck–E ...

* Extreme ultraviolet lithography

F

Failure analysis Failure analysis is the process of collecting and analyzing data to determine the cause of a failure, often with the goal of determining corrective actions or liability. According to Bloch and Geitner, ”machinery failures reveal a reaction chain o ...

FalconSAT FalconSAT is the United States Air Force Academy's (USAFA) small satellite engineering program. Satellites are designed, built, tested, and operated by Academy cadets. The project is administered by the USAFA Space Systems Research Center under ...

Faraday cup A Faraday cup is a metal (conductive) cup designed to catch charged particles in vacuum. The resulting current can be measured and used to determine the number of ions or electrons hitting the cup. The Faraday cup was named after Michael Fara ...

Faraday effect The Faraday effect or Faraday rotation, sometimes referred to as the magneto-optic Faraday effect (MOFE), is a physical magneto-optical phenomenon. The Faraday effect causes a polarization rotation which is proportional to the projection of the ...

, Faraday rotation in the ionosphere *

Far-infrared laser Far-infrared laser or terahertz laser (FIR laser, THz laser) is a laser with output wavelength in between 30-1000 µm (frequency 0.3-10 THz), in the far infrared or terahertz frequency band of the electromagnetic spectrum. FIR lasers have app ...

* Farley-Buneman instability * Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer *

Ferritic nitrocarburizing Ferritic nitrocarburizing or FNC, also known by the proprietary names Tenifer, Tufftride and Melonite as well as ARCOR,Other trade names include Tuffride/ Tuffrider, QPQ, Sulfinuz, Sursulf, Meli 1, and Nitride, among others is a range of proprie ...

, Plasma-assisted ferritic nitrocarburizing, plasma ion nitriding *

Ferrofluid Ferrofluid is a liquid that is attracted to the poles of a magnet. It is a colloidal liquid made of nanoscale ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic particles suspended in a carrier fluid (usually an organic solvent or water). Each magnetic particle ...

Field line A field line is a graphical visual aid for visualizing vector fields. It consists of an imaginary directed line which is tangent to the field vector at each point along its length. A diagram showing a representative set of neighboring field ...

Field-reversed configuration A field-reversed configuration (FRC) is a type of plasma device studied as a means of producing nuclear fusion. It confines a plasma on closed magnetic field lines without a central penetration. In an FRC, the plasma has the form of a self-stabl ...

Filament propagation In nonlinear optics, filament propagation is propagation of a beam of light through a medium without diffraction. This is possible because the Kerr effect causes an index of refraction change in the medium, resulting in self-focusing of the beam. F ...

Finite-difference time-domain method Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) or Yee's method (named after the Chinese American applied mathematician Kane S. Yee, born 1934) is a numerical analysis technique used for modeling computational electrodynamics (finding approximate solutions t ...

Fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...

Fisher's equation In mathematics, Fisher's equation (named after statistician and biologist Ronald Fisher) also known as the Kolmogorov–Petrovsky–Piskunov equation (named after Andrey Kolmogorov, Ivan Petrovsky, and Nikolai Piskunov), KPP equation or Fis ...

Fission fragment reactor Similar to how the fission-fragment rocket produces thrust, a fission fragment reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates electricity by decelerating an ion beam of fission byproducts instead of using nuclear reactions to generate heat. By doin ...

Fission-fragment rocket The fission-fragment rocket is a rocket engine design that directly harnesses hot nuclear fission products for thrust, as opposed to using a separate fluid as working mass. The design can, in theory, produce very high specific impulse while stil ...

, Dusty Plasma Based Fission Fragment Nuclear Reactor * Flame plasma * Flare spray *

Flashtube A flashtube (flashlamp) is an electric arc lamp designed to produce extremely intense, incoherent, full-spectrum white light for a very short time. A flashtube is a glass tube with an electrode at each end and is filled with a gas that, when tr ...

Flatness problem The flatness problem (also known as the oldness problem) is a cosmological fine-tuning problem within the Big Bang model of the universe. Such problems arise from the observation that some of the initial conditions of the universe appear to be f ...

Flowing-afterglow mass spectrometry Flowing-afterglow mass spectrometry (FA-MS), is an analytical chemistry technique for the sensitive detection of trace gases. Trace gas molecules are ionized by the production and flow of thermalized hydrated hydronium cluster ions in a plasma afte ...

Fluid dynamics In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids— liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including ''aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) an ...

Fluorescent lamp A fluorescent lamp, or fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor, which produces short-wave ultraviolet lig ...

Forbidden mechanism In spectroscopy, a forbidden mechanism (forbidden transition or forbidden line) is a spectral line associated with absorption or emission of photons by atomic nuclei, atoms, or molecules which undergo a transition that is not allowed by a particul ...

Force-free magnetic field A force-free magnetic field is a magnetic field in which the Lorentz force is equal to zero and the magnetic pressure greatly exceeds the plasma pressure such that non-magnetic forces can be neglected. For a force-free field, the electric curre ...

Free-electron laser A free-electron laser (FEL) is a (fourth generation) light source producing extremely brilliant and short pulses of radiation. An FEL functions and behaves in many ways like a laser, but instead of using stimulated emission from atomic or molecula ...

Free electron model In solid-state physics, the free electron model is a quantum mechanical model for the behaviour of charge carriers in a metallic solid. It was developed in 1927, principally by Arnold Sommerfeld, who combined the classical Drude model with quantu ...

F region The F region of the ionosphere is home to the F layer of ionization, also called the Appleton–Barnett layer, after the English physicist Edward Appleton and New Zealand physicist and meteorologist Miles Barnett. As with other ionospheric sectors ...

, Appleton layer *

Frequency classification of plasmas Plasma () 1, where \nu_ is the electron gyrofrequency and \nu_ is the electron collision rate. It is often the case that the electrons are magnetized while the ions are not. Magnetized plasmas are ''anisotropic'', meaning that their properties ...

Fusion energy gain factor A fusion energy gain factor, usually expressed with the symbol ''Q'', is the ratio of fusion power produced in a nuclear fusion reactor to the power required to maintain the plasma in steady state. The condition of ''Q'' = 1, when the power bei ...

Fusion power Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions. In a fusion process, two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, while releasing energy. Devices de ...

fusion torch A fusion torch is a technique for utilizing the high-temperature plasma of a fusion reactor to break apart other materials (especially waste materials) and convert them into a few reusable and saleable elements. It was invented in 1968 by Berna ...

fusor A fusor is a device that uses an electric field to heat ions to nuclear fusion conditions. The machine induces a voltage between two metal cages, inside a vacuum. Positive ions fall down this voltage drop, building up speed. If they collide in ...

G

Galactic corona The terms galactic corona and gaseous corona have been used in the first decade of the 21st century to describe a hot, ionised, gaseous component in the galactic halo of the Milky Way. A similar body of very hot and tenuous gas in the halo ...

Galactic halo A galactic halo is an extended, roughly spherical component of a galaxy which extends beyond the main, visible component. Several distinct components of galaxies comprise the halo: * the stellar halo * the galactic corona (hot gas, i.e. a plas ...

Gas Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or ...

Gas-filled tube A gas-filled tube, also commonly known as a discharge tube or formerly as a Plücker tube, is an arrangement of electrodes in a gas within an insulating, temperature-resistant envelope. Gas-filled tubes exploit phenomena related to electric ...

Gas core reactor rocket Gas core reactor rockets are a conceptual type of rocket that is propelled by the exhausted coolant of a gaseous fission reactor. The nuclear fission reactor core may be either a gas or plasma. They may be capable of creating specific impulses ...

Gas cracker A gas cracker is any device that splits the molecules in a gas or liquid, usually by electrolysis, into atoms. The end product is usually a gas. A hydrocracker is an example of a gas cracker. In nature, molecules are split often, such as in food d ...

, plasma cracking *

Gas Electron Multiplier A gas electron multiplier (GEM) is a type of gaseous ionization detector used in nuclear and particle physics and radiation detection. All gaseous ionization detectors are able to collect the electrons released by ionizing radiation, guiding them ...

Gaseous fission reactor A gas nuclear reactor (or gas fueled reactor or vapor core reactor) is a proposed kind of nuclear reactor in which the nuclear fuel would be in a gaseous state rather than liquid or solid. In this type of reactor, the only temperature-limiting mat ...

Gaseous ionisation detectors Gaseous ionization detectors are radiation detection instruments used in particle physics to detect the presence of ionizing particles, and in radiation protection applications to measure ionizing radiation. They use the ionising effect of radi ...

Gas focusing Gas focusing, also known as ionic focusing. Rather than being dispersed, a beam of charged particles travelling in an inert gas environment sometimes becomes narrower. This is ascribed to the generation of gas ions which diffuse outwards, neutrali ...

Gasification Gasification is a process that converts biomass- or fossil fuel-based carbonaceous materials into gases, including as the largest fractions: nitrogen (N2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), and carbon dioxide (). This is achieved by reacting ...

, Plasma gasifier *

Geissler tube A Geissler tube is an early gas discharge tube used to demonstrate the principles of electrical glow discharge, similar to modern neon lighting. The tube was invented by the German physicist and glassblower Heinrich Geissler in 1857. It cons ...

General Fusion General Fusion is a Canadian company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, which is developing a fusion power device based on magnetized target fusion (MTF). The company was founded in 2002 by Dr. Michel Laberge. The company has more than 200 emp ...

Geomagnetic storm A geomagnetic storm, also known as a magnetic storm, is a temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere caused by a solar wind shock wave and/or cloud of magnetic field that interacts with the Earth's magnetic field. The disturbance that d ...

* Geothermal Anywhere *

Glasser effect The Glasser effect describes the creation of singularities in the flow field of a magnetically confined plasma when small resonant perturbations modify the gradient of the pressure field. External links Physics of magnetically confined plasmas ...

Glass frit bonding Glass frit bonding, also referred to as glass soldering or seal glass bonding, describes a wafer bonding technique with an intermediate glass layer. It is a widely used encapsulation technology for surface micro-machined structures, e.g., accele ...

Glow discharge A glow discharge is a plasma formed by the passage of electric current through a gas. It is often created by applying a voltage between two electrodes in a glass tube containing a low-pressure gas. When the voltage exceeds a value called the str ...

Glow-discharge optical emission spectroscopy Glow-discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GDOES) is a spectroscopic method for the quantitative analysis of metals and other non-metallic solids. The idea was published and patented in 1968 by Werner Grimm from Hanau, Germany. Ordinary atom ...

(GDOES) *

Grad–Shafranov equation The Grad–Shafranov equation ( H. Grad and H. Rubin (1958); Vitalii Dmitrievich Shafranov (1966)) is the equilibrium equation in ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) for a two dimensional plasma, for example the axisymmetric toroidal plasma in a toka ...

Granule (solar physics) A granule is a convection cell in the Sun's photosphere. They are caused by convection currents of plasma in the Sun's convective zone, directly below the photosphere. The grainy appearance of the solar photosphere is produced by the tops o ...

Great Rift (astronomy) In astronomy, the Great Rift (sometimes called the Dark Rift or less commonly the Dark River) is a dark band caused by interstellar clouds of cosmic dust that significantly obscure ( extinguish) the center and most radial sectors of the Milky ...

* GreenSun Energy *

Guiding center In physics, the motion of an electrically charged particle such as an electron or ion in a plasma in a magnetic field can be treated as the superposition of a relatively fast circular motion around a point called the guiding center and a relativ ...

* Gunn–Peterson trough *

GYRO Gyro may refer to: Science and technology * GYRO, a computer program for tokamak plasma simulation * Gyro Motor Company, an American aircraft engine manufacturer * ''Gyrodactylus salaris'', a parasite in salmon * Gyroscope, an orientation-sta ...

Gyrokinetic ElectroMagnetic Gyrokinetic ElectroMagnetic (GEM) is a gyrokinetic plasma turbulence simulation that uses the \delta f particle-in-cell method. It is used to study waves, instabilities and nonlinear behavior of tokamak fusion plasmas. Information about GEM can b ...

Gyrokinetics Gyrokinetics is a theoretical framework to study plasma behavior on perpendicular spatial scales comparable to the gyroradius and frequencies much lower than the particle cyclotron frequencies. These particular scales have been experimentally sho ...

Gyroradius The gyroradius (also known as radius of gyration, Larmor radius or cyclotron radius) is the radius of the circular motion of a charged particle in the presence of a uniform magnetic field. In SI units, the non-relativistic gyroradius is given by :r_ ...

Gyrotron High-power 140 GHz gyrotron for plasma heating in the Wendelstein 7-X fusion experiment, Germany. A gyrotron is a class of high-power linear-beam vacuum tubes that generates millimeter-wave electromagnetic waves by the cyclotron resonance of e ...

H

Hadronization Hadronization (or hadronisation) is the process of the formation of hadrons out of quarks and gluons. There are two main branches of hadronization: quark-gluon plasma (QGP) transformation and colour string decay into hadrons. The transformation o ...

Hagedorn temperature The Hagedorn temperature, ''T''H, is the temperature in theoretical physics where hadronic matter (i.e. ordinary matter) is no longer stable, and must either "evaporate" or convert into quark matter; as such, it can be thought of as the "boiling p ...

, Transition to Quark-Gluon Plasma *

Hall effect The Hall effect is the production of a voltage difference (the Hall voltage) across an electrical conductor that is transverse to an electric current in the conductor and to an applied magnetic field perpendicular to the current. It was disco ...

Hall-effect thruster In spacecraft propulsion, a Hall-effect thruster (HET) is a type of ion thruster in which the propellant is accelerated by an electric field. Hall-effect thrusters (based on the discovery by Edwin Hall) are sometimes referred to as Hall thruster ...

* Hasegawa–Mima equation *

Heat shield In thermodynamics, heat is defined as the form of energy crossing the boundary of a thermodynamic system by virtue of a temperature difference across the boundary. A thermodynamic system does not ''contain'' heat. Nevertheless, the term is al ...

* Heat torch *

Helically Symmetric Experiment The Helically Symmetric Experiment (HSX, stylized as Helically Symmetric eXperiment), is an experimental plasma confinement device at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, with design principles that are intended to be incorporated into a fusion ...

Helicon double-layer thruster The helicon double-layer thruster is a prototype spacecraft propulsion engine. It was created by Australian scientist Dr Christine Charles, based on a technology invented by Professor Rod Boswell, both of the Australian National University. The ...

* Helicon (physics) *

Heliosphere The heliosphere is the magnetosphere, astrosphere and outermost atmospheric layer of the Sun. It takes the shape of a vast, bubble-like region of space. In plasma physics terms, it is the cavity formed by the Sun in the surrounding interstell ...

Heliospheric current sheet The heliospheric current sheet, or interplanetary current sheet, is a surface separating regions of the heliosphere where the interplanetary magnetic field points toward and away from the Sun. A small electrical current with a current density of ...

Helium Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...

Helium line ratio The analysis of line intensity ratios is an important tool to obtain information about laboratory and space plasmas. In emission spectroscopy, the intensity of spectral lines can provide various information about the plasma (or gas) condition. It ...

* Helmet streamer *

Hessdalen light The Hessdalen lights are unidentified lights observed in a stretch of the Hessdalen valley in rural central Norway. Background The Hessdalen lights are of unknown origin. They appear both by day and by night, and seem to float through and abov ...

High beta fusion reactor The Lockheed Martin Compact Fusion Reactor (CFR) is a fusion power project at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works. Its high-beta configuration, which implies that the ratio of plasma pressure to magnetic pressure is greater than or equal to 1 (compare ...

High-energy nuclear physics High-energy nuclear physics studies the behavior of nuclear matter in energy regimes typical of high-energy physics. The primary focus of this field is the study of heavy-ion collisions, as compared to lighter atoms in other particle accelerato ...

High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program The High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) was initiated as an ionosphere, ionospheric research program jointly funded by the United States Air Force, U.S. Air Force, the United States Navy, U.S. Navy, the University of Alaska ...

* High harmonic generation *

High-intensity discharge lamp High-intensity discharge lamps (HID lamps) are a type of electrical gas-discharge lamp which produces light by means of an electric arc between tungsten electrodes housed inside a translucent or transparent fused quartz or fused alumina arc tu ...

High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering High-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HIPIMS or HiPIMS, also known as high-power pulsed magnetron sputtering, HPPMS) is a method for physical vapor deposition of thin films which is based on magnetron sputter deposition. HIPIMS utilises extre ...

High voltage High voltage electricity refers to electrical potential large enough to cause injury or damage. In certain industries, ''high voltage'' refers to voltage above a certain threshold. Equipment and conductors that carry high voltage warrant spec ...

HiPER The High Power laser Energy Research facility (HiPER), is a proposed experimental laser-driven inertial confinement fusion (ICF) device undergoing preliminary design for possible construction in the European Union. , the effort appears to be i ...

, High-Power laser Energy Research facility *

Hiss (electromagnetic) Electromagnetic hiss is a naturally occurring Extremely Low Frequency/Very Low Frequency electromagnetic wave (i.e., 300 Hz – 10 kHz) that is generated in the plasma of either the Earth's ionosphere or magnetosphere. Its name is de ...

, Plasmaspheric hiss *

Hollow cathode effect The hollow cathode effect allows electrical conduction at a lower voltage or with more current in a cold-cathode gas-discharge lamp when the cathode is a conductive tube open at one end than a similar lamp with a flat cathode. The hollow cathode e ...

Hollow-cathode lamp A hollow-cathode lamp (HCL) is type of cold cathode lamp used in physics and chemistry as a spectral line source (e.g. for atomic absorption spectrometers) and as a frequency tuner for light sources such as lasers. An HCL takes advantage of th ...

Holtsmark distribution The (one-dimensional) Holtsmark distribution is a continuous probability distribution. The Holtsmark distribution is a special case of a stable distribution with the index of stability or shape parameter \alpha equal to 3/2 and the skewness parame ...

Homopolar generator A homopolar generator is a DC electrical generator comprising an electrically conductive disc or cylinder rotating in a plane perpendicular to a uniform static magnetic field. A potential difference is created between the center of the disc and th ...

Horizon problem The horizon problem (also known as the homogeneity problem) is a cosmological fine-tuning problem within the Big Bang model of the universe. It arises due to the difficulty in explaining the observed homogeneity of causally disconnected region ...

Hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...

Hydrogen sensor A hydrogen sensor is a gas detector that detects the presence of hydrogen. They contain micro-fabricated point-contact hydrogen sensors and are used to locate hydrogen leaks. They are considered low-cost, compact, durable, and easy to maintain as ...

Hypernova A hypernova (sometimes called a collapsar) is a very energetic supernova thought to result from an extreme core-collapse scenario. In this case, a massive star (>30 solar masses) collapses to form a rotating black hole emitting twin energetic je ...

Hypersonic speed In aerodynamics, a hypersonic speed is one that exceeds 5 times the speed of sound, often stated as starting at speeds of Mach 5 and above. The precise Mach number at which a craft can be said to be flying at hypersonic speed varies, since ind ...

Hypersonic wind tunnel A hypersonic wind tunnel is designed to generate a hypersonic flow field in the working section, thus simulating the typical flow features of this flow regime - including compression shocks and pronounced boundary layer effects, entropy layer an ...

Hypervelocity Hypervelocity is very high velocity, approximately over 3,000 meters per second (6,700 mph, 11,000 km/h, 10,000 ft/s, or Mach 8.8). In particular, hypervelocity is velocity so high that the strength of materials upon impact is v ...

* Hypertherm

I

IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operati ...

IGNITOR Ignitor is the Italian name for a planned tokamak device, developed by ENEA. , the device has not been constructed. Started in 1977 by Prof. Bruno Coppi at MIT, Ignitor based on the 1970s Alcator machine at MIT which pioneered the high magnetic ...

IMAGE An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...

, Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration,

Radio Plasma Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

Imager *

Impalefection Impalefection is a method of gene delivery using nanomaterials, such as carbon nanofibers, carbon nanotubes, nanowires. Needle-like nanostructures are synthesized perpendicular to the surface of a substrate. Plasmid DNA containing the gene, and ...

Impulse generator An impulse generator is an electrical apparatus which produces very short high-voltage or high- current surges. Such devices can be classified into two types: impulse voltage generators and impulse current generators. High impulse voltages are u ...

Incoherent scatter Incoherent scattering is a type of scattering phenomenon in physics. The term is most commonly used when referring to the scattering of an electromagnetic wave (usually light or radio frequency) by random fluctuations in a gas of particles (most o ...

* Induction plasma technology *

Inductively coupled plasma An inductively coupled plasma (ICP) or transformer coupled plasma (TCP) is a type of plasma source in which the energy is supplied by electric currents which are produced by electromagnetic induction, that is, by time-varying magnetic fields. Ope ...

Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), also referred to as inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), is an analytical technique used for the detection of chemical elements. It is a type of emiss ...

Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is a type of mass spectrometry that uses an inductively coupled plasma to ionize the sample. It atomizes the sample and creates atomic and small polyatomic ions, which are then detected. It is ...

Inelastic mean free path The inelastic mean free path (IMFP) is an index of how far an electron on average travels through a solid before losing energy. If a monochromatic primary beam of electrons is incident on a solid surface, the majority of incident electrons lose t ...

inertial confinement fusion Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a fusion energy process that initiates nuclear fusion reactions by compressing and heating targets filled with thermonuclear fuel. In modern machines, the targets are small spherical pellets about the size of ...

Inertial electrostatic confinement Inertial electrostatic confinement, or IEC, is a class of fusion power devices that use electric fields to confine the plasma rather than the more common approach using magnetic fields found in magnetic fusion energy (MFE) designs. Most IEC devi ...

* Inertial fusion power plant *

Instability In numerous fields of study, the component of instability within a system is generally characterized by some of the outputs or internal states growing without bounds. Not all systems that are not stable are unstable; systems can also be mar ...

Insulated-gate bipolar transistor An insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is a three-terminal power semiconductor device primarily used as an electronic switch, which, as it was developed, came to combine high efficiency and fast switching. It consists of four alternating lay ...

Insulator (electrical) An electrical insulator is a material in which electric current does not flow freely. The atoms of the insulator have tightly bound electrons which cannot readily move. Other materials—semiconductors and conductors—conduct electric current ...

Interbol Interbol (russian: Интербол) is an international space project under the leadership of the Russian Space Agency and the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The list of participants includes the Institute of Atmosphe ...

Intergalactic medium Intergalactic may refer to: * "Intergalactic" (song), a song by the Beastie Boys * ''Intergalactic'' (TV series), a 2021 UK science fiction TV series * Intergalactic space * Intergalactic travel, travel between galaxies in science fiction and ...

International Reference Ionosphere International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) is a common permanent scientific project of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) started 1968/69. It is the international standard empirical model f ...

Interplanetary magnetic field The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), now more commonly referred to as the heliospheric magnetic field (HMF), is the component of the solar magnetic field that is dragged out from the solar corona by the solar wind flow to fill the Solar Sy ...

Interplanetary medium The interplanetary medium (IPM) or interplanetary space consists of the mass and energy which fills the Solar System, and through which all the larger Solar System bodies, such as planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets, move. The IPM sto ...

Interplanetary scintillation In astronomy, interplanetary scintillation refers to random fluctuations in the intensity of radio waves of celestial origin, on the timescale of a few seconds. It is analogous to the twinkling one sees looking at stars in the sky at night, but ...

Interstellar medium In astronomy, the interstellar medium is the matter and radiation that exist in the space between the star systems in a galaxy. This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, as well as dust and cosmic rays. It fills interstella ...

* Interstellar

nebula A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regio ...

Interstellar travel Interstellar travel is the hypothetical travel of spacecraft from one star system, solitary star, or planetary system to another. Interstellar travel is expected to prove much more difficult than interplanetary spaceflight due to the vast diffe ...

Intracluster medium In astronomy, the intracluster medium (ICM) is the superheated plasma that permeates a galaxy cluster. The gas consists mainly of ionized hydrogen and helium and accounts for most of the baryonic material in galaxy clusters. The ICM is heated to t ...

* Io-

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

flux tube A flux tube is a generally tube-like (cylindrical) region of space containing a magnetic field, B, such that the cylindrical sides of the tube are everywhere parallel to the magnetic field lines. It is a graphical visual aid for visualizing a mag ...

Ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...

Ionized-air glow Ionized-air glow is the luminescent emission of characteristic blue–purple–violet light, often of a color called electric blue, by air subjected to an energy flux either directly or indirectly from solar radiation. Processes When energy ...

Ion acoustic wave In plasma physics, an ion acoustic wave is one type of longitudinal oscillation of the ions and electrons in a plasma, much like acoustic waves traveling in neutral gas. However, because the waves propagate through positively charged ions, ion aco ...

Ion beam An ion beam is a type of charged particle beam consisting of ions. Ion beams have many uses in electronics manufacturing (principally ion implantation) and other industries. A variety of ion beam sources exists, some derived from the mercury ...

* Ion-beam shepherd *

Ion cyclotron resonance Ion cyclotron resonance is a phenomenon related to the movement of ions in a magnetic field. It is used for accelerating ions in a cyclotron, and for measuring the masses of an ionized analyte in mass spectrometry, particularly with Fourier transfo ...

* Ion gun *

Ion laser An ion laser is a gas laser that uses an ionized gas as its lasing medium. Like other gas lasers, ion lasers feature a sealed cavity containing the laser medium and mirrors forming a Fabry–Pérot resonator. Unlike helium–neon lasers, the ...

Ion optics An electrostatic lens is a device that assists in the transport of charged particles. For instance, it can guide electrons emitted from a sample to an electron analyzer, analogous to the way an optical lens assists in the transport of light in an op ...

Ion plating Ion plating (IP) is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process that is sometimes called ''ion assisted deposition'' (IAD) or ''ion vapor deposition'' (IVD) and is a modified version of ''vacuum deposition''. Ion plating uses concurrent or periodi ...

Ion source An ion source is a device that creates atomic and molecular ions. Ion sources are used to form ions for mass spectrometers, optical emission spectrometers, particle accelerators, ion implanters and ion engines. Electron ionization Electron ...

* Ion wind *

Ionosphere The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an ...

Ionospheric heater An ionospheric heater, or an ionospheric HF pump facility, is a powerful radio wave transmitter with an array of antennas which is used for research of plasma turbulence, the ionosphere and upper atmosphere.Powerful electromagnetic waves for activ ...

Ionospheric propagation In radio communication, skywave or skip refers to the propagation of radio waves reflected or refracted back toward Earth from the ionosphere, an electrically charged layer of the upper atmosphere. Since it is not limited by the curvature ...

Isotope-ratio mass spectrometry Isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) is a specialization of mass spectrometry, in which mass spectrometric methods are used to measure the relative abundance of isotopes in a given sample. This technique has two different applications in the ea ...

, Multiple collector – inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) * ITER,

International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ITER (initially the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, ''iter'' meaning "the way" or "the path" in Latin) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject aimed at creating energy by replicating, on Earth ...

J

Jellium Jellium, also known as the uniform electron gas (UEG) or homogeneous electron gas (HEG), is a quantum mechanical model of interacting electrons in a solid where the positive charges (i.e. atomic nuclei) are assumed to be uniformly distributed in ...

uniform electron gas Jellium, also known as the uniform electron gas (UEG) or homogeneous electron gas (HEG), is a quantum mechanical model of interacting electrons in a solid where the positive charges (i.e. atomic nuclei) are assumed to be uniformly distributed in ...

, homogeneous electron gas *

Jet (particle physics) A jet is a narrow cone of hadrons and other particles produced by the hadronization of a quark or gluon in a particle physics or heavy ion experiment. Particles carrying a color charge, such as quarks, cannot exist in free form because of quantum ...

* Jet quenching *

Joint European Torus The Joint European Torus, or JET, is an operational Magnetic confinement fusion, magnetically confined Plasma (physics), plasma physics experiment, located at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, UK. Based on a tokamak ...

K

* Kennelly–Heaviside layer,

E region E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plur ...

Kinetics (physics) In physics and engineering, kinetics is the branch of classical mechanics that is concerned with the relationship between the motion and its causes, specifically, forces and torques. Since the mid-20th century, the term " dynamics" (or "analytic ...

Kink instability A kink instability (also kink oscillation or kink mode), is a current-driven plasma instability characterized by transverse displacements of a plasma column's cross-section from its center of mass without any change in the characteristics of the ...

Kirchhoff's circuit laws Kirchhoff's circuit laws are two equalities that deal with the current and potential difference (commonly known as voltage) in the lumped element model of electrical circuits. They were first described in 1845 by German physicist Gustav Kirchhof ...

Kite applications The kite can be used for many applications. Different kites such as water kites, bi-media kites, fluid kites, gas kites, kytoons, paravanes, soil kites, solid kites, and plasma kites have niche applications. Some animals, such as spiders, also ma ...

, plasma kite * Kosterlitz–Thouless transition *

KSTAR The KSTAR (or Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research; ko, 초전도 핵융합연구장치, literally "superconducting nuclear fusion research device") is a magnetic fusion device at the Korea Institute of Fusion Energy in Daejeon, So ...

, Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research * Kværner-process, Plasma burner, Plasma variation

L

* Lagrange point colonization *

Landau damping In physics, Landau damping, named after its discoverer,Landau, L. "On the vibration of the electronic plasma". ''JETP'' 16 (1946), 574. English translation in ''J. Phys. (USSR)'' 10 (1946), 25. Reproduced in Collected papers of L.D. Landau, edited a ...

* Langmuir probe *

Large Hadron Collider The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and hundred ...

Large Helical Device The (LHD) is a fusion research device in Toki, Gifu, Japan, belonging to the National Institute for Fusion Science. It is the second largest superconducting stellarator in the world, after the Wendelstein 7-X. The LHD employs a heliotron magnet ...

Large Plasma Device The Large Plasma Device (often stylized as LArge Plasma Device or LAPD) is an experimental physics device located at UCLA. It is designed as a general purpose laboratory for experimental plasma physics research. The device began operation in 19 ...

* Laser-hybrid welding *

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a type of atomic emission spectroscopy which uses a highly energetic laser pulse as the excitation source. The laser is focused to form a plasma, which atomizes and excites samples. The formation of ...

, Laser Induced Plasma Spectroscopy *

Laser-induced fluorescence Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) or laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF) is a spectroscopic method in which an atom or molecule is excited to a higher energy level by the absorption of laser light followed by spontaneous emission of light. It was f ...

* Laser ablation *

Laser ablation synthesis in solution Laser ablation synthesis in solution (LASiS) is a commonly used method for obtaining Colloid, colloidal solution of Nanoparticle, nanoparticles in a variety of Solvent, solvents. Nanoparticles (NPs,), are useful in chemistry, engineering and bioche ...

* Laser plasma acceleration *

Lawson criterion The Lawson criterion is a figure of merit used in nuclear fusion research. It compares the rate of energy being generated by fusion reactions within the fusion fuel to the rate of energy losses to the environment. When the rate of production is ...

Lerche–Newberger sum rule The Lerche–Newberger, or Newberger, sum rule, discovered by B. S. Newberger in 1982, finds the sum of certain infinite series involving Bessel functions ''J'α'' of the first kind. It states that if ''μ'' is any non-integer comple ...

Le Sage's theory of gravitation Le Sage's theory of gravitation is a kinetic theory of gravity originally proposed by Nicolas Fatio de Duillier in 1690 and later by Georges-Louis Le Sage in 1748. The theory proposed a mechanical explanation for Newton's gravitational force in ...

Levitated dipole A levitated dipole is a type of nuclear fusion reactor design using a superconducting torus which is magnetically levitated inside the reactor chamber. The name refers to the magnetic dipole that forms within the reaction chamber, similar to Eart ...

LIDAR Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...

Lightcraft The Lightcraft is a space- or air-vehicle driven by beam-powered propulsion, the energy source powering the craft being external. It was conceptualized by aerospace engineering professor Leik Myrabo at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1976, ...

Lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

* LINUS (Fusion Experiment) * List of hydrodynamic instabilities *

List of plasma physicists This is a list of physicists who have worked in or made notable contributions to the field of plasma physics. {, class="wikitable sortable" , - ! Name !! Known for , - , Hannes Alfvén , , 1970 Nobel Prize in Physics "''for fundamental work an ...

* LOFAR,

Low Frequency Array The Low-Frequency Array, or LOFAR, is a large radio telescope, with an antenna network located mainly in the Netherlands, and spreading across 7 other European countries as of 2019. Originally designed and built by ASTRON, the Netherlands Institu ...

Longitudinal wave Longitudinal waves are waves in which the vibration of the medium is parallel ("along") to the direction the wave travels and displacement of the medium is in the same (or opposite) direction of the wave propagation. Mechanical longitudinal waves ...

Lorentz force In physics (specifically in electromagnetism) the Lorentz force (or electromagnetic force) is the combination of electric and magnetic force on a point charge due to electromagnetic fields. A particle of charge moving with a velocity in an elect ...

Low-energy electron diffraction Low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) is a technique for the determination of the surface structure of single-crystalline materials by bombardment with a collimated beam of low-energy electrons (30–200 eV) and observation of diffracted el ...

Lower hybrid oscillation In plasma physics, a lower hybrid oscillation is a longitudinal oscillation of ions and electrons in a magnetized plasma. The direction of propagation must be very nearly perpendicular to the stationary magnetic field, within about radians. Othe ...

* Low-pressure discharge *

Luminescent solar concentrator A luminescent solar concentrator (LSC) is a device for concentrating radiation, Non-ionizing radiation, solar radiation in particular, to produce electricity. Luminescent solar concentrators operate on the principle of collecting radiation over a ...

Lundquist number In plasma physics, the Lundquist number (denoted by S) is a dimensionless ratio which compares the timescale of an Alfvén wave crossing to the timescale of resistive diffusion. It is a special case of the magnetic Reynolds number when the Alfvén ...

Luttinger liquid A Luttinger liquid, or Tomonaga–Luttinger liquid, is a theoretical model describing interacting electrons (or other fermions) in a one-dimensional conductor (e.g. quantum wires such as carbon nanotubes). Such a model is necessary as the commonl ...

M

Madison Symmetric Torus The Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) is a reversed field pinch (RFP) physics experiment with applications to both fusion energy research and astrophysical plasmas. MST is located at the Center for Magnetic Self Organization (CMSO) at the Universit ...

* MagBeam, also called

Magnetized beamed plasma propulsion MagBeam is the name given to an ion propulsion system for Spaceflight, space travel initially proposed by Professor Robert Winglee of the Earth and Space Sciences Department at the University of Washington for the October 2004 meeting of the NASA In ...

, plasma wind *

Magnetic bottle A magnetic mirror, known as a magnetic trap (магнитный захват) in Russia and briefly as a pyrotron in the US, is a type of magnetic confinement device used in fusion power to trap high temperature plasma using magnetic fields. The ...

* Magnetic braking *

Magnetic cloud A coronal mass ejection (CME) is a significant release of plasma and accompanying magnetic field from the Sun's corona into the heliosphere. CMEs are often associated with solar flares and other forms of solar activity, but a broadly accepted ...

Magnetic confinement fusion Magnetic confinement fusion is an approach to generate thermonuclear fusion power that uses magnetic fields to confine fusion fuel in the form of a plasma. Magnetic confinement is one of two major branches of fusion energy research, along with ...

Magnetic diffusivity The magnetic diffusivity is a parameter in plasma physics which appears in the magnetic Reynolds number. It has SI units of m²/s and is defined as:W. Baumjohann and R. A. Treumann, ''Basic Space Plasma Physics'', Imperial College Press, 1997. :\e ...

Magnetic field A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...

Magnetic field oscillating amplified thruster The magnetic field oscillating amplified thruster (MOA; often named as plasma engine by the media) is a versatile electrothermodynamic system, which is able to accelerate nearly every electrically charged gaseous medium ( plasma application) to extr ...

, Plasma Engine *

Magnetic helicity In plasma physics, magnetic helicity is a measure of the linkage, twist, and writhe of a magnetic field. In ideal magnetohydrodynamics, magnetic helicity is conserved. When a magnetic field contains magnetic helicity, it tends to form large-scal ...

Magnetic mirror A magnetic mirror, known as a magnetic trap (магнитный захват) in Russia and briefly as a pyrotron in the US, is a type of magnetic confinement device used in fusion power to trap high temperature plasma using magnetic fields. T ...

* Magnetic Prandtl number *

Magnetic pressure In physics, magnetic pressure is an energy density associated with a magnetic field. In SI units, the energy density P_B of a magnetic field with strength B can be expressed as :P_B = \frac where \mu_0 is the vacuum permeability. Any magnetic fiel ...

* Magnetic proton recoil neutron spectrometer *

Magnetic radiation reaction force The magnetic radiation reaction force is a force on an electromagnet when its magnetic moment changes. One can derive an electric radiation reaction force for an acceleration, accelerating charged particle caused by the particle emitting electromag ...

Magnetic reconnection Magnetic reconnection is a physical process occurring in highly conducting plasmas in which the magnetic topology is rearranged and magnetic energy is converted to kinetic energy, thermal energy, and particle acceleration. Magnetic reconnectio ...

Magnetic Reynolds number In magnetohydrodynamics, the magnetic Reynolds number (Rm) is a dimensionless quantity that estimates the relative effects of advection or induction of a magnetic field by the motion of a conducting medium to the magnetic diffusion. It is the mag ...

Magnetic sail A magnetic sail is a proposed method of spacecraft propulsion that uses a static magnetic field to deflect a plasma wind of charged particles radiated by the Sun or a Star thereby transferring momentum to accelerate or decelerate a spacecraft. ...

Mini-magnetospheric plasma propulsion A magnetic sail is a proposed method of spacecraft propulsion that uses a static magnetic field to deflect a plasma wind of charged particles radiated by the Sun or a Star thereby transferring momentum to accelerate or decelerate a spacecraft. ...

Magnetic tail In astronomy and planetary science, a magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object's magnetic field. It is created by a celestial body with an active interior dyn ...

Magnetic tension force In physics, magnetic tension is a restoring force with units of force density that acts to straighten bent magnetic field lines. In SI units, the force density \mathbf_T exerted perpendicular to a magnetic field \mathbf can be expressed as :\ma ...

Magnetic weapon A magnetic weapon is one that uses magnetic fields to accelerate or stop projectiles, or to focus charged particle beams. There are many hypothesised magnetic weapons, such as the railgun and coilgun which accelerate a magnetic (in the case of rai ...

Magnetization reversal by circularly polarized light Discovered only as recently as 2006 by C.D. Stanciu and F. Hansteen and published in ''Physical Review Letters'', this effect is generally called all-optical magnetization reversal. This magnetization reversal technique refers to a method of revers ...

Magnetized target fusion Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) is a fusion power concept that combines features of magnetic confinement fusion (MCF) and inertial confinement fusion (ICF). Like the magnetic approach, the fusion fuel is confined at lower density by magnetic fields ...

* Magnetogravity wave *

Magnetohydrodynamic drive A magnetohydrodynamic drive or MHD accelerator is a method for propelling vehicles using only electric and magnetic fields with no moving parts, accelerating an electrically conductive propellant ( liquid or gas) with magnetohydrodynamics. The ...

MHD generator A magnetohydrodynamic generator (MHD generator) is a magnetohydrodynamic converter that transforms thermal energy and kinetic energy directly into electricity. An MHD generator, like a conventional generator, relies on moving a conductor through a m ...

Magnetohydrodynamics Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD; also called magneto-fluid dynamics or hydromagnetics) is the study of the magnetic properties and behaviour of electrically conducting fluids. Examples of such magnetofluids include plasmas, liquid metals, ...

Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence concerns the chaotic regimes of magnetofluid flow at high Reynolds number. Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) deals with what is a quasi-neutral fluid with very high conductivity. The fluid approximation implies that the focu ...

Magneto-optical trap A magneto-optical trap (MOT) is an apparatus which uses laser cooling and a spatially-varying magnetic field to create a trap which can produce samples of cold, trapped, neutral atoms. Temperatures achieved in a MOT can be as low as several micro ...

Magnetopause The magnetopause is the abrupt boundary between a magnetosphere and the surrounding plasma. For planetary science, the magnetopause is the boundary between the planet's magnetic field and the solar wind. The location of the magnetopause is d ...

Magnetoplasmadynamic thruster A magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thruster (MPDT) is a form of electrically powered spacecraft propulsion which uses the Lorentz force (the force on a charged particle by an electromagnetic field) to generate thrust. It is sometimes referred to as L ...

Magnetosheath The magnetosheath is the region of space between the magnetopause and the bow shock of a planet's magnetosphere. The regularly organized magnetic field generated by the planet becomes weak and irregular in the magnetosheath due to interaction with ...

Magnetosonic wave A magnetosonic wave, also called a magnetoacoustic wave, is a linear magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) wave that is driven by thermal pressure, magnetic pressure, and magnetic tension. There are two types of magnetosonic waves, the ''fast'' magnetosonic w ...

, also magnetoacoustic wave *

Magnetosphere In astronomy and planetary science, a magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding an astronomical object in which charged particles are affected by that object's magnetic field. It is created by a celestial body with an active interior dynam ...

Magnetosphere chronology The following is a chronology of discoveries concerning the magnetosphere. *1600 - William Gilbert in London suggests the Earth is a giant magnet. *1741 - Hiorter and Anders Celsius note that the polar aurora is accompanied by a disturbance of t ...

Magnetosphere of Saturn The magnetosphere of Saturn is the cavity created in the flow of the solar wind by the planet's internally generated magnetic field. Discovered in 1979 by the ''Pioneer 11'' spacecraft, Saturn's magnetosphere is the second largest of any planet ...

, Sources and transport of plasma *

Magnetosphere particle motion The ions and electrons of a plasma interacting with the Earth's magnetic field generally follow its magnetic field lines. These represent the force that a north magnetic pole would experience at any given point. (Denser lines indicate a stro ...

Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission is a NASA robotic space mission to study the Earth's magnetosphere, using four identical spacecraft flying in a tetrahedral formation. The spacecraft were launched on 13 March 2015 at 02:44 UTC. T ...

Magnetotellurics Magnetotellurics (MT) is an electromagnetic geophysical method for inferring the earth's subsurface electrical conductivity from measurements of natural geomagnetic and geoelectric field variation at the Earth's surface. Investigation depth ran ...

MAGPIE Magpies are birds of the Corvidae family. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's most intelligent creatures, and is one ...

, stands for Mega Ampere Generator for Plasma Implosion Experiments,

Marx generator A Marx generator is an electrical circuit first described by Erwin Otto Marx in 1924. Its purpose is to generate a high-voltage pulse from a low-voltage DC supply. Marx generators are used in high-energy physics experiments, as well as to simulat ...

MARAUDER Marauder, marauders, The Marauder, or The Marauders may refer to: * A person engaged in banditry or related activity ** Piracy ** Looting ** Outlaw ** Partisan (military) ** Robbery ** Theft Entertainment * ''Marauder'', the second novel in the ' ...

, acronym of Magnetically Accelerated Ring to Achieve Ultra-high Directed Energy and Radiation * Marchywka Effect *

Marfa lights The Marfa lights, also known as the Marfa ghost lights, have been observed near U.S. Route 67 on Mitchell Flat east of Marfa, Texas, Marfa, Texas, in the United States. They have gained some fame as onlookers have attributed them to paranormal ...

Many-body problem The many-body problem is a general name for a vast category of physical problems pertaining to the properties of microscopic systems made of many interacting particles. ''Microscopic'' here implies that quantum mechanics has to be used to provid ...

Mars Express ''Mars Express'' is a space exploration mission being conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA). The ''Mars Express'' mission is exploring the planet Mars, and is the first planetary mission attempted by the agency. "Express" originally ref ...

Mass driver A mass driver or electromagnetic catapult is a proposed method of non-rocket spacelaunch which would use a linear motor to accelerate and catapult payloads up to high speeds. Existing and contemplated mass drivers use coils of wire energized by e ...

, or electromagnetic catapult *

Mass spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a ''mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is use ...

Material point method The material point method (MPM) is a numerical technique used to simulate the behavior of solids, liquids, gases, and any other continuum material. Especially, it is a robust spatial discretization method for simulating multi-phase (solid-fluid-ga ...

Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution In physics (in particular in statistical mechanics), the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution, or Maxwell(ian) distribution, is a particular probability distribution named after James Clerk Maxwell and Ludwig Boltzmann. It was first defined and use ...

Maxwell's equations Maxwell's equations, or Maxwell–Heaviside equations, are a set of coupled partial differential equations that, together with the Lorentz force law, form the foundation of classical electromagnetism, classical optics, and electric circuits. ...

Mechanically Stimulated Gas Emission Mechanically Stimulated Gas Emission Phenomenology Mechanically stimulated gas emission (MSGE) is a complex phenomenon embracing various physical and chemical processes occurring on the surface and in the bulk of a solid under applied mechanical ...

Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST) was a nuclear fusion experiment, testing a spherical tokamak nuclear fusion reactor, and commissioned by EURATOM/UKAEA. The original MAST experiment took place at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, Oxford ...

Metallic bond Metallic bonding is a type of chemical bonding that arises from the electrostatic attractive force between conduction electrons (in the form of an electron cloud of delocalized electrons) and positively charged metal ions. It may be descri ...

Metallizing Metallizing is the general name for the technique of coating metal on the surface of objects. Metallic coatings may be decorative, protective or functional. Techniques for metallization started as early as mirror making. In 1835, Justus von Li ...

* Metamaterial antenna *

Microplasma A microplasma is a plasma of small dimensions, ranging from tens to thousands of micrometers. Microplasmas can be generated at a variety of temperatures and pressures, existing as either thermal or non-thermal plasmas. Non-thermal microplasmas that ...

* Microstructured optical arrays *

Microturbulence Microturbulence is a form of turbulence that varies over small distance scales. (Large-scale turbulence is called macroturbulence.) Stellar Microturbulence is one of several mechanisms that can cause broadening of the absorption lines in the st ...

* Microwave digestion *

Microwave discharge An ion source is a device that creates atomic and molecular ions. Ion sources are used to form ions for mass spectrometers, optical emission spectrometers, particle accelerators, ion implanters and ion engines. Electron ionization Electr ...

* Microwave plasma-assisted CVD * Microwave plasma *

Migma Migma, sometimes migmatron or migmacell, was a proposed colliding beam fusion reactor designed by Bogdan Maglich in 1969. Migma uses self-intersecting beams of ions from small particle accelerators to force the ions to fuse. Similar systems using l ...

MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center The Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a university research center for the study of plasmas, fusion science and technology. It was originally founded in 1976 as the Plasma Fusion Cente ...

Moreton wave A Moreton wave, Solar Tsunami, or Moreton-Ramsey wave is the chromospheric signature of a large-scale solar corona shock wave. Described as a kind of solar "tsunami", they are generated by solar flares. They are named for American astronomer Ga ...

Multipactor effect The multipactor effect is a phenomenon in radio-frequency (RF) amplifier vacuum tubes and waveguides, where, under certain conditions, secondary electron emission in resonance with an alternating electric field leads to exponential electron multipl ...

N

* Nanoflares *

Nanoparticle A nanoparticle or ultrafine particle is usually defined as a particle of matter that is between 1 and 100 nanometres (nm) in diameter. The term is sometimes used for larger particles, up to 500 nm, or fibers and tubes that are less than 1 ...

* Nanoscale plasmonic motor *

Nanoshell A nanoshell, or rather a nanoshell plasmon, is a type of spherical nanoparticle consisting of a dielectric core which is covered by a thin metallic shell (usually gold). These nanoshells involve a quasiparticle called a plasmon which is a col ...

National Compact Stellarator Experiment The National Compact Stellarator Experiment, NCSX in short, was a magnetic fusion energy experiment based on the stellarator design being constructed at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). NCSX was one of a number of new stellarator d ...

National Spherical Torus Experiment The National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) is a magnetic fusion device based on the '' spherical tokamak'' concept. It was constructed by the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) in collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ...

Navier–Stokes equations In physics, the Navier–Stokes equations ( ) are partial differential equations which describe the motion of viscous fluid substances, named after French engineer and physicist Claude-Louis Navier and Anglo-Irish physicist and mathematician Geo ...

Negative index metamaterials Negative-index metamaterial or negative-index material (NIM) is a metamaterial whose refractive index for an electromagnetic wave has a negative value over some frequency range. NIMs are constructed of periodic basic parts called unit cells, wh ...

Negative resistance In electronics, negative resistance (NR) is a property of some electrical circuits and devices in which an increase in voltage across the device's terminals results in a decrease in electric current through it. This is in contrast to an ordina ...

Negative temperature Certain systems can achieve negative thermodynamic temperature; that is, their temperature can be expressed as a negative quantity on the Kelvin or Rankine scales. This should be distinguished from temperatures expressed as negative numbers ...

Neon lighting Neon lighting consists of brightly glowing, electrified glass tubes or bulbs that contain rarefied neon or other gases. Neon lights are a type of cold cathode gas-discharge light. A neon tube is a sealed glass tube with a metal electrode ...

Neon sign In the signage industry, neon signs are electric signs lighted by long luminous gas-discharge tubes that contain rarefied neon or other gases. They are the most common use for neon lighting, which was first demonstrated in a modern form in Decem ...

Neutral beam injection Neutral-beam injection (NBI) is one method used to heat plasma inside a fusion device consisting in a beam of high-energy neutral particles that can enter the magnetic confinement field. When these neutral particles are ionized by collision with ...

Neutron generator Neutron generators are neutron source devices which contain compact linear particle accelerators and that produce neutrons by fusing isotopes of hydrogen together. The fusion reactions take place in these devices by accelerating either deu ...

Neutron source A neutron source is any device that emits neutrons, irrespective of the mechanism used to produce the neutrons. Neutron sources are used in physics, engineering, medicine, nuclear weapons, petroleum exploration, biology, chemistry, and nuclear p ...

Neutron star spin-up Neutron star spin up is the name given to the increase in rotational speed over time first noted in Cen X-3 and Her X-1 but now observed in other X-ray pulsars. In the case of Cen X-3, the pulse period is decreasing over a timescale of 3400 ...

New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research ...

, Plasma and high energy particle spectrometer suite (PAM) * Nitrogen–phosphorus detector *

Nonequilibrium Gas and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory The Nonequilibrium Gas and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory (NGPDL) at the Aerospace Engineering Department of the University of Colorado Boulder is headed by Professor Iain D. Boyd and performs research of nonequilibrium gases and plasmas involving the ...

Non-line-of-sight propagation Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) radio propagation occurs outside of the typical line-of-sight (LOS) between the transmitter and receiver, such as in ground reflections. Near-line-of-sight (also NLOS) conditions refer to partial obstruction by a physica ...

* Non-thermal microwave effect *

Nonthermal plasma A nonthermal plasma, cold plasma or non-equilibrium plasma is a plasma which is not in thermodynamic equilibrium, because the electron temperature is much hotter than the temperature of heavy species (ions and neutrals). As only electrons are ther ...

Nuclear fusion Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles ( neutrons or protons). The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifest ...

, Bremsstrahlung losses in quasineutral, isotropic plasmas, deuterium plasma *

Nuclear pulse propulsion Nuclear pulse propulsion or external pulsed plasma propulsion is a hypothetical method of spacecraft propulsion that uses nuclear explosions for thrust. It originated as Project ''Orion'' with support from DARPA, after a suggestion by Stanislaw ...

Nuclear pumped laser A nuclear pumped laser is a laser pumped with the energy of fission fragments. The lasing medium is enclosed in a tube lined with uranium-235 and subjected to high neutron flux in a nuclear reactor core. The fission fragments of the uranium crea ...

Numerical diffusion Numerical diffusion is a difficulty with computer simulations of continua (such as fluids) wherein the simulated medium exhibits a higher diffusivity than the true medium. This phenomenon can be particularly egregious when the system should not be ...

Numerical resistivity Numerical resistivity is a problem in computer simulations of ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). It is a form of numerical diffusion. In near-ideal MHD systems, the magnetic field can diffuse only very slowly through the plasma or fluid of the sy ...

O

Ohmic contact An ohmic contact is a non-rectifying electrical junction: a junction between two conductors that has a linear current–voltage (I–V) curve as with Ohm's law. Low-resistance ohmic contacts are used to allow charge to flow easily in both direct ...

Onset of deconfinement The onset of deconfinement refers to the beginning of the creation of deconfined states of strongly interacting matter produced in nucleus-nucleus collisions with increasing collision energy (a quark–gluon plasma). The onset of deconfinemen ...

Optode An optode or optrode is an optical sensor device that optically measures a specific substance usually with the aid of a chemical transducer. Construction An optode requires three components to function: a chemical that responds to an analyte, a p ...

Optoelectric nuclear battery An optoelectric nuclear battery (also radiophotovoltaic device, radioluminescent nuclear battery or radioisotope photovoltaic generator) is a type of nuclear battery in which nuclear energy is converted into light, which is then used to generate ...

Orbitrap In mass spectrometry, Orbitrap is an ion trap mass analyzer consisting of an outer barrel-like electrode and a coaxial inner spindle-like electrode that traps ions in an orbital motion around the spindle. The image current from the trapped ions is ...

Outer space Outer space, commonly shortened to space, is the expanse that exists beyond Earth and its atmosphere and between celestial bodies. Outer space is not completely empty—it is a near-perfect vacuum containing a low density of particles, pred ...

P

Particle-in-cell In plasma physics, the particle-in-cell (PIC) method refers to a technique used to solve a certain class of partial differential equations. In this method, individual particles (or fluid elements) in a Lagrangian frame are tracked in continuous ph ...

Particle accelerator A particle accelerator is a machine that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to very high speeds and energies, and to contain them in well-defined beams. Large accelerators are used for fundamental research in particle ...

Paschen's law Paschen's law is an equation that gives the breakdown voltage, that is, the voltage necessary to start a discharge or electric arc, between two electrodes in a gas as a function of pressure and gap length. It is named after Friedrich Paschen who ...

* Peek's law * Pegasus Toroidal Experiment *

Penning mixture A Penning mixture, named after Frans Michel Penning, is a mixture of gases used in electric lighting or displaying fixtures. Although the popular phrase for the most common of these is a neon lamp, it is more efficient to have the glass tube fill ...

* Penrose criterion *

Perhapsatron The Perhapsatron was an early fusion power device based on the pinch concept in the 1950s. Conceived by James (Jim) Tuck while working at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), he whimsically named the device on the chance that it might be able to ...

* Phased plasma gun *

Photon A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless, so they always ...

* Photonic metamaterial *

Photonics Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. Though ...

Physical cosmology Physical cosmology is a branch of cosmology concerned with the study of cosmological models. A cosmological model, or simply cosmology, provides a description of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and allows study of f ...

Physical vapor deposition Physical vapor deposition (PVD), sometimes called physical vapor transport (PVT), describes a variety of vacuum deposition methods which can be used to produce thin films and coatings on substrates including metals, ceramics, glass, and polym ...

* Piezoelectric direct discharge plasma *

Pinch (plasma physics) A pinch (or: Bennett pinch (after Willard Harrison Bennett), electromagnetic pinch, magnetic pinch, pinch effect, or plasma pinch.) is the compression of an electrically conducting Electrical filament, filament by magnetic forces, or a device tha ...

Planetary nebula A planetary nebula (PN, plural PNe) is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives. The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelate ...

Planetary nebula luminosity function Planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF) is a secondary distance indicator used in astronomy. It makes use of the IIIλ5007 forbidden line found in all planetary nebula (PNe) which are members of the old stellar populations ( Populati ...

Plasma-desorption mass spectrometry An ion source is a device that creates atomic and molecular ions. Ion sources are used to form ions for Mass spectrometry, mass spectrometers, optical emission spectrometers, particle accelerators, Ion implantation, ion implanters and Ion thrus ...

Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) is a chemical vapor deposition process used to deposit thin films from a gas state (vapor) to a solid state on a substrate. Chemical reactions are involved in the process, which occur after creati ...

Plasma-immersion ion implantation Plasma-immersion ion implantation (PIII) or pulsed-plasma doping (pulsed PIII) is a surface finishing, surface modification technique of extracting the accelerated ions from the plasma by applying a high voltage pulsed DC or pure Direct current, D ...

Plasma-powered cannon A plasma cannon (also called an electrothermal accelerator) is an experimental projectile weapon, which accelerates a projectile by means of a plasma (physics), plasma discharge between electrodes at the rear of the barrel, generating a rapid i ...

Plasma (physics) Plasma () 1, where \nu_ is the electron gyrofrequency and \nu_ is the electron collision rate. It is often the case that the electrons are magnetized while the ions are not. Magnetized plasmas are ''anisotropic'', meaning that their properties ...

Plasma acceleration Plasma acceleration is a technique for accelerating charged particles, such as electrons, positrons, and ions, using the electric field associated with electron plasma wave or other high-gradient plasma structures (like shock and sheath fields). ...

Plasma Acoustic Shield System The Plasma Acoustic Shield System, or PASS, is in the process of being developed by Stellar Photonics. The company received a $2.7 million contract from the U.S. Government to build the PASS. It is part of a project supervised by the United States ...

* Plasma activated bonding *

Plasma activation Plasma activation (or plasma functionalization) is a method of surface modification employing plasma processing, which improves surface adhesion properties of many materials including metals, glass, ceramics, a broad range of polymers and textiles ...

Plasma actuator Plasma or plasm may refer to: Science * Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter * Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral * Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics Biology * Blood pla ...

Plasma antenna A plasma antenna is a type of radio antenna currently in development in which plasma is used instead of the metal elements of a traditional antenna.Plasma arc waste disposal Plasma gasification is an extreme thermal process using plasma which converts organic matter into a syngas (synthesis gas) which is primarily made up of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. A plasma torch powered by an electric arc is used to ionize g ...

Incineration Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of substances contained in waste materials. Industrial plants for waste incineration are commonly referred to as waste-to-energy facilities. Incineration and other high ...

Plasma arc welding Plasma arc welding (PAW) is an arc welding process similar to gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW). The electric arc is formed between an electrode (which is usually but not always made of sintered tungsten) and the workpiece. The key difference from ...

Plasma channel A plasma channel is a conductive channel of plasma. A plasma channel can be formed in the following ways. # With a high-powered laser that operates at a certain frequency that will provide enough energy for an atmospheric gas to break into its io ...

Plasma chemistry Gas phase ion chemistry is a field of science encompassed within both chemistry and physics. It is the science that studies ions and molecules in the gas phase, most often enabled by some form of mass spectrometry. By far the most important appli ...

Plasma cleaning Plasma cleaning is the removal of impurities and contaminants from surfaces through the use of an energetic plasma or dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma created from gaseous species. Gases such as argon and oxygen, as well as mixtures such ...

Plasma Contactor Plasma contactors are devices used on spacecraft in order to prevent accumulation of electrostatic charge through the expulsion of plasma (often Xenon). An electrical contactor is an electrically controlled switch which closes a power or high vol ...

Plasma containment In plasma physics, plasma confinement refers to the act of maintaining a plasma in a discrete volume. Confining plasma is required in order to achieve fusion power. There are two major approaches to confinement: magnetic confinement Magnetic co ...

* Plasma conversion *

Plasma cosmology Plasma cosmology is a non-standard cosmology whose central postulate is that the dynamics of ionized gases and plasmas play important, if not dominant, roles in the physics of the universe at interstellar and intergalactic scales. recount: It ...

, ambiplasma *

Plasma cutting Plasma cutting is a process that cuts through electrically conductive materials by means of an accelerated jet of hot plasma. Typical materials cut with a plasma torch include steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass and copper, although other c ...

, Plasma gouging * Plasma deep drilling technology *

Plasma diagnostics Plasma diagnostics are a pool of methods, instruments, and experimental techniques used to measure properties of a plasma, such as plasma components' density, distribution function over energy (temperature), their spatial profiles and dynamics, whi ...

, Self Excited Electron Plasma Resonance Spectroscopy (SEERS) *

Plasma display A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display that uses small cells containing plasma: ionized gas that responds to electric fields. Plasma televisions were the first large (over 32 inches diagonal) flat panel displays to be release ...

* Plasma effect *

Plasma electrolytic oxidation Plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO), also known as electrolytic plasma oxidation (EPO) or microarc oxidation (MAO), is an electrochemical surface treatment process for generating oxide coatings on metals. It is similar to anodizing, but it emplo ...

* Plasma etcher *

Plasma etching Plasma etching is a form of plasma processing used to fabricate integrated circuits. It involves a high-speed stream of glow discharge ( plasma) of an appropriate gas mixture being shot (in pulses) at a sample. The plasma source, known as etch spe ...

Plasma frequency Plasma oscillations, also known as Langmuir waves (after Irving Langmuir), are rapid oscillations of the electron density in conducting media such as plasmas or metals in the ultraviolet region. The oscillations can be described as an instability i ...

Plasma functionalization Plasma activation (or plasma functionalization) is a method of surface modification employing plasma processing, which improves surface adhesion properties of many materials including metals, glass, ceramics, a broad range of polymers and textiles ...

Plasma gasification commercialization Plasma gasification is in commercial use as a waste-to-energy system that converts municipal solid waste, tires, hazardous waste, and sewage sludge into synthesis gas (syngas) containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide that can be used to generate po ...

Plasma globe A plasma globe or plasma lamp is a clear glass container filled with a mixture of various noble gases with a high-voltage electrode in the center of the container. When voltage is applied, a plasma is formed within the container. Plasma filam ...

* Plasma lamp *

Plasma medicine Plasma medicine is an emerging field that combines plasma physics, life sciences and clinical medicine. It is being studied in disinfection, healing, and cancer. Most of the research is in vitro and in animal models. It uses ionized gas (physic ...

Plasma modeling Plasma modeling refers to solving equations of motion that describe the state of a plasma. It is generally coupled with Maxwell's equations for electromagnetic fields or Poisson's equation for electrostatic fields. There are several main types of p ...

Plasma nitriding Nitriding is a heat treating process that diffuses nitrogen into the surface of a metal to create a case-hardened surface. These processes are most commonly used on low-alloy steels. They are also used on titanium, aluminium and molybdenum. T ...

Plasma oscillation Plasma oscillations, also known as Langmuir waves (after Irving Langmuir), are rapid oscillations of the electron density in conducting media such as plasmas or metals in the ultraviolet region. The oscillations can be described as an instability ...

Plasma parameter The plasma parameter is a dimensionless number, denoted by capital Lambda, Λ. The plasma parameter is usually interpreted to be the argument of the Coulomb logarithm, which is the ratio of the maximum impact parameter to the classical distance o ...

Plasma parameters Plasma parameters define various characteristics of a plasma, an electrically conductive collection of charged particles that responds ''collectively'' to electromagnetic forces. Plasma typically takes the form of neutral gas-like clouds or cha ...

Plasma pencil The plasma pencil is a dielectric tube where two disk-shaped electrodes of about the same diameter as the tube are inserted, and are separated by a small gap. Each of the two electrodes is made of a thin copper ring attached to the surface of a c ...

Plasma polymerization Plasma polymerization (or glow discharge polymerization) uses plasma sources to generate a gas discharge that provides energy to activate or fragment gaseous or liquid monomer, often containing a vinyl group, in order to initiate polymerization. ...

Plasma processing Plasma processing is a plasma-based material processing technology that aims at modifying the chemical and physical properties of a surface. Plasma processing techniques include: *Plasma activation * Plasma ashing *Plasma cleaning *Plasma electr ...

Plasma propulsion engine A plasma propulsion engine is a type of electric propulsion that generates thrust from a quasi-neutral plasma. This is in contrast with ion thruster engines, which generate thrust through extracting an ion current from the plasma source, which ...

* Plasma Pyrolysis Waste Treatment and Disposal * Plasma receiver *

Plasma scaling The parameters of plasmas, including their spatial and temporal extent, vary by many orders of magnitude. Nevertheless, there are significant similarities in the behaviors of apparently disparate plasmas. Understanding the scaling of plasma beh ...

Plasma shaping Magnetically confined fusion plasmas such as those generated in tokamaks and stellarators are characterized by a typical shape. Plasma shaping is the study of the plasma shape in such devices, and is particularly important for next step fusion d ...

Plasma sheet In the magnetosphere, the plasma sheet is a sheet-like region of denser (0.3-0.5 ions/cm3 versus 0.01-0.02 in the lobes) hot plasma and lower magnetic field near the equatorial plane, between the magnetosphere's north and south lobes. A magneto ...

* Plasma shield,

Plasma window The plasma window (not to be confused with a ''plasma shield'') is a technology that fills a volume of space with plasma confined by a magnetic field. With current technology, this volume is quite small and the plasma is generated as a flat plane ...

Plasma sound source A seismic source is a device that generates controlled seismic energy used to perform both reflection and refraction seismic surveys. A seismic source can be simple, such as dynamite, or it can use more sophisticated technology, such as a speci ...

Plasma source Plasma ()πλάσμα
, Henry George Liddell, R ...

Plasma speaker Plasma speakers or ionophones are a form of loudspeaker which varies air pressure via an electrical plasma instead of a solid diaphragm. The plasma arc heats the surrounding air causing it to expand. Varying the electrical signal that drives t ...

Plasma spray Thermal spraying techniques are coating processes in which melted (or heated) materials are sprayed onto a surface. The "feedstock" (coating precursor) is heated by electrical (plasma or arc) or chemical means (combustion flame). Thermal sprayi ...

Plasma spraying Thermal spraying techniques are coating processes in which melted (or heated) materials are sprayed onto a surface. The "feedstock" (coating precursor) is heated by electrical (plasma or arc) or chemical means (combustion flame). Thermal sprayi ...

Thermal spraying Thermal spraying techniques are coating processes in which melted (or heated) materials are sprayed onto a surface. The "feedstock" (coating precursor) is heated by electrical (plasma or arc) or chemical means (combustion flame). Thermal sprayi ...

Surface finishing Surface finishing is a broad range of industrial processes that alter the surface of a manufactured item to achieve a certain property. Finishing processes may be employed to: improve appearance, adhesion or wettability, solderability, corrosion re ...

Plasma stability The stability of a plasma is an important consideration in the study of plasma physics. When a system containing a plasma is at equilibrium, it is possible for certain parts of the plasma to be disturbed by small perturbative forces acting on it ...

Plasma stealth Plasma stealth is a proposed process to use ionized gas (plasma (physics), plasma) to reduce the radar cross-section (RCS) of an aircraft. Interactions between electromagnetic radiation and ionized gas have been extensively studied for many purpose ...

Plasma torch A plasma torch (also known as a plasma arc, plasma gun, plasma cutter, or plasmatron) is a device for generating a directed flow of plasma. The plasma jet can be used for applications including plasma cutting, plasma arc welding, plasma spra ...

Plasma transferred wire arc thermal spraying Plasma transferred wire arc (PTWA) thermal spraying is a thermal spraying process that deposits a coating on the internal surface of a cylindrical surface, or external surface of any geometry. It is predominantly known for its use in coating the cy ...

* Plasma valve *

Plasma weapon A directed-energy weapon (DEW) is a ranged weapon that damages its target with highly focused energy without a solid projectile, including lasers, microwaves, particle beams, and sound beams. Potential applications of this technology include w ...

Plasma weapon (fiction) Strange and exotic weapons are a recurring feature in science fiction. In some cases, weapons first introduced in science fiction have been made a reality; other science-fiction weapons remain purely fictional, and are often beyond the realms of ...

, Force field *

Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory (PEPL) is a University of Michigan laboratory facility for electric propulsion and plasma application research. The primary goals of PEPL is to increase efficiency of electric propulsion systems, ...

* Plasmaphone * Plasmapper *

Plasmaron In physics, a plasmaron is a quasiparticle arising in a system that has strong plasmon-electron interactions. It is a quasiparticle formed by quasiparticle-quasiparticle interactions, since both plasmons and electron holes are collective modes of d ...

Plasmasphere The plasmasphere, or inner magnetosphere, is a region of the Earth's magnetosphere consisting of low-energy (cool) plasma. It is located above the ionosphere. The outer boundary of the plasmasphere is known as the plasmapause, which is defined ...

Plasmoid A plasmoid is a coherent structure of plasma and magnetic fields. Plasmoids have been proposed to explain natural phenomena such as ball lightning, magnetic bubbles in the magnetosphere, and objects in cometary tails, in the solar wind, in th ...

Plasmon In physics, a plasmon is a quantum of plasma oscillation. Just as light (an optical oscillation) consists of photons, the plasma oscillation consists of plasmons. The plasmon can be considered as a quasiparticle since it arises from the quantiz ...

Plasmonic cover Theories of cloaking discusses various theories based on science and research, for producing an electromagnetic cloaking device. Theories presented employ metamaterial cloaking, transformation optics, event cloaking, dipolar scattering cancellatio ...

Theories of cloaking Theories of cloaking discusses various theories based on science and research, for producing an electromagnetic cloaking device. Theories presented employ transformation optics, event cloaking, dipolar scattering cancellation, tunneling light tra ...

* Plasmonic laser,

Nanolaser A nanolaser is a laser that has nanoscale dimensions and it refers to a micro-/nano- device which can emit light with light or electric excitation of nanowires or other nanomaterials that serve as resonators. A standard feature of nanolasers include ...

* Plasmonic metamaterials *

Plasmonic nanolithography Plasmonic nanolithography (also known as plasmonic lithography or plasmonic photolithography) is a nanolithographic process that utilizes surface plasmon excitations such as surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) to fabricate nanoscale structures. SPPs ...

Plasmonic Nanoparticles Plasmonic nanoparticles are particles whose electron density can Coupling (physics), couple with electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths that are far larger than the particle due to the nature of the dielectric-metal interface between the medium a ...

Plasmonic solar cell A plasmonic-enhanced solar cell, commonly referred to simply as plasmonic solar cell, is a type of solar cell (including thin-film, crystalline silicon, amorphous silicon, and other types of cells) that converts light into electricity with the assi ...

Polarization density In classical electromagnetism, polarization density (or electric polarization, or simply polarization) is the vector field that expresses the density of permanent or induced electric dipole moments in a dielectric material. When a dielectric is ...

Polarization ripples Polarization ripples are parallel oscillations which have been observed since the 1960s on the bottom of pulsed laser irradiation of semiconductors. They have the property to be very dependent to the orientation of the laser electric field. Sinc ...

Polar (satellite) The Global Geospace Science (GGS) ''Polar'' satellite was a NASA science spacecraft designed to study the polar magnetosphere and aurorae. It was launched into orbit in February 1996, and continued operations until the program was terminated in ...

* Polymeric surfaces *

Polywell The polywell is a proposed design for a fusion reactor using an electric field to heat ions to fusion conditions. The design is related to the fusor, the high beta fusion reactor, the magnetic mirror, and the biconic cusp. A set of electromagn ...

Ponderomotive force In physics, a ponderomotive force is a nonlinear force that a charged particle experiences in an inhomogeneous oscillating electromagnetic field. It causes the particle to move towards the area of the weaker field strength, rather than oscilla ...

Princeton field-reversed configuration experiment The Princeton field-reversed configuration (PFRC) is a series of experiments in plasma physics, an experimental program to evaluate a configuration for a fusion power reactor, at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). The experiment probes ...

* Propulsive Fluid Accumulator, nuclear-powered magnetohydrodynamic electromagnetic plasma thruster *

Proton beam A charged particle beam is a spatially localized group of electrically charged particles that have approximately the same position, kinetic energy (resulting in the same velocity), and direction. The kinetic energies of the particles are much ...

Pseudospark switch The pseudospark switch a gas-filled tube capable of high speed switching. Pseudospark switches are functionally similar to triggered spark gaps. Advantages of pseudospark switches include the ability to carry reverse currents (up to 100%), low pu ...

Pulsed Energy Projectile Pulsed energy projectile or PEP is a technology of non-lethal weaponry. The U.S. military is developing PEP using an invisible laser pulse which ablates the target's surface and creates a small amount of exploding plasma. This produces a pressure ...

Pulsed laser deposition Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is a physical vapor deposition (PVD) technique where a high-power pulsed laser beam is focused inside a vacuum chamber to strike a target of the material that is to be deposited. This material is vaporized from the ...

, Dynamic of the plasma *

Pulsed plasma thruster A pulsed plasma thruster (PPT), also known as a plasma jet engine, is a form of electric spacecraft propulsion. PPTs are generally considered the simplest form of electric spacecraft propulsion and were the first form of electric propulsion to be ...

, also Plasma Jet Engines

Q

Q-machine A Q-machine is a device that is used in experimental plasma physics. The name Q-machine stems from the original intention of creating a quiescent plasma that is free from the fluctuations that are present in plasmas created in electric discharg ...

QCD matter Quark matter or QCD matter (quantum chromodynamic) refers to any of a number of hypothetical phases of matter whose degrees of freedom include quarks and gluons, of which the prominent example is quark-gluon plasma. Several series of conferenc ...

Quadrupole ion trap A quadrupole ion trap or paul trap is a type of ion trap that uses dynamic electric fields to trap charged particles. They are also called radio frequency (RF) traps or Paul traps in honor of Wolfgang Paul, who invented the device and shared the ...

Quantum cascade laser Quantum-cascade lasers (QCLs) are semiconductor lasers that emit in the mid- to far-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and were first demonstrated by Jérôme Faist, Federico Capasso, Deborah Sivco, Carlo Sirtori, Albert Hutchinson, ...

Quark–gluon plasma Quark–gluon plasma (QGP) or quark soup is an interacting localized assembly of quarks and gluons at thermal (local kinetic) and (close to) chemical (abundance) equilibrium. The word ''plasma'' signals that free color charges are allowed. In a 1 ...

Quarkonium In particle physics, quarkonium (from quark and -onium, pl. quarkonia) is a flavorless meson whose constituents are a heavy quark and its own antiquark, making it both a neutral particle and its own antiparticle. Light quarks Light quarks ( ...

Quasar A quasar is an extremely Luminosity, luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is pronounced , and sometimes known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO. This emission from a galaxy nucleus is powered by a supermassive black hole with a m ...

Quasiparticle In physics, quasiparticles and collective excitations are closely related emergent phenomena arising when a microscopically complicated system such as a solid behaves as if it contained different weakly interacting particles in vacuum. For exa ...

R

Radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...

Radiation damage Radiation damage is the effect of ionizing radiation on physical objects including non-living structural materials. It can be either detrimental or beneficial for materials. Radiobiology is the study of the action of ionizing radiation on livin ...

Radical polymerization In polymer chemistry, free-radical polymerization (FRP) is a method of polymerization by which a polymer forms by the successive addition of free-radical building blocks ( repeat units). Free radicals can be formed by a number of different mechani ...

Radioactive waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, rare-earth mining, and nuclear weapons r ...

Radio atmospheric A radio atmospheric signal or sferic (sometimes also spelled "spheric") is a broadband electromagnetic impulse that occurs as a result of natural atmospheric lightning discharges. Sferics may propagate from their lightning source without major at ...

Radio galaxy A radio galaxy is a galaxy with giant regions of radio emission extending well beyond its visible structure. These energetic radio lobes are powered by jets from its active galactic nucleus. They have luminosities up to 1039 W at radio wa ...

Radio halo Radio halos are large-scale sources of diffuse radio emission found in the center of some, but not all, galaxy clusters.Feretti, L., and G. Swarup. "The Universe at Low Radio Frequencies." Proceedings of IAU Symposium. Vol. 199. 2002. There are t ...

Radio relics Radio Relics are diffuse synchrotron radio sources found in the peripheral regions of galaxy clusters. As in the case of radio halos, they do not have any obvious galaxy counterpart, but their shapes are much more elongated and irregular compar ...

Railgun A railgun or rail gun is a linear motor device, typically designed as a weapon, that uses Electromagnet, electromagnetic force to launch high velocity projectiles. The projectile normally does not contain explosives, instead relying on the proj ...

* Radio Aurora Explorer (RAX) *

Random phase approximation The random phase approximation (RPA) is an approximation method in condensed matter physics and in nuclear physics. It was first introduced by David Bohm and David Pines as an important result in a series of seminal papers of 1952 and 1953. For deca ...

Ray tracing (physics) In physics, ray tracing is a method for calculating the path of waves or particles through a system with regions of varying propagation velocity, absorption characteristics, and reflecting surfaces. Under these circumstances, wavefronts may bend, ...

Reactive-ion etching Reactive-ion etching (RIE) is an etching technology used in microfabrication. RIE is a type of dry etching which has different characteristics than wet etching. RIE uses chemically reactive plasma to remove material deposited on wafers. The pl ...

Reaction engine A reaction engine is an engine or motor that produces thrust by expelling reaction mass, in accordance with Newton's third law of motion. This law of motion is commonly paraphrased as: "For every action force there is an equal, but opposite, re ...

Rectifier A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC), which periodically reverses direction, to direct current (DC), which flows in only one direction. The reverse operation (converting DC to AC) is performed by an Power ...

, Plasma type *

Refractive index In optics, the refractive index (or refraction index) of an optical medium is a dimensionless number that gives the indication of the light bending ability of that medium. The refractive index determines how much the path of light is bent, or ...

Reionization In the fields of Big Bang theory and cosmology, reionization is the process that caused matter in the universe to reionize after the lapse of the " dark ages". Reionization is the second of two major phase transitions of gas in the universe (t ...

Relativistic beaming Relativistic beaming (also known as Doppler beaming, Doppler boosting, or the headlight effect) is the process by which relativistic effects modify the apparent luminosity of emitting matter that is moving at speeds close to the speed of li ...

Relativistic jet An astrophysical jet is an astronomical phenomenon where outflows of ionised matter are emitted as an extended beam along the axis of rotation. When this greatly accelerated matter in the beam approaches the speed of light, astrophysical jets bec ...

Relativistic particle A relativistic particle is a particle which moves with a relativistic speed; that is, a speed comparable to the speed of light. This is achieved by photons to the extent that effects described by special relativity are able to describe those of su ...

Relativistic plasma Relativistic plasmas in physics are plasmas for which relativistic corrections to a particle's mass and velocity are important. Such corrections typically become important when a significant number of electrons reach speeds greater than 0.86 c (Lo ...

Relativistic similarity parameter In relativistic laser-plasma physics the relativistic similarity parameter ''S'' is a dimensionless parameter defined as : S=\frac, where is the electron plasma density, is the critical plasma density and is the normalized vector potential. H ...

* Remote plasma-enhanced CVD * Resistive ballooning mode * Resolved sideband cooling * Resonant magnetic perturbations * Resonator mode * Reversed field pinch * Richtmyer–Meshkov instability * Riggatron * Ring current * Rocket engine nozzle * Runaway breakdown * Rydberg atom * Rydberg matter

S

* Safety factor (plasma physics) * Saha ionization equation * Sceptre (fusion reactor) * Scramjet * Screened Poisson equation * SEAgel, Safe Emulsion Agar gel * Selected-ion flow-tube mass spectrometry * Self-focusing * Sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe * Shielding gas * Shiva laser * Shiva Star * Shock diamond * Shocks and discontinuities (magnetohydrodynamics) * Shock wave, Oblique shock * Skin effect * Skip zone * Sky brightness * Skywave * Slapper detonator * Small Tight Aspect Ratio Tokamak * Solar cycle, Cosmic ray flux * Solar flare * Solar Orbiter, Radio and Plasma Wave analyser * Solar prominence * Solar transition region * Solar wind * Solenoid * Solution precursor plasma spray, Plasma plume * Sonoluminescence * South Atlantic Anomaly * Southern Hemisphere Auroral Radar Experiment * Space physics * Spacequake * Space Shuttle * Space Shuttle thermal protection system * Space tether missions * Spark-gap transmitter * Spark plasma sintering * Spaser * Spectral imaging * Spectral line * Spherical tokamak * Spheromak * Spinplasmonics * Spontaneous emission * Spreeta * Sprite (lightning) * Sputter cleaning * Sputter deposition * Sputtering * SSIES, Special Sensors-Ions, Electrons, and Scintillation thermal plasma analysis package * SST-1 (tokamak), Steady State Tokamak * Star * Star lifting * State of matter * Static forces and virtual-particle exchange * Stellarator * Stellar-wind bubble * St. Elmo's fire * Strahl (astronomy) * Strangeness production * Strontium vapor laser * Structure formation * Sudden ionospheric disturbance * Sun * SUNIST, Sino-UNIted Spherical Tokamak, Alfven wave current drive experiments in spherical tokamak plasmas * Superlens, Plasmon-assisted microscopy * Supernova * Supernova remnants * Sura Ionospheric Heating Facility * Surface-wave-sustained mode * Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy * Surface plasmon * Surface plasmon polaritons * Surface plasmon resonance * Suspension plasma spray * Synchrotron light source

T

* Taylor state * Teller–Ulam design, Foam plasma pressure * Tesla coil * Test particle, in plasma physics or electrodynamics * Thermal barrier coating * Thermalisation * Thermionic converter * Thermodynamic temperature * Thomson scattering * Thunder * Tokamak * Tokamak à configuration variable * Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor * Toroidal ring model * Townsend discharge * Townsend (unit) * Transformation optics * Transmission medium * Trisops, Force Free Plasma Vortices * Tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy * Tweeter, Plasma or Ion tweeter * Two-dimensional guiding-center plasma * Two-dimensional point vortex gas * Two-stream instability

U

* U-HID, Ultra High Intensity Discharge * UMIST linear system * Undulator * Upper hybrid oscillation * Upper-atmospheric lightning

V

* Vacuum arc, thermionic vacuum arc generates a pure metal and ceramic vapour plasma * Van Allen radiation belt * Vapor–liquid–solid method * Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket * Vector inversion generator * Versatile Toroidal Facility * Violet wand * Virial theorem * Vlasov equation * Volatilisation * VORPAL, Versatile Object-oriented Relativistic Plasma Analysis with Lasers * Voyager program, Plasma Wave Subsystem

W

* Warm dense matter * Wave equation * Waves in plasmas * Wave turbulence * Weibel instability * Wendelstein 7-X * Wiggler (synchrotron) * WIND (spacecraft) * Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle * Wireless energy transfer * Wouthuysen-Field coupling

X

* XANES, X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure * Xenon arc lamp * X-ray transient * X-ray astronomy * X-shaped radio galaxy

Y

Z

* Zakharov system * Zero-point energy * ZETA (fusion reactor) * Zonal and poloidal * Zonal flow (plasma) * Z Pulsed Power Facility

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plasma physics articles Physics-related lists Plasma physics, * Indexes of science articles Lists of topics, Plasma physics

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

See also

References