Richard J. Temkin (born 8 January 1945) is a plasma physicist and researcher on plasma-heating gyrotrons and other electromagnetic devices involving high-powered microwaves or terahertz radiation. [1]
Temkin received a bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1966 and a Ph.D.from MIT in 1971, supervised by Benjamin Lax and Paul M. Raccah with thesis Experimental charge density of copper. [2]
Dr. Temkin has served as a senior research scientist in the MIT Physics Department since 1985, [3] and as the associate director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) since 1998. [4] He is also the division head for the PSFC's Waves and Beams Division. Awards received include the IEEE Plasma Science and Applications Award (2013); [5] Exceptional Service Award of the International Society of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (2011); [6] the Robert L. Woods Award of the U. S. Department of Defense for Vacuum Electronics, the Certificate of Recognition from the IEEE Electron Device Society, and the Kenneth J. Button Prize and Medal from the Institute of Physics. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, IEEE, and the Institute of Physics. [1]
Terahertz radiation – also known as submillimeter radiation, terahertz waves, tremendously high frequency (THF), T-rays, T-waves, T-light, T-lux or THz – consists of electromagnetic waves within the ITU-designated band of frequencies from 0.3 to 3 terahertz (THz), although the upper boundary is somewhat arbitrary and is considered by some sources as 30 THz. One terahertz is 1012 Hz or 1000 GHz. Wavelengths of radiation in the terahertz band correspondingly range from 1 mm to 0.1 mm = 100 µm. Because terahertz radiation begins at a wavelength of around 1 millimeter and proceeds into shorter wavelengths, it is sometimes known as the submillimeter band, and its radiation as submillimeter waves, especially in astronomy. This band of electromagnetic radiation lies within the transition region between microwave and far infrared, and can be regarded as either.
A metamaterial is any material engineered to have a property that is rarely observed in naturally occurring materials. They are made from assemblies of multiple elements fashioned from composite materials such as metals and plastics. These materials are usually arranged in repeating patterns, at scales that are smaller than the wavelengths of the phenomena they influence. Metamaterials derive their properties not from the properties of the base materials, but from their newly designed structures. Their precise shape, geometry, size, orientation and arrangement gives them their smart properties capable of manipulating electromagnetic waves: by blocking, absorbing, enhancing, or bending waves, to achieve benefits that go beyond what is possible with conventional materials.
The Levitated Dipole Experiment (LDX) was an experiment investigating the generation of fusion power using the concept of a levitated dipole. The device was the first of its kind to test the levitated dipole concept and was funded by the US Department of Energy. The machine was also part of a collaboration between the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center and Columbia University, where another (non-levitated) dipole experiment, the Collisionless Terrella Experiment (CTX), was located.
Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) results from transferring spin polarization from electrons to nuclei, thereby aligning the nuclear spins to the extent that electron spins are aligned. Note that the alignment of electron spins at a given magnetic field and temperature is described by the Boltzmann distribution under the thermal equilibrium. It is also possible that those electrons are aligned to a higher degree of order by other preparations of electron spin order such as: chemical reactions, optical pumping and spin injection. DNP is considered one of several techniques for hyperpolarization. DNP can also be induced using unpaired electrons produced by radiation damage in solids.
A gyrotron is a class of high-power linear-beam vacuum tubes that generates millimeter-wave electromagnetic waves by the cyclotron resonance of electrons in a strong magnetic field. Output frequencies range from about 20 to 527 GHz, covering wavelengths from microwave to the edge of the terahertz gap. Typical output powers range from tens of kilowatts to 1–2 megawatts. Gyrotrons can be designed for pulsed or continuous operation. The gyrotron was invented by Soviet scientists at NIRFI, based in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.
Narrow-gap semiconductors are semiconducting materials with a magnitude of bandgap that is smaller than 0.5 eV, which corresponds to an infrared absorption cut-off wavelength over 2.5 micron. A more extended definition includes all semiconductors with bandgaps smaller than silicon. Modern terahertz, infrared, and thermographic technologies are all based on this class of semiconductors.
Alcator C-Mod was a tokamak 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 field, Alcator C-Mod holds the world record for volume averaged plasma pressure in a magnetically confined fusion device. Until its shutdown in 2016, it was one of the major fusion research facilities in the United States.
Terahertz tomography is a class of tomography where sectional imaging is done by terahertz radiation. Terahertz radiation is electromagnetic radiation with a frequency between 0.1 and 10 THz; it falls between radio waves and light waves on the spectrum; it encompasses portions of the millimeter waves and infrared wavelengths. Because of its high frequency and short wavelength, terahertz wave has a high signal-to-noise ratio in the time domain spectrum. Tomography using terahertz radiation can image samples that are opaque in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum. Terahertz wave three-dimensional (3D) imaging technology has developed rapidly since its first successful application in 1997, and a series of new 3D imaging technologies have been proposed successively.
The IEEE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award is a Technical Field Award that was established by the IEEE Board of Directors in 2008. This award may be presented for outstanding contributions to the field of nuclear and plasma sciences and engineering. This award may be presented to an individual, individuals on a team, or up to three multiple recipients. Recipients of this award receive a bronze medal, certificate, and honorarium. This award was presented for the first time in 2011.
A graphene antenna is a high-frequency antenna based on graphene, a one atom thick two dimensional carbon crystal, designed to enhance radio communications. The unique structure of graphene would enable these enhancements. Ultimately, the choice of graphene for the basis of this nano antenna was due to the behavior of electrons.
Direct energy conversion (DEC) or simply direct conversion converts a charged particle's kinetic energy into a voltage. It is a scheme for power extraction from nuclear fusion.
The ARC fusion reactor is a design for a compact fusion reactor developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC). ARC aims to achieve an engineering breakeven of three. The key technical innovation is to use high-temperature superconducting magnets in place of ITER's low-temperature superconducting magnets. The proposed device would be about half the diameter of the ITER reactor and cheaper to build.
Benjamin Lax was a solid-state and plasma physicist.
Kenneth John Button was a solid-state and plasma physicist. He was the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Infrared and Millimeter Waves from its inception in 1980 until his resignation in 2004.
SPARC is a tokamak under development by Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC). Funding has come from Eni, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Temasek, Equinor, Devonshire Investors, and others.
Alexander Benjamin Barnes is an American chemist. Educated at Whitman College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he has taught at Washington University in St. Louis and ETH Zurich.
The Compact Toroidal Hybrid (CTH) is an experimental device at Auburn University that uses magnetic fields to confine high-temperature plasmas. CTH is a torsatron type of stellarator with an external, continuously wound helical coil that generates the bulk of the magnetic field for containing a plasma.
Phillip A. Sprangle is an American physicist who specializes in the applications of plasma physics. He is known for his work involving the propagation of high-intensity laser beams in the atmosphere, the interaction of ultra-short laser pulses from high-power lasers with matter, nonlinear optics and nonlinear plasma physics, free electron lasers, and lasers in particle acceleration.
Ambrogio Fasoli is a researcher and professor working in the field of fusion and plasma physics. A Fellow of the American Physical Society, he is Director of the Swiss Plasma Center, located at EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland. Since 1 January 2019, he chairs the European consortium EUROfusion, the umbrella organisation for the development of nuclear fusion power in Europe.
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