An Institute of Physics report | April 2012
UK Plasma Visions:
the state of the matter
Summary report prepared by the Institute of Physics Plasma Physics Group
This report was prepared by the Institute of Physics Plasma Physics Group
Dr Declan Diver
Chair of the IOP Plasma Physics Group
School of Physics & Astronomy
Kelvin Building
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ
Scotland, UK
Tel +44(0) 141 330 5686
Fax +44(0) 141 330 8600
E-mail declan.diver@glasgow.ac.uk
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A SUMMARY OF THE
PLASMA VISIONS REPORT
1 INTRODUCTION
The Plasma Visions report has the following objectives:
to describe the diverse and high-quality impact of plasma science on UK strategic
research and innovative technologies;
to engage the existing community in defining the new challenges that will sustain
excellence;
to emphasise the importance of wider engagement with other scientific disciplines;
to identify the general resources needed to meet the current and future challenges,
with increased creativity and ambition;
to communicate the excitement, adventure and value of plasma science to potential
researchers, policy makers, funders and the wider community.
The report was compiled in order to communicate the breadth of activity and ambition within
the plasma science community in the UK and to inform potential research collaborators,
funders and policy-makers. This summary encapsulates the essence of the full report, which
is available on the Institute of Physics (IOP) Plasma Physics Group webpage
(http://www.iop.org/activity/groups/subject/pla/index.html).
It is important to note that the
Plasma Visions report has not
been commissioned by the UK
research councils or any other
funding agency. Rather, it is a
plasma community expression,
coordinated by the IOP.
Commissioned documents such as
the US Decadal Report on Plasma
Science1 and the RCUK Fusion for
Energy Report2 are valuable
insights into research strategy and
funding, providing a very helpful
additional perspective.
An image of a typical plasma in the Mega Amp Spherical
Tokamak (MAST) fusion device at CCFE. © CCFE.
1
2
Plasma Science: Advancing Knowledge in the National Interest, ISBN 0-309-10944-2, 2007.
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/energy/20-yearvision.pdf.
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This report also seeks to identify where the
new challenges lie in the broad landscape
of plasma science. It addresses how
impact can be delivered in the medium
term (5–10 years), and how the capability
of plasma science can be expanded and
shaped to meet these new challenges,
building on the UK’s world-class role and
leadership in plasma science.
Breadth and impact of plasma science
Plasma science is a diverse and lively
research frontier, with a wide-ranging and
profound impact on UK strategic science,
engineering and industry. Almost uniquely
among the physical sciences, plasmas
embrace the full breadth of research
scope: fundamental science, future
technologies and disruptive technology.
The diversity of application of plasma
science is extraordinary: from
Orion2: Part of the amplifier chain for five of the
environmentally clean nuclear fusion power
ten ORION “long-pulse” beam lines. Each deplants to exacting and intricate surface
livers up to 500 J in 1 nano-second. The specific pulse shape of each may be individually varprocessing; from immensely energetic
ied to suit particular experiments.
photon-matter interactions in the laboratory
© British Crown Owned Copyright 2012/AWE
and space to delicate healing of wounds in
Published with the permission of the Controller
plasma medicine – the all-encompassing
of Her Britannic Majesty's Stationery Office.
scientific and societal impact of this truly
far-from-equilibrium state of matter is remarkable.
Key questions that drive plasma science
Plasma science is uniquely placed as a scientific pursuit to address fundamental challenging
science questions such as:
What happens to matter under extreme pressure and temperature?
How do partially ionised gaseous systems behave at extreme scale lengths (from the
very small to the astronomically large)?
What governs the capacity of plasma systems to self-organise, and interact with
surfaces, including biological material?
Can plasmas provide unique chemical environments for non-equilibrium processes?
How can any of these plasma conditions be produced, harnessed, modelled and
diagnosed?
These questions underpin a world-class research effort that ensures continuous high-quality
innovation, technical advance and first-rate scientific inquiry. Plasma science plays a key
part in shaping the strategic scientific capability of UK researchers, creating science leaders
for the future and developing innovative technological solutions to grand challenges ranging
from energy to healthcare.
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Examples of excellence in impact and ambition
Implicated in many of these grand challenges is the plasma medium. For example, the
interaction between high-power, short-pulse lasers and solid matter can produce extreme
densities and temperatures; magnetically confined fusion reactors create plasmas with
intense magnetic fields and temperatures; micro-discharges generate plasmas of such tiny
dimensions that they defy the normal hierarchy of scales for classical plasmas; biological
systems react in surprising ways to atmospheric plasma discharges, both directly and
indirectly, with major implications for life and healthcare; the electrodynamics of planetary
atmospheres (including the Earth) has a significant impact on their thermodynamics and
chemistry, from lightning storms to large-scale ionospheric disturbances that impact on
satellites: particularly when influenced in turn by solar plasma activity.
Moreover, plasma measurement in such hostile environments is extraordinarily demanding
and acts as a driver for the development of ever more innovative and sensitive
instrumentation. Very often such extreme conditions can occur on vastly different length
scales: from the nanoscale to the cosmic scale, transport in ionised gases plays a central
role in shaping the evolution of matter
from being far from equilibrium to
achieving a measure of stability. The
science and observation of such
transitions are critical to understanding
matter itself and how it might be
transformed into functional materials,
stable fusion power, controlled strongly
correlated systems or non-thermal gasphase chemistry.
Synopsis of UK Plasma Visions
The challenge of cataloguing such
multiplicity in application is significant:
plasma science makes so many
underpinning contributions to an array of
fundamental disciplines that often only
the major highlights are recognised as
true plasma activities. The Plasma
Visions report aims to meet this
challenge by recording the remarkable
variety of scientific endeavour that is at
the core of plasma research and
application, and by constructing a
holistic overview not just of activity but
also of imagination and aspiration.
Based on extensive community
consultation, this Plasma Visions report
presents a snapshot of the current active
research frontiers and how they might
evolve over the medium term. Such
Monster Prominence: When a rather large-sized
(M 3.6 class) flare occurred near the edge of the
Sun, it blew out a gorgeous, waving mass of erupting plasma that swirled and twisted over a 90minute period (Feb. 24, 2011). This event was captured in extreme ultraviolet light by NASA's Solar
Dynamics Observatory spacecraft. Image courtesy
of NASA SDO.
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visions are encapsulated in the articulation of the scientific challenges that delineate the
leading edges of research inquiry, together with an outline of the stratagems that will enable
them to be confronted successfully.
Current strengths of UK plasma science
The following description of the strengths of plasma science in the UK was offered by the
community:
The UK plasma science community currently contributes across the entire spectrum of
activity, embracing theory and experiment, low and high energy, and ultra-rapid transient
science to larger timescales associated with sustained reactor or astrophysical conditions.
The UK enjoys world-class facilities in the magnetic confinement fusion (MCF) field through
the Culham laboratory (Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, CCFE), in laser–plasma
interactions (LPI) through the Central Laser Facility (CLF) at the Rutherford Appleton
Laboratory (RAL), and in high-energy-density plasma activity at the Atomic Weapons
Establishment (AWE). Their scientists and engineers, along with university researchers
whose studies benefit from these facilities, are among the best in the world.
A key strength of this activity is the many close links to excellent university groups working in
MCF and LPI, particularly in Imperial College London, Oxford, Queen’s University Belfast
(QUB), Strathclyde, Warwick and York, with experimental work undertaken on large laser
systems at the CLF, RAL and at overseas facilities. Imperial College London, QUB and
Strathclyde have medium-to-large laser facilities that are mainly used for in-house laser–
plasma investigations. AWE operate a plasma physics group largely using lasers to underpin
the physics of nuclear weapons. AWE is constructing a new large laser system (Orion) for
plasma research. Magnetic fusion work has historically been almost totally concentrated at
the Culham laboratory but is now moving significantly into universities, with theoretical and
experimental research groups emerging at the universities of Oxford, Warwick and York.
Owing to the necessary size
of magnetic confinement
facilities, experimental work
is largely undertaken at the
Culham Science Centre,
where world-leading
facilities (MAST and JET3)
are being, or have recently
been, upgraded, to provide
international impact into the
next decade. Small-scale
magnetic confinement
devices such as the linear
plasma device at York can
be used to study particular
Atmospheric plasma discharges in air, using a variety of
circular electrodes. Image courtesy of Hugh Potts, Univerbasic plasma effects.
sity of Glasgow.
3
JET is hosted by CCFE on behalf of its European partners.
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The UK’s central laboratories also provide access to resources required for the study of
astrophysical and geophysical effects. Additionally located in the universities are strong
groups in low-temperature and astrophysical plasma research, including at Bristol, Glasgow,
Heriot-Watt, Liverpool, The Open University, QUB, Sheffield, St Andrews, Strathclyde,
Ulster, University of the West of Scotland, Warwick and York, with several of these
institutions combining astrophysical and geophysical plasma research in the same groups or
departments as laboratory plasma investigations. It is important to note that, whilst the
expertise and activity is world-class in the UK, much of the MCF, LPI, inertial confinement
fusion (ICF) and low-temperature experimental and theoretical plasma research is done in
collaboration with other world-class laboratories in the US, Europe and Asia.
Challenges across the plasma frontiers
The community has identified the following new challenges, amongst others, in a wide range
of plasma activity in no particular order of priority:
Underpinning the health and strength of UK plasma physics by securing trained staff.
Ensuring effective scientific interchange between all plasma scientists and engineers.
Preparing for, and studying, fusion physics in future fusion devices such as ITER.
Characterising in detail plasma-boundary physics, including tokamak edge physics.
Understanding surface evolution resulting from plasma impact, including
fragmentation.
Quantifying the precise causes and consequences of plasma turbulence.
Investigating the novel physics arising from focused laser irradiances >1023 W/cm2.
Achieving ignition in laser-induced inertial fusion.
Creating the next generation of high-energy particle accelerators using plasma
technology.
Investigating the complex interchange between discharge plasmas and liquids.
Creating novel pulsed-plasma sources for gas activation and ion beam generation.
Advancing the understanding of the physics of microplasma devices.
Understanding the reaction mechanisms that enable effective plasma medicine.
Harnessing specialist software that can be used for complex plasma modelling.
Creating the next generation of plasma measurement devices for extreme
environments.
Maximising the impact of plasmas across the range of industrial technologies and the
life sciences.
Strategies for meeting the challenges
The following suggested activities have been identified as appropriate to meet these
challenges: they are the community expression of the medium-term vision for plasma
science in the UK and are summarised in no particular order of priority:
Expand the pool of trained plasma scientists by (i) sustaining a comprehensive
doctoral training programme; (ii) investing in the research base and facilities to foster
career development and progression; (iii) maintaining sustainable diversity in
university plasma groups by more-effective links within the sector, and with research
facilities and industry.
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Promote effective interaction between all aspects of fusion and low-temperature
plasma science, for example in plasma source development for heating beams,
plasma-boundary interactions and complex plasmas.
Engage widely and fully with engineers, surface scientists, astrophysicists, life
scientists and industrial researchers to ensure the best possible advancement of
plasma science across the full range of applications.
Ensure that the UK has a world-class magnetic confinement device that will allow the
UK to maintain its global pre-eminence in MCF. Completing the MAST upgrade is an
essential step in this process.
Ensure strong UK participation in ITER, with preparatory studies on devices including
JET and MAST.
Develop detailed prototype MCF power-plant designs (DEMO) giving a clear route to
the realisation of fusion power.
Provide a new international standard magnetised plasma device for basic plasma
investigation, including stability, turbulence and surface interactions for applications
across space, technological plasmas and fusion.
Provide a dedicated long-pulse-capable 10 PW academic facility intermediate
between Orion and HiPER in order to strengthen the UK’s internationally leading
position in ICF and related research.
Create a dedicated high-repetition-rate laser facility (10 Hz, PW level) for laser-driven
particle accelerator research and applications.
Create the next generation of high-energy plasma accelerators based on plasma
technology.
Create a new low-temperature plasma facility that could draw together scientists and
engineers from a wide range of applications covering surface science, gas and liquidphase chemistry, and plasma medicine.
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2 BREADTH AND IMPACT OF PLASMA SCIENCE
Plasma science is a multidisciplinary research area with an extraordinarily broad impact.
Although the mainstream plasma areas are readily identified as fusion (both magnetic and
inertial confinement), laser–plasma interactions and low-temperature (or technological)
plasmas, plasma science is often a key component of many other disciplines, including
surface physics, spectroscopy, astrophysics, biophysics, nanoscience and space science. In
order to bring out the influence of plasma science in these many contexts, the following subsections provide details of the breadth of plasma science and its impacts on scientific
publications, research funding and commercial activity.
2.1 OVERVIEW OF PLASMA SCIENCE PUBLICATION DATA
The impact of plasma science in the general scientific literature is substantial. Whilst there
are clearly identified specialist journals that are either wholly dedicated to plasma science or
that have plasma science as a major sub-theme, there is also a host of less obvious serials
in which plasma science articles form a significant proportion of the total published output.
The aim of this section is to quantify
this diverse impact by highlighting
the range and frequency of relevant
publications based on plasma
science. For consistency, all figures
are taken from the ISI database for
the year 2009, in order that
published article figures are relevant
for the same year as the latest
citation index data are published.
The Thomson Reuters ISI database
of published articles (known also as
Web of Knowledge) can be
interrogated in terms of subject area, The state-of-the-art broad-band laser developed to seed
geographical location of the authors
the VULCAN 10PW upgrade in its development laboratory
at the CLF. Image Courtesy of STFC's Central Laser
and citation statistics (among other
Facility.
criteria).
Figure 1 shows the distribution of plasma science articles across traditional subject areas.
The data show that the number of published articles with plasma science content is 7,239:
4% of the total novel published content across Physics, Astronomy and Engineering for 2009
(figure 2). Comprehensive details of the journals used in this summary are available in the
full report.
The quality of the journals publishing plasma articles is also high: the average impact factor
data show that journals carrying plasma articles have a significantly higher impact factor
than those that do not (note that average here means the average overall 2009 impact
factor). Journals carrying plasma articles have an average impact factor of 3.4, which
compares well with the average impact factor of all physics journals (2.2) and all engineering
journals (1.2). This data can be found in section 4 of the full report.
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For journals with an identified plasma sub-theme, plasma articles account for 12% of all
articles published in such journals (figure 3). Moreover, the US and UK together account for
one-third of all published plasma articles, with the UK alone accounting for 9% of the total
global output (figure 4).
In summary, it is evident that peer-reviewed research on plasma science contributes
significantly to the total scholarly world output in science and engineering; the journals that
carry such articles have uniformly better impact factors than the subject-area averages; and
finally, the UK contribution to plasma science publications is more than one-third of the total
US plasma science output. These three key conclusions demonstrate that UK plasma
science is significantly influential in global terms.
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2.2 SUMMARY OF RCUK AND GOVERNMENT FUNDING
The profile of research council funding since 2006 for plasma, materials, engineering, lasers,
biomedical, astrophysical, etc., all relevant to the above areas, covering EPSRC,
PPARC/STFC, NERC, BBSRC and charities, is given here. Full details are available in the
full report.
Plasma science has attracted funding across all research councils and research areas.
Grant awards in plasma science areas since 2006 (i.e. the last five years) reflect the
diversity of impact of plasma science. In the recent EPSRC Landscapes document,4
Plasmas, Lasers and Optics as a single entity within the Physical Sciences Programme was
identified as accounting for 10% of the total programme spend, amounting in value to
£30.7m. However, considerable plasma science content is funded across programmes and
themes, a fact that is recognised in the Landscapes documents themselves but not
quantified: in many cases, the databases available on the web contain very useful subclassifications that help to characterise the diversity of funded research, but unfortunately
grants can be classified under several areas, leading to misleading funding sub-totals.
In order to expose the interdisciplinary nature of plasma science, the following data have
been compiled from the Grants on the Web databases across all the research councils and
show the cumulative value of the grants awarded in the last five years (since 2006) in areas
linked to plasma science. Full listings of the individual grants are available in section 13 of
the full report; every possible effort has been taken to avoid duplication of grant counting
across disciplinary boundaries. These figures show how pervasive plasma science is across
the physical sciences and engineering.
4
EPSRC Landscapes 2009 can be found at http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/research/landscapes/
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Differences in the nature of the grants schemes, and the classification criteria, mean that it is
impractical to offer the same level of detailed breakdown as in EPSRC for all other research
councils and funders.
Note that the EPSRC figures exclude the facility cost of CCFE (see section 13 of the full
report for details).
2.3 INDUSTRIAL IMPACT OF PLASMA SCIENCE
It is apparent that there are no simple metrics of the direct impact of plasma industrial or
commercial activity on the UK economy. However, there are global market data available
that are strongly related to the plasma sector and convey to some extent the significance of
plasma activity in the strategically vital high-tech component of UK economic activity.
For example, BCC Research5 estimate the following sizes of relevant market sectors:
PVD (physical vapour deposition): $14.8bn by 2013;
thin film materials: $14.9bn by 2016, with sputtering and ionic deposition accounting
for $7.5bn of that market by 2016;
nanotechnology: $2.6 trillion by 2016;
advanced materials: $38bn in total by 2016;
ozone treatments: $838m by 2016.
Moreover, the latest UK government forecasts for UK economic activity6 predict huge market
opportunities by the middle of the 2020s: $100bn for nanomaterials, £150–350bn for
industrial biotechnology and £100–150bn for plastic electronics: all markets in which plasma
technology can and does play a major role. The UK government forecasts also lay out key
messages that reinforce the need to strengthen and develop plasma science innovation in
the UK: “...strong opportunities for growth in the UK economy through the 2020s if
businesses can harness scientific and industrial capabilities to take advantage of
5
BCC Research is a market information supplier: www.bccresearch.com
Technology and Innovation Futures: UK Growth Opportunities for the 2020s
www.bis.gov.uk/foresight/publications
6
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technology-enabled transformations in manufacturing...”; “Industry, SMEs and research
organisations should be encouraged to work together to develop their own strategies and
roadmaps...”. The Plasma Visions report attempts to advance these initiatives by providing
an industrial context to plasma activity in the UK to accompany the research-institution data,
and so help promote exchange and co-operation.
3 SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SOURCES
The documents listed below provide valuable supplementary information relevant to this
report:
Further information on the CCFE programme can be found at http://www.ccfe.ac.uk/
including the Annual Reports http://www.ccfe.ac.uk/annual_reports.aspx.
Details on the EURATOM fusion programme are available at
http://ec.europa.eu/research/energy/euratom/fusion/at-a-glance/index_en.htm.
RCUK report on Energy for a Low Carbon Future can be found at
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/documents/energy/20-yearvision.pdf.
AWE annual reports and policies can be found at
http://www.awe.co.uk/publications.html.
CLF annual reports can be found at http://www.clf.rl.ac.uk/Publications/12000.aspx.
The BIS Foresight report on technology and innovation futures can be found at
http://www.bis.gov.uk/foresight/our-work/horizon-scanning-centre/technology-andinnovation-futures.
4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The compilation of the Plasma Visions report was undertaken by the IOP Plasma Physics
Group Committee, the membership of which is as follows:
Dr R Bamford, STFC
Prof. J Bradley, University of Liverpool
Dr D A Diver, Chair, University of Glasgow
Dr P Johnson, The Open University
Dr S D Pinches, Culham Centre for Fusion Energy
Dr R Kingham, Imperial College London
Dr D O’Connell, University of York (formerly of QUB)
Dr A Robinson, STFC (Hon. Treasurer, April 2011–)
Dr K Ronald, University of Strathclyde (co-opted, 2010–11)
Dr L Upcraft, Hon. Secretary, AWE
Dr R Vann, University of York
Dr E Verwichte, University of Warwick
Dr T Whitmore, Henniker Scientific (until April 2010)
Dr N Woolsey, Hon. Treasurer, University of York (until April 2011)
Dr A R Young, University of Strathclyde
Assistance from IOP via Tajinder Panesor, Claire Copeland and Sophie Robinson is also
gratefully acknowledged.
Additional insight and advice from Prof. N S Braithwaite, Dr J Collier, Prof. S Cowley, Prof.
W G Graham, Dr T Hender, Prof. P Maguire, Prof. A D R Phelps, Dr A Randewich, Prof. S
Rose and Prof. H Wilson have been instrumental in compiling this report.
UK Plasma Visions:
the state of the matter
Summary report prepared by the Institute of Physics Plasma Physics Group
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