VACUUM-ARC PLASMA CENTRIFUGE EXPERIMENT

The authors describe the vacuum-arc plasma centrifuge developed at the Institute for Space Research (INPE) in Brazil. The experiment is characterized by its relatively small dimensions. Angular rotation frequencies in the range of 1.9 × 105 rad/s to 3.5 × 105 rad/s, measured with Langmuir probes, are presented for a magnesium plasma. Enrichments of 15% for 25Mg and 26% for 26Mg were measured with a quadrupole mass spectrometer. The dependence of magnesium isotope enrichments upon the magnetic field is also presented. It is noted that the existence of an optimum value for the B field is important for future scaling laws of plasma centrifuges.