Plasma, the hot ionized gas that fuels fusion reactions, can also create super-small particles used in everything from pharmaceuticals to tennis racquets. These nanoparticles, which measure billionths of a meter in size, can revolutionize fields from electronics to energy supply, but scientists must first determine how best to produce them.

After more than two years of planning and construction, PPPL has opened a major new facility to explore ways to optimize plasma for the production of such particles. Exploration of plasma as a synthesizing agent is a natural development for PPPL, the only national laboratory dedicated to research in fusion energy and plasma science.

The new collaborative facility, called the “Laboratory for Plasma Nanosynthesis,” is nearly three times the size of the original PPPL nanolab, which remains in operation, and launches a new era in PPPL research on plasma nanosynthesis. Experiments and simulations that could lead to new methods for creating high-quality nanomaterials at relatively low cost can now proceed at an accelerated pace.

The facility will host a number of different experiments using advanced diagnostics to observe nanosynthesis as the experiments take place. “We should be able to simultaneously characterize and correlate the plasma and nanosynthesis processes,” said physicist Yevgeny Raitses, who heads the new laboratory. “This will help take our research to the very top level needed for fundamental studies in this interdisciplinary field.” All research will be conducted under the aegis of the Plasma Science and Technology Department, headed by physicist Philip Efthimion.