RESEARCH

Research Experience

P-4 Thermonuclear Plasma Physics, Los Alamos National Laboratory (2024-present)

Scientist

Facility: Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX)

• Investigating liner formation and scaling in parameter space with various numbers of guns and plasma jets.

• Studying the target plasma parameters, such as plasma density and magnetic field strength, using a varying number of magnetized plasma guns (ranging from 2 to 6).

• Performing tests, using deuterium target, to determine methods to achieve com- pressed temperatures of at least 100 eV.

P-4 Thermonuclear Plasma Physics, Los Alamos National Laboratory (2020-2024)

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Facility: Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX)

• Building experimental platform (plasma guns, Thomson scattering, etc.) to validate the state-of-the-art plasma viscosity models currently implemented in LANL’s Eulerian hydrocodes used to simulate inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosions.

• Developing a multi-camera imaging diagnostic to characterize jet speed for PLX.

• Investigating formation of plasmas with tangled magnetic fields as target plasma for plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion (PJMIF) at the Big Red Ball (BRB) Facility at Wisconsin Plasma Physics Laboratory (WiPPL).

• Investigated ion diffusion coefficients and heating in a multi-ion-species plasma shock produced by head-on merging of supersonic plasma jets.

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa (2018-2020)

Postdoctoral Research Scholar

Mentor: Professor Donald A. Gurnett and Jasper S. Halekas

• Investigating the wave-particle interaction and ion heating caused by reflected par- ticles over lunar magnetic anomalies using ARTEMIS data.

• Investigatingthesolarwindinteractionandpressurebalanceatthedaysideionopause of Mars.

• Investigated the effects of crustal magnetic fields and solar EUV flux on ionopause formation at Mars through the Mars Express radar sounder (MARSIS).

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa (2011-2018)

Graduate Research Assistant

Advisor: Professor Frederick N. Skiff

My research interests involve experiments and simulations on plasma waves and instabilities, laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) diagnostics of plasmas, and Lagrangian model for LIF measurements of plasma ion temperature and electrostatic waves.

• Investigated metastable ion lifetime and production history using wave-particle interaction and laser-induced fluorescence in a plasma.

• Developed a Lagrangian model for laser-induced fluorescence measurements of plasma ion temperature and electrostatic waves. Experimentally investigated this model in an unmagnetized and weakly collisional Argon plasma.

• Designed a Langmuir probe control and data acquisition system. It includes a LabVIEW interface, 2 stepper motors and a Keithley sourcemeter. The automated system translates or rotates the probe to the designated positions specified by the user through the stepper motors, and the sourcemeter sweeps the biased voltage on the probe to create I-V traces. The LabVIEW program then analyzes these data and writes the plasma parameters into a file on the computer.

• Investigated nonlinear wave-wave interactions using polyspectral analysis through external wave excitation.

• Designed a vacuum system control center for plasma experiments. This not only makes control of the pumps and valves easier, but also protects the vacuum system from operator error and power failure.

Ph.D. Thesis: Validation of a Lagrangian Model for Laser-Induced Fluorescence

Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China (2007-2009)

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Advisor: Professor Jinxiu Ma

B.S. Thesis: Construction of a Dusty Plasma Apparatus and Plasma State Diagnosis

Research Interests

• Plasma Physics

• Laser Spectroscopy

• Computational Physics

• Space Physics

• Plasma-Jet-Driven Magneto-Inertial Fusion (PJMIF)

Funding

• Target Formation and Integrated Experiments for PJMIF

Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (DOE ARPA-E)

Principal Investigator, 2025-2027, $1,200,000 total funding

• Experimental Investigation of Heat Transport in Plasmas with Tangled Magnetic Fields

DOE Fusion Energy Sciences

Principal Investigator, 2024-2026, $140,000 total funding

• Validation of Plasma Viscosity Models and Transition to Turbulence

LANL Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD)

Principal Investigator, 2024-2027, $1,101,000 total funding

• Inverse Problem of Self-Shadowgraphy Effects in Imaging of Plasma Shocks and Instabilities

LANL Center for Nonlinear Studies (CNLS)

Principal Investigator, July-September 2022, $62,500 total funding

• Resolving Transport Processes in Multispecies Plasma Shock Waves

LANL Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD)

Co-PI, 2020-2022, $436,000 total funding

Government Service

• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

     Solar System Workings Proposal Review Panelist, 2020.

• US Department of Energy (DOE)

     Proposal Reviewer, 2021.

Professional Service

• Member of American Physical Society (APS), Division of Plasma Physics

• Member of American Geophysical Union (AGU)

• Member of European Geosciences Union (EGU)

• Member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

• Session Chair (64th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics in Spokane, WA, 2022)

• Session Chair (51st IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science, Beijing, China, 16-20 June, 2024)

Journal Referee

• Physics of Plasmas

• Journal of Plasma Physics

• Review of Scientific Instruments

• Journal of Instrumentation

• AIP Advances

• Geophysical Research Letters

• Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets

• Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics

• Earth, Planets and Space

Outreach

• Presented the Iowa Planeterrella at the 60th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics in Portland, OR, 2018

• Served as a judge for 2022 Los Alamos National Laboratory Student Symposium in Los Alamos, NM, 2022.