Metal ion plasma generation under strong magnetic field in microwave resonator

Abstract

In many conventional plasma generation methods, a strong electric field is applied to a gas or liquid to generate plasma. In addition, metal oxides such as rare earth minerals and metals require enormous amounts of energy for their reduction reactions. In this paper, we propose a method of directly exciting the plasma from Mg and Ca metal solids, without gas or liquid, using a strong magnetic field and stabilizing it. Electrons and atoms are emitted by the induced current in a resonator operated in the TM110 mode; these electrons and atoms are generated as plasma in a magnetic field. The resonance frequency is then changed slightly from the TM110 mode to the TM111 mode while being limited to ∼40 MHz, ensuring that the microwave energy is supplied stably to the plasma and that light is emitted until the raw material is exhausted. The radicals and ions of the Mg and Ca metals possess sufficient Gibbs free energy for the reduction reactions and can therefore reduce scandium oxide and vanadium oxide at low temperatures. In the future, radicals with sufficient energy can be implemented in energy-saving processes in the field of materials processing.