Physics researchers make new discovery

FAMU distinguished professor of science and engineering, Joseph A. Johnson, III, along with Stephen Roberson and Charlemagne Akpovo, both of FAMU, have found the first evidence of turbulent behavior in ionized gases which have a lifetime of less than 100 nanoseconds.

Laser induced plasmas in nitrogen, argon, xenon, neon and krypton were studied using measuring speeds at rates in excess of 10 x109 per second. Turbulent flow fluctuations, which influence mixing on such short-time scales, will cause dramatic changes in applications, such as ion implantation in semiconductors. Such fluctuations will drastically change the reaction dynamics in the synthesis of new nano-materials. Furthermore, computations and modeling for the molecular dynamics in nanotechnology must now include new physics driven by turbulence in order to correctly predict the manufacturing processes.

Their paper on this research has been accepted for publication in an upcoming 2008 issue of the Journal of Applied Physics published by the American Institute of Physics.