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This article presents a method to estimate the rotational velocity of a cylindrical plasma from its two-dimensional images by an extended use of the Fourier-rectangular function transform, which was proposed to analyze the structure and dynamics of a cylindrical plasma [K. Yamasaki e t a l., J. Appl. Phys. 126 , 043304 (2019)]. The proposed method is applied to tomography images of plasmas produced in a linear cylindrical device and succeeds in obtaining the radial distribution of rotational velocity and its fluctuations, providing an interesting finding, that is, the existence of flow modulation associated with m = 1 mode fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fourier-rectangular function (FRF) transform [K. Yamasaki et al., J. Appl. Phys. 126, 043304 (2019)] is used to analyze the structure and dynamics of plasma with cylindrical symmetry. In this article, a new technique based on FRF transform is proposed to elucidate the polarization characteristics of azimuthal modes and fluctuations. The application results are shown for a two-dimensional tomography image of linear cylindrical plasma. The method successfully resolves the polarization characteristics of azimuthal modes and attributes the intermittent behavior of the m = 1 mode to its polarization characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis method is developed for imaging measurement systems, such as the tomography system or fast camera imaging, in order to extract the spatial structure properties of fluctuation. In this analysis method, rectangular functions and Fourier series are adopted for the basis functions of the radial and azimuthal coordinates, respectively. The examples of this analysis method show that this method is useful for quantifying the spatial structure of the 2D image such as the radial profile of the power and the rotation angle of each azimuthal mode. The method proposed in this article allows us to elucidate the features of the 2D spatial structure of phenomena in magnetized plasma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A heavy ion beam probe (HIBP) has been designed for the QUEST spherical tokamak to measure plasma turbulence and the profiles of electric potential profiles. Using a cesium ion beam with an energy of several 10 keV, the observable region covers most of the upper half of the plasma. Although the probe beam is deflected by the poloidal magnetic field produced by plasma current and poloidal coil currents, it can be detected under plasma current up to 150 kA by modifying the trajectories with two electrostatic sweepers. According to the numerical estimation of the intensity of the detected beam, sufficient signal intensity for measuring plasma turbulence can be obtained over almost the measurable area when the electron density is up to 1 × 1019 m−3, which is larger than the cut-off density of electron cyclotron heating in QUEST. The performance of the designed HIBP is sufficient to explore the mechanisms of heat and particle transport in magnetically confined plasmas, including the influence of plasma wall interactions, which is a goal of the QUEST project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the experimental identification of the dynamic interaction between three fluctuations excited by different thermodynamical forces in a linear plasma. The observed fluctuations are characterized as an axial symmetric mode, a drift wave, and an azimuthally symmetric potential fluctuation from the spatiotemporal structures measured with Langmuir probe arrays. The intermittent burst of the axial symmetric mode is observed by the instantaneous wave number spectrum. The energy transfer analysis revealed that the axially symmetric mode gains energy from the other mode during the burst while the drift wave loses energy. The intermittent burst synchronizes with the azimuthal symmetric potential fluctuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy ion beam probe (HIBP) systems have been designed for the new tokamak, PLATO [A. Fujisawa, AIP Conf. Proc. 1993, 020011 (2018)]. The designs have been completed, and the installations are in progress. Two HIBPs are being installed in toroidal sections 180° apart to investigate long-range correlations in the toroidal direction. Each HIBP consists of an injection beamline and a detection beamline as usual. Yet, one of the HIBPs is equipped with an additional detection beamline; the measurement positions of its two detection beamlines can be placed on almost the same magnetic surface yet at poloidal angles that differ by ∼180°. The use of three detection beamlines allows us to investigate spatial asymmetry and long-range correlations in both the toroidal and poloidal directions, simultaneously. The detected beam intensity is expected to be enough for turbulence measurements in almost the entire plasma region when the electron density is up to 1 × 1019 m−3 by selecting appropriate ion species for the probe beam. Each detector has three channels 10 mm apart, allowing measurement of local structures of micro-scale turbulence. Therefore, using the HIBPs on the PLATO tokamak will enable both local and global properties of plasma turbulence to be investigated, simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We experimentally investigate the roles of drift wave type fluctuations interacting with zonal flow. The drift wave type fluctuations examined in this paper are characterized by nonlinear solitary wave, splash, and solitary eddy [Arakawa et al., Sci. Rep. 6, 33371 (2016)]. Compared to the nonlinear solitary wave, splash has a short lifetime, while solitary eddy has a long lifetime. Excitation/damping of the splash and the solitary eddy are synchronized with zonal perturbation. The roles of the splash and the solitary eddy in transport processes are also discussed. Solitary eddy contributes to momentum transport and accelerates zonal flow. The particle flux driven by the solitary eddy and the splash is in the inward and outward directions, respectively, with similar magnitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The streamer-driven particle flux is evaluated experimentally in a linear cylindrical plasma. The streamers, a radially elongated and azimuthally localized structure created in turbulent plasma, really induce ballistic transport, and directly connect the plasma core to the edge within one order faster time scale than that of turbulence. The occurrence of large transport deviates from a Gaussian distribution and is likely to obey a power law. The fundamental plasma experiment clearly shows the significant and essential contributions of streamers to cross-field transport and structural formation of turbulent plasmas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We constructed a new apparatus, built upon a trap-based slow positron beam, for the production of a collimated, energy-tunable positronium beam under ultra-high vacuum conditions employing the photodetachment of positronium negative ions. A slow positron generator consisting of a 22Na radioisotope (20 mCi) combined with a buffer-gas positron trap is employed to generate high-quality, nano-second positron bursts with a repetition rate of 1 Hz–1 kHz. The positron bursts are focused onto an efficient positron-to-positronium negative ion converter, a Na-coated W thin film in a transmission geometry, using a magnetic lens system. The ions emitted from the opposite surface of the film are electrostatically accelerated to a given energy and photodetached by a pulsed infrared laser to form a mono-energetic positronium beam with kinetic energies of 0.2 keV–3.3 keV. The achieved detection rate of Ps atoms is 23 cps at the energy of 3.3 keV with a signal-to-background ratio as high as 300. The energy spread of the beam was evaluated by comparing the result of the time-of-flight measurements and particle-tracking simulations. With the use of a collimator of 1 mm diameter, a coherent beam with an angular divergence of less than 0.3° is obtained. The obtained Ps beam, having a much higher quality than those reported hitherto, will open up a new field of experimental investigations, such as Ps interacting with a variety of materials and fundamental studies on Ps spectroscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plasma turbulence tomography is now working to show a two dimensional structure and dynamics of plasma turbulence in a cylindrical plasma device, PANTA. A new method, the Stokes parameter analysis on moment vectors, is being developed to treat the image of plasma turbulence and extract hidden characteristics of polarization or rotation of spatial patterns created in turbulent plasmas. The article presents the explanation of the method and the application results obtained from a PANTA plasma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A tomography system is developed for observing local fluctuations, pursuing higher spatial resolution, over the entire plasma of a linear cylindrical plasma. The system is equipped with totally 126 lines-of-sight that are distributed equally to six sets of light guide arrays placed around the plasma. The system has succeeded in measuring the two-dimensional structure of plasma emission and resolving coherent fluctuation structures, with spatial resolution comparable to the ion Larmor radius. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streamers and their mediator have been known to exist in linear cylindrical plasmas [Yamada et al., Nat. Phys. 4, 721 (2008)]. Conditional averaging is applied to extract the nonlinear characteristics of a mediator, which has been simply treated as a linear wave. This paper reports that a mediator should have higher harmonic components generated by self-couplings, and the envelope of a streamer should be generated with not only fundamental but also higher harmonic components of the mediator. Moreover, both the mediator and the envelope of the streamer have common features with solitary waves, i.e., the height should increase inversely as the square of their localization width. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topological bifurcation of the flow in non-equilibrium magnetized plasmas is demonstrated by a turbulence simulation. A system with two generic sources of turbulence, the gradients of density and parallel flow, is considered. Topological index of the flow is introduced, in order to indicate the chirality of flow pattern. We here report that the turbulence-driven flow forms the structure of co-axial helixes with opposite chirality. By changing the source of plasma particles, which modifies the density gradient, the transition between three turbulent states is obtained. In addition to the two turbulent states, which are dominated by the drift wave and the D'Angelo mode, respectively, the new state is found. In this third state, fluctuations are driven by both of the free energy sources simultaneously and compete with the others. The result illustrates the generic feature of turbulence flow generation in non-equilibrium magnetized plasmas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a critical issue to find the best set of fitting function bases in mode structural analysis of two dimensional images like plasma emission profiles. The paper proposes a method to optimize a set of the bases in the case of Fourier-Bessel function series, using their orthonormal property, for more efficient and precise analysis. The method is applied on a tomography image of plasma emission obtained with the Maximum-likelihood expectation maximization method in a linear cylindrical device. The result demonstrates the excellency of the method that realizes the smaller residual error and minimum Akaike information criterion using smaller number of fitting function bases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After several experimental campaigns in the Kyushu University Experiment with Steady-state Spherical Tokamak (QUEST), the originally stainless steel plasma-facing wall (PFW) becomes completely covered with a deposited film composed of mixture materials, such as iron, chromium, carbon, and tungsten. In this work, an innovative colorimetry-based method was developed to measure the thickness of the deposited film on the actual QUEST wall. Because the optical constants of the deposited film on the PFW were position-dependent and the extinction coefficient k1 was about 1.0–2.0, which made the probing light not penetrate through some thick deposited films, the colorimetry method developed can only provide a rough value range of thickness of the metal-containing film deposited on the actual PFW in QUEST. However, the use of colorimetry is of great benefit to large-area inspections and to radioactive materials in future fusion devices that will be strictly prohibited from being taken out of the limited area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measurements of edge plasma parameters such as current density, electron density, and electron temperature were performed during internal reconnection events in TST-2 Ohmic plasmas. The measured current density consists of two components: a slowly varying component and a spiky bipolar component. The magnitude of the slowly varying component is comparable to the mean current density averaged over the poloidal cross section, and it seems to represent the global transport from the core to the edge. The spiky bipolar component is about an order of magnitude larger than the slowly varying component, but the spatial structure seems to be localized and its effect on plasma confinement is not catastrophic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we show the direct observation of the parallel flow structure and the parallel Reynolds stress in a linear magnetized plasma, in which a cross-ferroic turbulence system is formed [Inagaki et al., Sci. Rep. 6, 22189 (2016)]. It is shown that the parallel Reynolds stress induced by the density gradient driven drift wave is the source of the parallel flow structure. Moreover, the generated parallel flow shear by the parallel Reynolds stress is found to drive the parallel flow shear driven instability D’Angelo mode, which coexists with the original drift wave. The excited D’Angelo mode induces the inward particle flux, which seems to help in maintaining the peaked density profile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluctuations are measured in the edge and scrape-off layer (SOL) of QUEST using fast visible imaging diagnostic. Electron cyclotron wave injection in the Ohmic plasma features excitation of low frequency coherent fluctuations near the separatrix and enhanced cross-field transport. Plasma shifts from initial high field side limiter bound (inboard limited, IL) towards inboard poloidal null (IPN) configuration with steepening of the density profile at the edge. This may have facilitated the increased edge and SOL fluctuation activities. Observation of the coherent mode, associated plasma flow, and particle out-flux, for the first time in the IPN plasma configuration in a spherical tokamak may provide further impetus to the edge and SOL turbulence studies in tokamaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In TST-2 Ohmic discharges, local current is measured using a Rogowski probe by changing the angle between the local magnetic field and the direction of the hole of the Rogowski probe. The angular dependence shows a peak when the direction of the hole is almost parallel to the local magnetic field. The obtained width of the peak was broader than that of the theoretical curve expected from the probe geometry. In order to explain this disagreement, we consider the effect of sheath in the vicinity of the Rogowski probe. A sheath model was constructed and electron orbits were numerically calculated. From the calculation, it was found that the electron orbit is affected by E × B drift due to the sheath electric field. Such orbit causes the broadening of the peak in the angular dependence and the dependence agrees with the experimental results. The dependence of the broadening on various plasma parameters was studied numerically and explained qualitatively by a simplified analytical model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fluctuation component in the turbulence regime is found to be azimuthally localized at a phase of the global coherent modes in a linear magnetized plasma PANTA. Spatial distribution of squared bicoherence is given in the azimuthal cross section as an indicator of nonlinear energy transfer function from the global coherent mode to the turbulence. Squared bicoherence is strong at a phase where the turbulence amplitude is large. As a result of the turbulence localization, time evolution of radial particle flux becomes bursty. Statistical features such as skewness and kurtosis are strongly modified by the localized turbulence component, although contribution to mean particle flux profile is small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heat flux and plasma flow in the scrape-off layer (SOL) are examined for the inboard poloidal field null (IPN) configuration of the spherical tokamak QUEST. In the plasma current (Ip) ramp-up phase, high heat flux (>1MW/m²) and supersonic flow (Mach number M>1) are found to be present simultaneously in the far-SOL. The heat flux is generated by energetic electrons excursed from the last closed flux surface. Supersonic flows in the poloidal and toroidal directions are correlated with each other. In the quasi-steady state, sawtooth-like oscillation of Ip at 20 Hz is observed. Heat flux and subsonic plasma flow in the far-SOL are modified corresponding to the Ip-oscillation. The heat flow caused by motion of energetic electrons and the bulk-particle transport to the far-SOL is enhanced during the low-Ip phase. Modification of plasma flow in the far SOL occurs earlier than the Ip crash. The M-Ip curve has a limit-cycle characteristic with sawtooth-like oscillation. Such a core-SOL relationship indicates that the far-SOL flow plays an important role in sustaining the oscillation of Ip in the IPN configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An orthogonal dynamic programming (ODP) based particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique is developed to measure the time resolved flow field of the fluctuating structures at the plasma edge and scrape off layer (SOL) of tokamaks. This non-intrusive technique can provide two dimensional velocity fields at high spatial and temporal resolution from a fast framing image sequence and hence can provide better insights into plasma flow as compared to conventional probe measurements. Applicability of the technique is tested with simulated image pairs. Finally, it is applied to tangential fast visible images of QUEST plasma to estimate the SOL flow in inboard poloidal null-natural divertor configuration. This technique is also applied to investigate the intricate features of the core of the run-away dominated phase following the injection of a large amount of neutrals in the target Ohmic plasma. Development of the ODP-PIV code and its applicability on actual plasma images is reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Rogowski probe consisting of a small multi-layer Rogowski coil, five magnetic pick-up coils, and a Langmuir probe was developed to measure the local current density and its direction. It can be moved along the major radius and can be turned around its axis. This probe was used to measure the current density profile near the last closed flux surface of Ohmic plasmas in Tokyo Spherical Tokamak-2. The current density profile was measured successfully with a signal to noise ratio of greater than 20. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A thermal imaging system to measure plasma Electron Bernstein Emission (EBE) emanating from the mode conversion region in overdense plasma is discussed. Unlike conventional ECE/EBE imaging, this diagnostics does not employ any active mechanical scanning mirrors or focusing optics to scan for the emission cones in plasma. Instead, a standard 3 x 3 waveguide array antenna is used as a passive receiver to collect emission from plasma and imaging reconstruction is done by accurate measurements of phase and intensity of these signals by heterodyne detection technique. A broadband noise source simulating the EBE, is installed near the expected mode conversion region and its position is successfully reconstructed using phase array technique which is done in post processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistical features of fluctuations are investigated using the fast camera imaging technique in the scrape of layer (SOL) of electron cyclotron resonance heated Ohmic plasma. Fluctuations in the SOL towards low field side are dominated by coherent convective structures (blobs). Two dimensional structures of the higher order moments (skewness s and kurtosis k) representing the shape of probability density function (PDF) are studied. s and k are seen to be functions of the magnetic field lines. s and k are consistently higher towards the bottom half of the vessel in the SOL showing the blob trajectory along the field lines from the top towards bottom of the vessel. Parabolic relation (k = As² + C) is observed between s and k near the plasma boundary, featuring steep density gradient region and at the far SOL. The coefficient A, obtained experimentally, indicates a shift of prominence from pure drift-wave instabilities towards fully developed turbulence. Numerical coefficients characterizing the Pearson system are derived which demonstrates the progressive deviation of the PDF from Gaussian towards gamma from the density gradient region, towards the far SOL. Based on a simple stochastic differential equation, a direct correspondence between the multiplicative noise amplitude, increased intermittency, and hence change in PDF is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bispectral analysis and multichannel measurement are becoming attractive investigation tools in plasma fluctuation studies. In the Large Mirror Device-Upgrade, the measurement of fluctuations in the ion saturation-current with a 64-channel poloidal Langmuir probe array was performed. The two-dimensional (2D) (poloidal wave number and frequency) power spectrum showed a number of pronounced peaks and broadband fluctuations in the poloidal wave number-frequency space. We applied 2D bispectral analysis, which considers both the matching conditions of poloidal wave number and frequency, to the spatiotemporal waveform, and confirmed the nonlinear couplings between coherent-coherent, coherent-broadband, and broadband-broadband fluctuation components. More than ten peaks were revealed to have as their origins only three original parent modes generated in the plasma. Comparison between the theoretical estimate and experimental observation for the bicoherence showed good agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A self-nonlinear process involving the geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) was analyzed. GAMs nonlinearly excite higher harmonics as quasimodes. In the fluid picture, the Reynolds stress is modeled by the drift wave action. Other nonlinear terms such as the coupling between parallel velocity and vorticity, and between density and vorticity, were also considered, and evaluated using linear eigenmodes. We considered nonlinearities up to the third order. Analytic expressions for the amplitude of the second harmonic GAM and the saturation level of the fundamental GAM were derived. The validity of the theory is discussed based on a comparison of experimental results with theoretical predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multipoint detection is an essential requirement for investigating plasma turbulence which is a highly nonlinear phenomenon in space and time. We have fabricated an array of 64-channel poloidal probes surrounding the linear cylindrical plasma named LMD-U in order to study turbulence properties, particularly the nonlinear mode couplings, in the domain of poloidal wave number and frequency. However, misalignments of probe tips produce spurious modes, which do not exist in the real plasma, to distort the precise wave number measurements. The paper presents the description of the 64-channel poloidal probe array with means to adjust the probe positions, with discussion on the effects of the misalignments on the wave number measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of reducing the neutral density to reach strong drift wave turbulence is clarified from the results of the extended magnetohydrodynamics and Monte Carlo simulations in a linear magnetized plasma. An upper bound of the neutral density relating to the ion-neutral collision frequency for the excitation of drift wave instability is shown, and the necessary flow velocity to excite this instability is also estimated from the neutral distributions. Measurements of the Mach number and the electron density distributions using Mach probe in the large mirror device (LMD) of Kyushu University [S. Shinohara et al., Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 37, 1015 (1995)] are reported as well. The obtained results show a controllability of the neutral density and provide the basis for neutral density reduction and a possibility to excite strong drift wave turbulence in the LMD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zonal flows, which means azimuthally symmetric band-like shear flows, are ubiquitous phenomena in nature and the laboratory. It is now widely recognized that zonal flows are a key constituent in virtually all cases and regimes of drift wave turbulence, indeed, so much so that this classic problem is now frequently referred to as “drift wave-zonal flow turbulence.” In this review, new viewpoints and unifying concepts are presented, which facilitate understanding of zonal flow physics, via theory, computation and their confrontation with the results of laboratory experiment. Special emphasis is placed on identifying avenues for further progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A convergence study of bispectral analysis on toroidal plasma turbulence is presented with a theoretical estimate of bicoherence for the system of the drift wave and zonal flow. Examples are chosen from the analysis of floating potential fluctuation in the edge region of the JFT-2M tokamak. The convergence properties of the bispectral functions are clarified for an oscillatory branch of zonal flow (or geodesic acoustic mode) and drift waves. The total squared bicoherence or the biphase converges inversely proportional to the realization number or to the square root of the realization number, respectively. The numbers of realizations to qualitatively converge and obtain a quantitatively significant value of bicoherence are discussed for the drift wave fluctuations and for the zonal flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bicoherence of fluctuations in a system of drift waves and zonal flows is discussed. In strong drift-wave turbulence, where broadband fluctuations are excited, the bicoherence is examined. A Langevin equation formalism of turbulent interactions allows us to relate the bicoherence coefficient to the projection of nonlinear force onto the test mode. The dependence of the summed bicoherence on the amplitude of zonal flows is clarified. The importance of observing biphase is also stressed. The results provide a basis for measurement of nonlinear interaction in a system of drift waves and zonal flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new electron Bemstein wave emission diagnostic consisting of a heterodyne radiometer and a reflectometer was installed on TST-2. The instrument has a frequency range from 5 to 12 GHz which covers partially the fundamental and fully covers the second and third harmonic emissions. X-mode emission perpendicular to the flux surface, generated by B-X-FX mode-conversion scenario, is measured. The mode-conversion efficiency is calculated using a one-dimensional full-wave code with the density profile obtained simultaneously from the reflectometer, and the electron temperature (T[sub e]) is estimated. The levels corresponding to the 100-150 eV range are measured from the plasma core region, and the mode-conversion efficiency is calculated to be 0.5-0.8, leading to T[sub e] of approximately 200 eV. In addition, it is found that the reflectivity measured by the reflectometer is consistent with the calculated mode-conversion efficiency. This property can be used for a direct measurement of the mode-conversion efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multi-pass Thomson scattering (TS) scheme enables obtaining many photons by accumulating multiple TS signals. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) depends on the accumulation number. In this study, we performed multi-pass TS measurements for ohmically heated plasmas, and the relationship between SNR and the accumulation number was investigated. As a result, improvement of SNR in this experiment indicated similar tendency to that calculated for the background noise dominant situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In multi-pass Thomson scattering (TS) scheme, a laser pulse makes multiple round trips through the plasma, and the effective laser energy is enhanced, and we can increase the signal-to-noise ratio as a result. We have developed a coaxial optical cavity in which a laser pulse is confined, and we performed TS measurements using the coaxial cavity in tokamak plasmas for the first time. In the optical cavity, the laser energy attenuation was approximately 30% in each round trip, and we achieved a photon number gain of about 3 compared with that obtained in the first round trip. In addition, the temperature measurement accuracy was improved by accumulating the first three round trip waveforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wavelet analyses have been carried out, using a cluster of personal computer, on the signal of electric field fluctuations measured with heavy ion beam probes in the compact helical system stellarator. The results have revealed the intermittent characteristics of turbulence and of the nonlinear couplings between elemental waves of turbulence. The usage of parallel computing is found to successfully reduce the calculation time as inversely proportional to the CPU number used the cluster, which shows the nature of 'embarrassingly parallel computation.' The present example of the wavelet analyses clearly demonstrates the importance of the advanced analyzing methods and the parallel computation for the modern studies of plasma turbulence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The domain structure and magnetization process of Nd-Cu-diffused magnets prepared from hydrogenation-disproportionation-desorption-recombination (HDDR)-processed powders and Nd-Cu powders were examined with a high-resolution Kerr microscope using an ultraviolet light source. We found that the coercivity of the HDDR magnet depends on the volume of magnetically coupled grains that simultaneously reverse their magnetization. In a magnet that has no Nd-Cu, and in which the Nd-rich phase along the grain boundaries is absent, magnetization reversal simultaneously occurs in several grains. In contrast, in a Nd-Cu-diffused magnet that contains adequate Nd-rich phases along the grain boundaries, magnetization reversal occurs independently in each grain. It follows that the change in microstructure caused by the presence of Nd-Cu leads to a decoupled magnetization reversal, and domain wall pinning is an important coercivity mechanism of an HDDR magnet compacted by hot-pressing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Kerr microscope that uses UV light for high-resolution observation of magnetic domains was developed, and the domain structure and magnetization process of hot-pressed magnets prepared from hydrogenation-disproportionation-desorption-recombination (HDDR) processed powders were examined. This microscope is capable of distinguishing nanometer-sized domain patterns. The coercivity of the hot-pressed HDDR magnet depends on the area of magnetization reversal during a reversal process. Magnetization reversal occurs simultaneously in a few grains in a low-coercivity magnet because the Nd-rich phase along the grain boundaries is absent. In contrast, in a high-coercivity magnet, magnetization reversal in a grain independently occurs because of an adequate Nd-rich phase along the grain boundaries. It follows that the high coercivity of an HDDR powder compacted by hot pressing is due to domain wall pinning at the grain boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]