A lot of energy in the plasma is radiated and plasmas can be used as sources of radiation. Powerful radiation such as XUV requires plasmas at temperatures that significantly exceed those in typical low-temperature plasmas. Laser-heated plasmas have therefore overtaken discharge-based plasmas. However, it is possible to achieve high temperatures with discharge-based plasmas, as magnetically confined nuclear fusion plasmas clearly demonstrate. The STÖR experiment is based on an alternative fusion concept of magnetically confined plasmas, the so-called skew-pinch spherical torus.  

In the skew-pinch spherical torus, the plasma is brought into a configuration with the aid of two plasma currents, which also has closed magnetic flux surfaces and twisted magnetic field lines, similar to a tokamak or stellerator. This configuration has so far achieved significantly lower temperatures than those required for nuclear fusion. However, the temperatures are higher than in typical low-temperature plasmas and are sufficient for radiation applications. In addition, these configurations achieve higher densities than in comparable tokamaks and stellerators. The biggest advantage, however, is that the configuration does not require external magnetic fields and therefore the coils do not absorb the radiation.    

project manager Dr. Nils Fahrenkamp