February 27, 2023: Surabhi Jaiswal
February 27, 2023
9:15 a.m.
Room: 310 Kelly Hall
Surabhi Jaiswal, Princeton University
Faculty Host: Dr. Scott England
"Investigations of low temperature plasma for state-of-the-art technology"
Abstract: Plasma is generally defined as a fourth state of matter which is an ionized gas consisting of charged particles dominated by electromagnetic forces. In low temperature plasma (LTP), only a small fraction of gas is ionized while the mean energy of electrons (a few to 10 eV) is much larger than the temperature of ions and neutrals which can be as low as room temperature. LTP technology has shown outstanding capability in a variety of fields in recent decades and new technologies are continuously being invented to solve modern societal problems. This seminar will present ongoing research on nonlinear plasma waves and structures generated by high-speed objects in the ground-based laboratory setting and under the microgravity condition. A main focus of this research is towards detection and mitigation of small pieces of space debris (<1 mm) of which there are millions in near Earth orbits. Moreover, these fluid dynamics phenomena generated by the interaction of plasma with charged bodies in a laboratory setting also serve to mimic those observed in the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth or other planets. Recent work on LTP for studying auroral formation and environmental applications such as water treatment, plasma enhanced catalysis, and sterilization on Earth as well as future manned space missions will also be discussed. Lastly, collaborative research on creating a new platform of Hall effect thrusters based on solid metal fuel and future plasma research in these related areas will be discussed with a focus on the impact for students.
Bio: Surabhi Jaiswal is an experimentalist in plasma science and engineering. She received her PhD from the “Institute for Plasma Research”, a national lab in India, and completed her PhD in three and a half years. After completing her PhD she was awarded a prestigious DAAD – DLR postdoctoral research fellowship to work at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Germany on microgravity complex (dusty) plasma onboard the International Space Station. After completing her fellowship, she moved to Auburn University as a postdoctoral fellow and later joined as a research associate in Princeton University’s chemical and biological engineering department. Dr. Jaiswal has worked in a wide range of topics in low temperature plasmas in collaboration with Auburn, Princeton, and DLR and was awarded a NSF EPSCoR seed grant for her independent research while at Auburn. She has continued working on some of these topics in her plasma laboratory. Her current research is in the area of low temperature plasma to include: fundamental science of complex plasma and its utilization for mitigating space debris, understanding of lunar dust, and developing alternative propellants for Hall effect thrusters. She received three federally funded grants from DOE, DOD, and NSF to study these topics. Her research team is also working in low temperature atmospheric pressure plasmas to understand auroral formation and plasma for environmental applications. In 8 years of research endeavors Dr. Jaiswal has published 19 peer reviewed articles in journals, including 17 first-author publications, many of them being highlighted as Featured articles or Editor Picks. Dr. Jaiswal is very active in serving the plasma community and engaging students as much as possible. She enjoys mentoring students while teaching them plasma engineering and experimental techniques in her laboratory. She is a member of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Plasma Physics (DPP) and Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies DPP. She has chaired multiple sessions in the APS DPP conference, participated in outreach and career counseling, as well as serving as a program committee member in APS and the Gaseous Electronics Conference.