For students

Experimental master projects?

We can offer projects in a well equipped laboratory, with the goal to study plasma phenomena related to energy distributions in plasmas with flows and beams, phenomena which is often encountered in space plasmas. Ion beams are also studied in laboratories world wide, with the aim to develop ion propulsion in space. Projects in collaboration with colleagues in the Space physics group on rocket instrumentation and hypervelocity dust impact may also be offered.

For experimental projects you need background introductory plasma physics, and knowledge from some  of the courses  on basic experimental physics, signal analysis, statistics,  introductory electronics and measurement technique, will be valuable.  Some knowledge of complex analysis, differential equations and numeric methods, as well as chemistry will also be useful.

Necessary 2000– level courses:   
Fys-2009 Introductory plasma physics
Necessary 3000 level courses:
Fys-3017 Laboratory plasma for space physics
Recommended courses:
Fys-2008 Measurement techniques
Fys-2001 Statistical Physics and thermodynamics
Fys-2006 Signal analysis
Fys-3000 Introduction to satellite and rocket techniques and space instrumentation

You can find proposed master thesis projects at the IFT pages here.
(scroll down to near bottom)

Currently, three project descriptions are available for master projects at the lab, but other projects can be defined based on specific interest and lab setup.

Current project titles:

As a master student at the Aurolab, you can also visit our Erasmus + partners in
University of Innsbrück, Austria (contact: Roman Schrittwieser)
Brno University of Technology, Tsjekkia (contact: Vera Mazankova)
University of Bochum-Ruhr (contact: tbd)
University of Milano Bicocca, Italy (contact: Claudia Riccardi).

For further questions, contact Åshild Fredriksen.

What are the prospects of work after a master project in experimental plasma physics?

The best answer to this is to list the former students at the plasma laboratory throughout its history and what they were doing last time we had news from them:

Master students:

Name (year) Thesis  Present employment
Harald Johnsen (1981)
(exp)
Evolusjonen av en lav-energetisk ionestråle i et plasma Forsker,
NORUT
Åge Skøelv (1981)
(exp)
Ionestrålediagnostikk ved hjelp av elektronmettet plan Langmuirprobe Senior advicer,
NDRI
Gunn Karlstad (1983)
(exp)
Elektronplasmabølger i et plasma med to elektrontemperaturer Brukerstøtte
seismikk-data,
lærer
Åshild Fredriksen (1983)
(exp)
Utbredelse av elektron Bernstein-bølger i inhomogent magnetfelt Professor,
IFT, UiTø
Einar Grønvoll (1988)
(exp)
Betingede virvler i ioneakustisk turbulens OsloMet
Knut Brede Liland (1991)
(num)
A study of a langmuir probe in a magnetic field Forsker,
SINTEF Energiforskning
Olsen, Odd-Arne (1994)
(exp)
Probestyringsprogram for Blåmann ?
Tommy Andreassen (1999)
(exp)
Electron temperature fluctuation diagnostics in a magnetized plasma. Software Engineer, Kongsberg Spacetec
Ane Aanesland (1999)
(exp)
Design, control and diagnostics of an electron cyclotron resonance plasma source for thin film deposition. École Polytechnique
ThrustMe startup, Frankrike
Woldesenbet, Alemayehu Berga (2001)
(analysis)
Probe measurements of anomalous cross-foeld transport in a magnetized plasma ?
Andrey Lyachev (2002)
(exp)
Application of emissive probes for the plasma potential fluctuations measurements in the Blaamann device Postdoc,
Central Laser Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
SOCRATES student
Giulio Tribulato (2007)
(exp)
Characterization of a magnetized plasma in a cylindrical geometry Working in industry in Milan.
Christian Schregel (2012)
(exp)
Studies of plasma potential with emissive probes in the low temperature plasma experiment NJORD Graduated from PhD studies in Bochum. Works in Berlin.
Varberg, Erik (2016)
(exp)
Effect of permanent magnets on plasma confinement and ion beam generation in a double layer helicon plasma source Works at EISCAT
Karianne Dyrland (2016)
(exp)
Installation and characterization of an electron bombardment ion source for a Space Simulation Chamber (SSC) Studies at UiO
Osnes, Sindre (2017)
(exp)
‘Beam and plasma properties downstream from positively biased source chamber’ Works at Unicus AS
Kenneth Nilsen (2017)
(exp)
Plasma cloud detection and diagnostics from arcing by conditional averaging ?
Erasmus Int.
Lisa Buschmann (2019) (exp)
Measurements and analysis if ions and electrons in a helicon plasma source tbd
Erasmus Int.
Pascal Sado (2019) (exp)
Plasma parameter regimes and ion energy measurements in an ECR source with variable magnetic field tbd

 

  Graduated Ph.D. students

Name Thesis (year) Present employment
Harald Johnsen Interaction between low energy ion beam and ion acoustic fluctuations in field free plasma (1984) NORUT IT,
Tromsø
Einar Grønvoll Plasma confinement and waves in the toroidal plasma machine Blaamann (1994) OsloMet
Frank Øynes Experimental investigation of fluctuations in a simple magnetized torus (1996) Kongsberg Spacetec, Tromsø
Ole-Morten Olsen Studies of the plasma state in a magnetized torus (1998) Kongsberg Spacetec, Tromsø
Svetlana Ratynskaia Electric probe measurements in low-temperature magnetized plasmas : particle energy distributions, fluid observables, fluctuations and anomalous transport (2002) Royal Technical Institute, Stockholm
Ane Aanesland Radio frequency heating of low pressure, high-density plasmas (2004) Thrustme, Paris
Njål Gulbrandsen RFEA Measurements of High-Energy Electrons in a Helicon Plasma Device with Expanding Magnetic Field (2017) Tromsø Geophysical Observatory, UiT