The UT Plasma Sciences Laboratory is affiliated with The University of Tennessee's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department on its Knoxville campus. Research in the field of Industrial Plasma Engineering at the UT Plasma Sciences Laboratory is supervised by Professor Emeritus J. Reece Roth, a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In the past ten years, the research program has been funded by contracts from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, the NASA-Langley Research Center, the US Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the US Public Health Service, Atmospheric Glow Technologies, Inc. (a UT spin-off company), the UT Center for Materials Processing, the UT Textiles and Nonwovens Development Center (TANDEC), Environmental Elements, Inc., and International EcoSciences Inc.

The UT Plasma Science Laboratory is located in the Science and Engineering Research Facility across from Ferris Hall on the UT campus. This location includes such major equipment as a stationary and several portable fume hoods for dealing with ozone and other toxic gases, several One Atmosphere Uniform Glow Discharge Plasma (OAUGDPTM) reactors, plasma diagnostic equipment, high voltage power supplies capable of operating at kilohertz frequencies, and other facilities for exploratory basic research and the industrial applications of atmospheric plasmas. Current or recently active areas of research at the UT Plasma Sciences Laboratory include exploratory research on electric field dominated plasmas; RF emission, absorption and reflection from unmagnetized plasmas; industrial plasma engineering; plasma diagnostics of atmospheric pressure glow discharge plasmas; the physics and phenomenology of the one atmosphere uniform glow discharge plasma and other atmospheric plasmas; and applications of the one atmosphere uniform glow discharge plasma to surface cleaning of materials, sterilization of surfaces, improving the wettability of fabrics, and plasma chemical vapor deposition (PCVD) of thin films at one atmosphere. In addition, we are carrying forward research in subsonic plasma aerodynamics, including aircraft boundary layer control, flow attachment, and drag reduction, as well as research on using electrohydrodynamic (EHD) effects based on the OAUGDPTM to improve the efficiency of wind turbines for “green energy” production. Activities have also included fusion reactor design studies, study of advanced fuel fusion reactions, and alternate magnetic containment concepts for fusion energy.

Activities at the UT Plasma Sciences Laboratory include contract research; a weekly plasma seminar; a weekly research conference; experimental research on masters and Ph.D. theses; consulting services by Plasma Lab faculty and staff for local, national and international institutions, industry and government; providing state-of-the-art equipment for student training; publishing research results in archival journals; and presenting invited papers and progress reports on current research at professional society meetings. The UT Plasma Sciences Laboratory is unusually well equipped for experimental research in steady-state and atmospheric glow discharge plasmas, in electric field dominated plasmas, and for studying the absorption, emission, and interactions of electromagnetic radiation with such plasmas.

The Laboratory has an inventory of over $1.5 million in magnet facilities, power supplies, plasma diagnostic equipment, electronic test instruments, microwave components, and RF sources and network analyzers. A significant proportion of this inventory is state-of-the-art equipment of a kind available in few university laboratories. Major facilities available in the UT Plasma Science Laboratory include a 20 cm bore, 0.35 Tesla water-cooled magnet system; a 40 kV DC, 1.0 ampere power supply; a 1.0 to 26 GHz Integral Panoramic spectrum analyzer; a Hewlett-Packard Model 8510 microwave network analyzer (45 MHz to 18 GHz); and a Hewlett-Packard Model 3577 low frequency network analyzer (5 Hz to 200 MHz). In addition, the following plasma diagnostic systems are available; 1/2-meter optical spectrometer; a 28 GHz polarization diplexing microwave interferometer; a 28 GHz microwave scattering system: a computer-assisted retarding potential energy analyzer system; a computer-assisted Langmuir probe; spectrum analyzers from 5 Hz to 18 GHz; and many other minor probes and devices.

The Electrical Engineering Department at UT has offered courses in industrial plasma engineering and fusion energy at the graduate and undergraduate levels since 1970. Among the graduate courses offered are two-semester courses in industrial plasma engineering, plasma diagnostics, and advanced plasma physics. Popularity of the plasma program at UT is great among those students who enjoy building things, and doing hands-on work with actual hardware. Industrial plasma engineering has always appealed to students who wish to do research and development on the leading edge of electrical engineering.

For further information about the UT Plasma Sciences Laboratory or the industrial plasma engineering course offerings, please contact Professor J. Reece Roth at jrr@utk.edu.