• Question: can you make a plasma out of metal

    Asked by markbarwell to Andrew, Daniel, Hayley, Natalia, Peta on 17 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Daniel Scully

      Daniel Scully answered on 17 Nov 2011:

      You can make a plasma out of anything if you heat it up enough.

      A plasma is made when you heat something up so much that the electrons are torn away from their atoms. It may take more energy for a metal than for other things though.

      The Sun contains a small amount of Iron for example, and even bigger stars end up with lots of iron just before they die. This iron is in a plasma because those stars are so hot.

    • Photo: Peta Foster

      Peta Foster answered on 17 Nov 2011:

      Absolutely you can! 😀 This is exactly what i do with the Astra Gemini laser.

      I focus the laser down onto really thin foils of aluminium or gold and i also use diamond-like carbon and plastic sometimes. The laser focus is so intense it instantaneously rips away the atoms so that you are just left with a soup of ions and electrons.

      The Astra Gemini is so intense that it drives the electrons through the foil at near the speed of light!!

      These electrons set up an enormous field on the back that ionises the atoms on the back of the target and the the field accelerates them up and that is how we get beams of his energy ions that we hope will one day help us achieve fusion energy.

      A fun fact:

      You can even make plasma out of a grape if you stick it in the microwave… you
      need to cut the grape in half and dry the wet side and the place it in the microwave (cut-side up). 10 seconds of grape plasma awaits. 😀

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