- Francesco Volpe -
Associate Professor of Applied Physics
"We know the production of energy works but it needs to be optimized. One of the challenges is that structures called magnetic islands tend to develop in the plasma, which decrease fusion performances, in several cases so much so that the plasma is destroyed."
"One way to tackle this problem is to suppress magnetic islands as soon as they form by means of microwaves and magnetic fields. Researchers have found . . . that the efficiency of the tokamak depends on its size and that a bigger machine is more efficient at producing fusion energy."
[Prof.]Volpe has actually already been involved in a much bigger version of the tokamak in a major international project called ITER—the first of all fusion experiments that will produce net energy. The machine is under construction in France and expected to be completed by 2020. Volpe helped design a launcher of microwaves being used in ITER that suppresses the magnetic islands and assists in keeping the plasma stable. -Melanie A. Farmer; CUIT
Research Specialty
Magnetically confined tokamak & stellarator plasmas, with emphasis on: (1) microwave heating, current drive & diagnostics & (2) magnetohydrodynamic instabilities & their control
Special Awards, Honors, and Fellowships
- 2015 Excellence in Fusion Engineering Award, Fusion Power Associates
- 2012 Finalist at ISSNAF Young Investigator Award
- 2012 Torkil Jensen Award
- 2011 DOE Early Career Award
- 2010 Marquis Who's who in Science & Engineering 2011-12
- 2007 Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Fellowship
- 2003 Otto-Hahn Medal of the Max-Planck Gesellschaft (MPG)
- 2002 Marie Curie Individual Fellowship, European Commission
- Selected Publications -
C. Caliri, D. Mascali, F.A. Volpe, "Methods of Ion Extraction from a Toroidal Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Source", Nucl. Instr. Meth. Phys. Res. A 790, 57 (2015)
D. Shiraki, C. Paz-Soldan, R.J. La Haye, N.C. Logan, K.E.J. Olofsson, E.J. Strait, R.M. Sweeney, F.A. Volpe, "Measurements of the toroidal torque balance of error- eld penetration locked modes", Plasma Phys. Controll. Fusion, 57, 025016 (2015)
A.W. Clark, M. Dumet, A. Fabre, K. Hammond, Y. Kornbluth, D. Spong, R. Sweeney, Y. Kornbluth, F.A. Volpe, "Proto-CIRCUS Tilted-Coil Tokamak-Torsatron Hybrid Design and Construction," Fusion Eng. Design 89, 2732 (2014)
K.E.J. Olofsson, J. Hanson, D. Shiraki, F.A. Volpe, D. Humphreys, R.J. La Haye, M. Lanctot, E.J. Strait, A. Welander, E. Kolemen, M. Okabayashi, "Array magnetics modal analysis for the DIII-D tokamak based on localised time-series modelling," Plasma Phys. Controll. Fusion 56, 095012 (2014)
D. Shiraki, R.J. La Haye, N. Logan, E.J. Strait and F.A. Volpe, "Error Field Detection in DIII-D by Magnetic Steering of Locked Modes,"
Nucl. Fusion, 54, 033006 (2014)
K. Nagasaki, S. Yamamoto, S. Kobayashi, F. Volpe et al., "Stabilization of energetic-ion-driven MHD modes by ECCD in Heliotron," J Nucl. Fusion, 53, 113041 (2013)
K. Hammond, W.J. Capecchi, S.Massidda, F.A. Volpe, "Metamaterial Lens of Speci able Frequency-Dependent Focus and Adjustable Aperture for Electron Cyclotron Emission in the DIII-D Tokamak", J. Infrared Millim. THz Waves, 34, 437 (2013)
F. Volpe, L. Frassinetti, P.R. Brunsell, J.R. Drake and K.E.J. Olofsson, "Error Field Assessment from Driven Rotation of Stable External Kinks at Extrap-T2R Reverse Field Pinch," Nucl. Fusion 53 043018 (2013)
F. Volpe, , and , "Oblique electron-cyclotron-emission radial and phase detector of rotating magnetic islands applied to alignment and modulation of electron-cyclotron-current-drive for neoclassical tearing mode stabilization," Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 103507 (2012)
W.J. Capecchi, N. Behdad and F.A. Volpe, "Reverse Chromatic Aberration and its Numerical Optimization in Planar Metamaterial Lenses," Optics Express 20, 8761 (2012)
F. Volpe, J. Kessler, H. Ali, T.E. Evans and A. Punjabi, "Magnetic barriers and their q95 dependence at DIII-D," Nucl. Fusion 52 054017 (2012)
F. Volpe "A spinning mirror for fast angular scans of EBW emission for magnetic pitch profile measurements," Rev. Sci. Instrum. 81, 10D905 (2010)
F. Volpe "Analytical Solution of the O-X Mode Conversion Problem," Phys. Lett. A 374, 1737 (2010)
F. Volpe, M.E. Austin, R.J. La Haye, J. Lohr, R. Prater, E.J. Strait and A.S. Welander "Advanced techniques for neoclassical tearing mode control in DIII-D," Phys. Plasmas 16, 102502 (2009)
F. Volpe "Weakly relativistic dielectric tensor for arbitrary wavenumbers," Phys. Plasmas 14, 122105 (2007)
A. Mueck, L. Curchod, Y. Camenen, S. Coda, T.P. Goodman, H.P. Laqua, A. Pochelon, L. Porte, F. Volpe, TCV Team "Demonstration of Electron Bernstein Wave Heating in a Tokamak via O-X-B Double Mode Conversion," Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 175004 (2007)
F. Volpe "Sensitivity of ITER ECRH Upper Launcher to Steering Errors and Changes of Profiles and Integration with Equatorial Launcher," Journal of Phys.: Conf. Series 25, 283 (2005)
H.P. Laqua, H. Maassberg, N. Marushchenko, F. Volpe, A. Weller, W7-AS Team, W. Kasparek and ECRH Group "Electron-Bernstein-Wave Current Drive in an Overdense Plasma at the Wendelstein 7-AS Stellarator," Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 75003 (2003)
F. Volpe, H.P. Laqua and the W7-AS Team "BXO mode-converted electron Bernstein emission diagnostic (invited)," Rev. Sci. Instrum. 74, 1409 (2003)