Taipei, Taiwan
Alpha Ring is pleased to announce that Dr. Lou-Chuang Lee, the company’s Chief Scientist and an Academician of Academia Sinica, has published a new peer-reviewed research article in Plasma, an international open-access journal published by MDPI. The paper, titled “Formation of Electric Potential Dips and Peaks by Electron-Ion Two-Stream Instability in a Plasma Chamber with an Electron Emitter LaB6 as the Cathode,” appears in Volume 9, Issue 3 of the journal (Plasma 2026, 9(3), 23; DOI: 10.3390/plasma9030023) and was published on July 1, 2026.
The study was co-authored by Dr. Lee together with Alpha Ring researchers Kun-Han Lee and Hau-Kun Jhuang, and Dong-Dong Ni of the Institute of Science and Technology for Deep Space Exploration at Nanjing University.
The paper presents a conducting-channel model that may help explain possible acceleration mechanisms in a weakly ionized plasma chamber. Starting from a chamber filled with low-density hydrogen gas, the team modeled a Townsend (dark) discharge that partially ionizes the gas and establishes a stable, highly conductive channel between a cathode and anode. The research then examines what happens when the cathode is made of lanthanum hexaboride (LaB6), a material known for its high electron emissivity: as the cathode surface heats up, it releases a dense layer of thermionic electrons that creates a localized dip in electric potential. Using multi-fluid simulations, the team showed that this electron layer can trigger an electron-ion two-stream instability, producing multiple electric potential peaks and dips — each on the order of several to tens of kilovolts — within the conducting channel. The findings offer a new framework for understanding how electrons and ions are accelerated inside weakly ionized plasma, insight that provide useful theoretical context for Alpha Ring’s ongoing plasma and fusion technology research.
“This work deepens our understanding of the fundamental plasma processes that our engineering teams draw on every day,” said Dr. Lee. “Publishing in a peer-reviewed international journal like Plasma allows us to share these findings with the broader scientific community while continuing to strengthen the science behind our technology.”
Dr. Lee, a leading space and plasma physicist, previously served as Taiwan’s Minister of the National Science Council, President of National Central University, and founding President of the National Applied Research Laboratories, and is a foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. Alpha Ring is proud to have his continued leadership in advancing the scientific foundations of its technology.
Read the full article: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-6182/9/3/23
