When
Thursday, October 9, 2025, at 4:00 p.m.
Albina Tropina
Research Professor
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Texas A&M University
"Laser Plasma and Aero-Optics: Theory and Applications"
AME Lecture Hall, Room S202
Zoom link
Abstract: The lecture will present modeling and experimental efforts directed toward a fundamental understanding of physical mechanisms of laser induced plasmas. The novel control opportunities of laser energy deposition using dual-pulse approach will be discussed, including laser intensity shaping, and beam ellipticity. The lecture will also include analysis of aero-optical effects associated with vibrational nonequilibrium in plasmas and high-speed flows, including flows with ablation species. Finally, the concept of the magnetic window approach to mitigate the effect of hypersonic radio blackout caused by the formation of the plasma layer near the vehicle surface will be discussed.
Bio: Albina Tropina is a research professor at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University, joining the department in 2017. She received her doctoral degree from Kharkiv National University (Ukraine) and her doctor of sciences degree from Kyiv Aviation University (Ukraine) in mechanics of liquid, gas and plasma. Prior to joining the Aerospace Engineering Department at Texas A&M she was a chair of the Applied Mathematics Department in Kharkiv Technical University, a visiting professor in Warsaw Polytechnic University, Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Fellow in Princeton University. Her research focuses on numerical modeling of plasma and high-speed flows, aero-optical effects and plasma assisted ignition. Albina is a chair of the Plasma Dynamics and Lasers Technical Committee of AIAA , Associate Fellow of AIAA and Member in Large of the APS Forum on International Physics. She published with her students and colleagues over 60 journal papers, 120 conference presentations and four patents.