Prof. Amita Das
(Professor)
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Hauz Khas New Delhi - 110016
Delhi, India

Email:-         amita (AT) iitd (DOT) ac (DOT) in
Contact:-     011 2654 8701
Office:-     Department of Physics, Main Building MS 410
Reserach Interest
  1. Nonlinear and turbulent phenomena in laboratory, astrophysical and fusion plasmas.
  2. Laser Plasma interaction: Applications - medical, security etc., fundamental issues - QED and radiation reaction effects in collective plasma environment.
  3. Dusty plasmas as strongly coupled state of matter, interdisciplinary connections with condensed matter, visco-elastic fluid systems, behaviour of active matter.
  4. Numerical Simulation of Plasma Phenomena: Fluid, Molecular Dynamics and Particle - In - Cell.
Academics
Degree Year University
B.Sc. 1981-1984 Patna University
M.Sc. 1984-1986 Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
Ph.D. 1986-1990 Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
Professional career
Year Institute Position
1990 -1996 Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) Fellow (Scientist SD)
1996-2002 Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) Associate Professor - I
2002-2008 Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) Associate Professor - II
2008-2010 Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) Professor G
2010-2012 Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) Professor H
2012-2018 Institute for Plasma Research (IPR) Professor H+
2018-present Institute Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi) Professor
1998-2002 Fusion and Astrophysical group, UCSD, California Visiting Assistant Project Scientist
Honors
Institute/ Academy/ Society Award Year
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur Best outgoing M.Sc Physics student 1986
Department of Atomic Energy - Science Research Council Outstanding Research Investigator Award
(Study of Plasma Turbulence) 		2005
Indian Academy of Sciences Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences
 		2011
Gujarat Science Academy Fellow of Gujarat science Academy
2011
ICTP Regular Associate member of ICTP
2011
National Academy of Science India Fellow of National Academy of Science India
2015
Utkarsh Foundation India Women Excellence Award (Scientist and Innovator)
2015
Indian National Science Academy India Fellow of Indian National Science Academy India
2019
Department of Science and Technology (DST) J. C. Bose Fellowship
2019
Publication
  1. Localized absorption of laser energy in X-mode configuration of magnetized plasma
    Plasma Fusion and Controlled Nuclear Fusion, 65:035006, (2023).

  2. Observations of Brillouin scattering process in Particle-In-Cell simulations for laser pulse interacting with magnetized overdense plasma
    Physica Scripta, 98:015602, (2022).

  3. Chaotic dynamics of small-sized charged Yukawa dust clusters
    Chaos, 32:063136, (2022).

  4. Mode conversion and laser energy absorption by plasma under an inhomogeneous external magnetic field
    Phys Rev. E 105:055209, (2022).

  5. Propagation of dipole structure in an inhomogeneous-density plasma using two- dimensional particle-in-cell simulation
    Plasma Fusion and Controlled Nuclear Fusion, 64:035018, (2022).

  6. Kelvin–Helmholtz instability in strongly coupled dusty plasma with rotational shear flows and tracer transport
    Journal of Plasma Physics, 88:905880103, (2022).

  7. Harmonic generation in the interaction of laser with a magnetized overdense plasma
    Journal of Plasma Physics, 87:905870509, (2021).

  8. Ponderomotive force driven mechanism for electrostatic wave excitation and energy absorption of electromagnetic waves in overdense magnetized plasma
    Plasma Fusion and Controlled Nuclear Fusion, 63:115003, (2021).

  9. A 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulation of the propagation of a plasma plume transverse to applied magnetic field
    Plasma Fusion and Controlled Nuclear Fusion, 63:115020, (2021).

  10. Effect of ion motion on breaking of longitudinal relativistically strong plasma waves: Khachatryan mode revisited
    Physics of Plasmas, 28:092102, (2021).

  11. Electromagnetic wave transparency of X mode in strongly magnetized plasma
    Scientific Reprots, (2021).

  12. Structure and transportation of electron vortices in near-critical density plasmas driven by ultrashort intense laser pulses
    Plasma Physics Controlled Nuclear Fusion, 63:075009, (2021).

  13. A numerical study of gravity-driven instability in strongly coupled dusty plasma. Part 1. Rayleigh–Taylor instability and buoyancy-driven instability
    Journal of Plasma Physics 87:905870216, (2021).

  14. Excitation of lower hybrid and magneto-sonic perturbations in laser plasma interaction
    Nuclear Fusion, 61:026016, (2021).

  15. Spontaneous formation of coherent structures by an intense laser pulse interacting with overdense plasma
    Journal of Plasma Physics, 86:905860606, (2020).

  16. Boundary driven unconventional mechanism of macroscopic magnetic field generation in beam plasma interaction
    Physical Review Research, 2:033405 (2020).

  17. Nonlinear propagation of low-frequency electromagnetic disturbances in plasmas
    Contributions to Plasma Physics (2020).

  18. Laser plasma session: AAPPS‐DPP Conference, 12–17 Nov 2018, Kanazawa
    Reviews of Modern Plasma Physics 4:10, (2020).

  19. Dynamical states in two-dimensional charged dust particle clusters in plasma medium
    Phys Rev. E 102:023213, (2020).

  20. A new mechanism of direct coupling of laser energy to ions
    New Journal of Physics, 22:063023, (2020).

  21. Effect of transverse beam size on the wakefields and driver beam dynamics in plasma wakefield acceleration schemes
    AIP Advances, 10:025203, (2020).

  22. Molecular dynamics study of crystal formation and structural phase transition in Yukawa system for dusty plasma medium,
    Physics of Plasmas, 26:055213, (2019).

  23. Excitation of KdV magnetosonic solitons in plasma in the presence of an external magnetic field,
    Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion, (2019).

  24. Coupling of Drift waves with dust acoustic waves,
    Physics of Plasmas, 26:083702, (2019).

  25. Spiral waves in driven strongly coupled Yukawa systems,
    Phys. Rev E, 97:055213, (2018).

  26. Energy principle for excitations in plasmas with counterstreaming electron flows,
    AIP Advances, 8(5):055213, (2018).

  27. Interplay of single particle and collective response in molecular dynamics simulation of dusty plasma system,
    Physics of Plasmas 25, 043705 (2018).

  28. Spiral waves in driven dusty plasma medium: Generalized hydrodynamic fluid description,
    Physics of Plasmas 25, 043701 (2018).

  29. Merger and reconnection of Weibel separated relativistic electron beam,
    Physics of Plasmas 25, 022123 (2018).

  30. Numerical study of the lateral interactions of two plasma plumes,
    Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Volume 50, Number 35, (2017).

  31. Overview of recent experimental results from the Aditya tokamak,
    Nuclear Fusion, Volume 57, Number 10 (2017).

  32. Observation of 1-D time dependent non-propagating laser plasma structures using fluid and PIC codes,
    Physics of Plasmas 24, 123111 (2017).

  33. Observation of enhanced absorption of laser radiation by nanostructured targets in PIC simulations,
    Physics of Plasmas 24, 093118 (2017) .

  34. Magnetic turbulence in a table-top laser-plasma relevant to astrophysical scenarios,
    Nature Communications 8, Article number: 15970 (2017).

  35. Observation of the Korteweg-de Vries soliton in molecular dynamics simulations of a dusty plasma medium,
    http://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.4978779.

  36. Sub- and super-luminar propagation of structures satisfying Poynting-like theorem for incompressible generalized hydrodynamic fluid model depicting strongly coupled dusty plasma medium,
    Phys. Plasmas 23(2016).

  37. Two-dimensional studies of relativistic electron beam plasma instabilities in an inhomogeneous plasma,
    Physics of Plasmas 22 112118 (2015).

  38. Fluid simulation of relativistic electron beam driven wakefield in a cold plasma,
    Phys. of Plasmas 22, 073109 (2015).

  39. 1D3V PIC simulation of propagation of relativistic electron beam in an inhomogeneous plasma,
    Physica Scripta 90 085605 (2015).

  40. The first experiments in SST-1,
    Nuclear Fusion 55, 104009 (2015).

  41. Collisionless sheath heating in current-driven capacitively coupled plasma discharges via higher order sinusoidal signals,
    Plasma Sources Sci. Technol 24 025037 (2015).

  42. Molecular dynamics simulations of soliton like structures in a dusty plasma medium,
    Phys. of Plasmas 22, 033706 (2015).

  43. The study of electromagnetic cusp solitons,
    Phys. of Plasmas 22, 013101 (2015).

  44. Turbulence in strongly coupled dusty plasmas using generalized hydrodynamic description,
    Physics of Plasmas 22, 023710 (2015).

  45. Visco-elastic fluid simulations of coherent structures in strongly coupled dusty plasma medium,
    Physics of Plasmas 21, 073705 (2014).

  46. Collective Dynamics in strongly coupled dusty plasma medium,
    Journal of Plasma Physics,Volume 80, Issue 6,(2014).

  47. Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability in dusty plasma medium: Fluid and particle approach,
    Journal of Plasma Physics, Volume 80, Issue 6,(2014).

  48. Evolution of sheared flow structure in visco-elastic fluids,
    AIP Conference Proceedings 1582, 55 (2014).

  49. Suppression of Rayleigh Taylor instability in strongly coupled plasmas,
    Phys. Plasmas 21, 062102 (2014).

  50. Kinetic effects on robustness of electron magnetohydrodynamic structures,
    Phys. Plasmas 20, 042303 (2013).

  51. Linear and nonlinear studies of velocity shear driven three dimensional electron-magnetohydrodynamics instability,
    Phys. Plasmas 19, 072103 (2012).

  52. Numerical Modeling of Plasma Plume Evolution against Ambient Background Gas in Laser Blow Off Experiments,
    Phys. Plasmas 19, 073105 (2012).

  53. Nonlinear electron-magnetohydrodynamic simulations of three dimensional current shear instability,
    Phys. Plasmas 19, 092305 (2012).

  54. Perturbative analysis of sheared flow Kelvin Helmholtz instability in a weakly relativistic magnetized electron fluid,
    Phys. Plasmas 19, 052105 (2012).

  55. Direct Observation of Turbulent Magnetic Fields in Hot, Dense Laser Produced Plasmas,
    Proceedings of the National Academy Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) (2012).

  56. Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in a strongly coupled dusty plasma medium,
    Phys. Plasmas 19, 073703 (2012).

  57. Observation of sharply peaked solitons in dusty plasma simulations,
    New journal of Physics, Volume 14 (2012).

  58. Kelvin - Helmholtz instability in a weakly coupled dust fluid,
    Phys of Plasmas 19, 023703 (2012).

  59. Longitudinal singular response of dusty plasma medium in weak and strong coupling limits,
    Phys of Plasmas 19, 013706(2012).

  60. Linear and Nonlinear Studies of Velocity Shear Driven Three Dimensional Electron-Magnetohydrodynamics Instability,
    Phys of Plasmas, 19, 072103,(2012).

  61. Collisionless Stopping of Electron Current in an Inhomogeneous Electron Magnetohydrodynamics Plasma,
    Pramana, Vol. 77, No. 5, pp. 949-957,(2011).

  62. Interaction of High Power Microwave with Plasma,
    IEEE International Vacuum Electronics Conference, IVEC-2011 , pp. 481-482, February (2011).

  63. Phase Mixing/Wave Breaking Studies of Large Amplitude Oscillations in a Cold Homogeneous Unmagnetized Plasma,
    Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 53, 074014(2011).

  64. A plasma source for high power microwave interaction studies,
    IEEE/NPSS 24th Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE), Chicago, 5993096, 26-30, (2011).

  65. Relativistic electromagnetic flat top solitons and their stability,
    Physics of Plasmas 18, 112112(2011).

  66. Energetic Electron Transport in an Inhomogeneous Plasma Medium,
    AIP Conference Proceedings: International Symposium on Waves, Coherent Structures and Turbulence in Plasmas,Volume 1308, 158-168, November (2010).

  67. Free energy source for flow shear driven instabilities in Electron Magnetohydrodynamics,
    Phys. Plasmas 17, 042106 (2010).

  68. Nonlinear studies of fast electron current pulse propagation in a two dimensional inhomogeneous plasma,
    Phys. Plasmas, 17, 052306 (2010).

  69. Nonlinear wave propgation in strongly coupled dusty plasma,
    Phys. Rev. E 81, 036407 (2010).

  70. Intermittency like phenomena in Plasma Turbulence,
    World scientific vol. 1 Pg. 151-185 (2010).

  71. Electron velocity shear driven instability in relativistic regime,
    Physics of Plasmas 17, 022101 (2010).

  72. Role of natural length and time scales on shear driven two-dimensional electron magnetohydrodynamic instability,
    Phys. Plasmas 16, 072310 (2009).

  73. Evidence of anomalous resistivity for hot electron propagation through a dense fusion core in fast ignition experiments,
    New Journal of Physics, 11 093031 (2009).

  74. Anomalous energy dissipation of electron current pulses propagating through an inhomogeneous collisionless plasma medium,
    Phys Plasmas. 16, 040701 (2009).

  75. Polarimetric detection of laser induced ultrashort magnetic pulses in overdense plasma,
    Phys. of Plasmas. 16, 043114 (2009).

  76. Phase mixing of relativistically intense waves in a cold homogeneous plasma,
    Phys. Rev. E79, 026404 (2009).

  77. Near-Complete Absorption of Intense, Ultrashort Laser Light by Sub-lambda Gratings,
    Physical Review Letters 101, 145001 (2008).

  78. Propagation of electron magnetohydrodynamic structures in a two-dimensional inhomogeneous plasma,
    Phys. Plasmas 15, 062308 (2008).

  79. Relaxation and self organization in two dimensional plasma and neutral fluid flow systems,
    Phys. Plasmas 15, 022308 (2008).

  80. Role of current shear driven turbulence in anomalous stopping of energetic electrons,,
    Phys. Letts. A 363 125 (2007).

  81. Stability of nonlinear one-dimensional laser pulse solitons in a plasma,
    Phys. Plasmas 14, 072307 (2007).

  82. Zero-dimensional model for magnetic curvature driven Rayleigh Taylor turbulence simulations,
    Physica A 378 211-222 (2007).

  83. Wave induced barrier transparency and melting of quasi-crystalline structures in two dimensional plasma turbulence,
    Phys. Plasmas 14, 042307 (2007).

  84. Diagnosing the dynamics of fast electron transport with self induced magnetic fields,
    J. Phys. IV France 133, 537 (2006).

  85. Real time study of fast electron transport inside dense hot plasmas,
    Phys. Rev E 73, 036409 (2006).

  86. Fluid Simulation studies of the dynamical behaviour of one dimensional relativistic electromagnetic solitons,
    Phys. Plasmas 13, 032309 (2006).

  87. Formation of density blob and its dynamics in the edge and the scrape off layer of a tokamak plasma,
    Phys. Plasmas 12, 102515 (2005).

  88. Edge and scrape off layer tokamak plasma turbulence simulation using two-field fluid model,
    Phys. Plasmas 12, 072520 (2005).

  89. Short laser pulse induced generation of hot electrons and their anomalous stopping in overdense plasmas,
    Nucl. Fusion 45, 1377-1385 (2005).

  90. Laser Absorption in short lived metal and nanoplasmas,
    Applied Phys. B Laser and Optics (2005).

  91. Laser Pulse induced second harmonic and hard X-Ray emission: Role of plasma wave breaking,
    Phys. Rev. Letts. 95, 025005 (2005).

  92. Rayleigh Taylor instability driven nonlinear vortices in dusty plasmas,
    Phys. Plasmas 12, 044506 (2005).

  93. Nonlinear saturated states of the magnetic curvature driven Rayleigh Taylor instability in three dimensions,
    Phys. Plasmas 12, 032302 (2005).

  94. Kink instability in electron magnetohydrodynamics,
    Phys. Plasmas 11, 4390 (2004).

  95. Simulation of plasma transport by coherent structures in scrape-off-layer tokamak plasma,
    Phys. Plasmas 11, 4018 (2004).

  96. Sausage instabilities in the electron current layer and its role in the concept of fast ignition,
    Nucl. Fusion, 44, 98 (2004).

  97. A continuum one dimensional SOC model for thermal transport in tokamaks,
    Nucl. Fusion, 43 1740 (2003).

  98. Continuum Self Organized criticality model of turbulent heat transport in tokamaks,
    Phys. Rev. Letts; 91, 025001 (2003).

  99. Nonlinear electron magnetohydrodynamic simulations of sausage like instability of current channels,
    Phys. Plasmas 10, 29 (2003).

  100. Laser generated Ultrashort Multimegagauss magnetic pulses in plasmas,
    Phys. Rev. Letts. 89, 225002-1 (2002).

  101. Weakly relativistic one dimensional laser pulse envelope solitons in a warm plasma,
    Phys. Plasmas 9, 3802 (2002).

  102. Nonlinear coupling of whistler wave turbulence with magnetosonic perturbations,
    Phys. Plasmas 9, 2609 (2002).

  103. Laser envelope solitons in cold overdense plasmas,
    Physics of Plasmas, 9 1820 (2002).

  104. Fast zonal field dynamo in collisionless kinetic Alfven wave turbulence,
    Phys. Letts A 302, 119 (2002).

  105. Zonal and streamer structures in magnetic curvature driven Rayleigh Taylor instability,
    Physics of Plasmas, 8 5104 (2001).

  106. Zonal flow and field generation by finite beta drift wave and kinetic drift Alfven waves,
    Physics of Plasmas, 8 4518 (2001).

  107. Nonlocal Sausage like instability of current channel in Electron Magnetohydrodynamics,
    Physics of Plasmas, 8 4518 (2001).

  108. Secondary Instability in Drift Wave Turbulence as a Mechanism for Zonal Flow and Avalanche Formation,
    Nuclear Fusion, 41 1067 (2001).

  109. Zonal flow and zonal magnetic field generation by finite beta drift waves: a theory for L-H transitions in tokamaks,
    Phys. Rev. Letts. 87 015001-1 (2001).

  110. Hydrodynamic regime of two dimensional Electron Magnetohydrodynamics,
    Physics of Plasmas 7, 1366 - 1373 (2000) .

  111. Cylindrical solitary envelope pulses in warm overdense plasmas,
    Physics of plasmas 7, 1056 - 1059 (2000) .

  112. Whistlerization and anisotropy in two dimensional electron magnetohydrodynamic turbulence,
    Physics of Plasmas 7, 571 - 579 (2000) .

  113. Theory of two dimensional mean field electron magnetohydrodynamics,
    Physics of Plasmas 7,170 - 177 (2000) .

  114. Nonlinear aspects of two dimensional electron magnetohydrodynamics,
    Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 41, A531 - A538 (1999) .

  115. Collisional amplification of test electromagnetic waves in a plasma subject to an intense high frequency laser field,
    Physics of Plasmas 5, 2533 - 2543 (1998) .

  116. Reverse Shear Fronts in a Tokamak Plasma with evolving Shear,
    Nuclear Fusion 37, 1569 -1574 (1997) .

  117. Nonlinear Saturation of the Rayleigh Taylor Instability,
    Phys. Plasmas 4, 1018 - 1027 (1997).

  118. Stability of Vortex Flows in Magnetized Plasmas. I. Non Boltzmann Vortices,
    Phys. Plasmas 2, 3296-3301 (1995).

  119. Mapping Closure for Probability Distribution Function in Low frequency Magnetized Plasma Turbulence,
    Phys. Plasmas 2, 1497 (1995) .

  120. Log Normal Intermittency and Randomly Stirred Fluids,
    Europhys. Letts, 26, 527-532 (1994).

  121. Instability of Elliptical Vortex Cores in Electron Clouds,
    Phys. Letts A164, 419-423 (1992) .

  122. The electronic Structure of Point Defects in Semiconductor Alloys: Simplified Approximatios,
    J.Phys.Condens. Matter 4, 2209-2216 (1992).

  123. Turbulent Rayleigh Benard Convection in a Conducting Fluid in a Strong Magnetic Field,
    Phys. Rev. A43,1097 (1991) .

  124. Transient Spectroscopy and Disorder,
    Radiation Effects and defects in Solids 111, 385-392 (1989) .

  125. Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy (DLTS) Analysis of Defect Levels in Semiconductor Alloys,
    Semiconductor Science and Technology 3, 1177-1183 (1988).

  126. Paired Temperature Spectroscopy, a Novel Method to Characterize Traps in Semiconductors,
    J.Phys.C: Solid State Physics 19, 2177-2186 (1986).

Other Information
  1. Vice President of the Plasma Science Society of India (PSSI) (2006 - 2008).
  2. General Secretary of the Plasma Science Society of India (PSSI) (2004 - 2006 ).
Selected Invited Talks
  1. Nonlinear Aspects of Electron Magnetohydrodynamics (Invited Topical lecture) International Congress in Plasma Physics, ICPP-1998, Prague.

  2. Complexity and Slelf Organization in EMHD Turbulence (Invited Talk) APS- DPP, Chicago, Seattle, Oct 1999.

  3. Waves and Turbulent Phenomena in Electron Magnetohydrodynamics. (Seminar) Physics Department, UCSD, Feb 2000.

  4. Self Organization and wave induced melting of quasi-crystalline patterns in 2-D plasma flows. (Invited Talk) International conference on Frontiers of nonlinear physics. Nizhny Novgorod, Russia 3 - 9 July 2007.

  5. Theoretical description of electron transport and stopping in fast ignition (Invited Talk) 1st NILES International workshop on Lasers and Plasmas joined with the 10th Easter Plasma Meeting at Cairo, Egypt, 15th - 19th March (2008).

  6. Intermittency in Plasma Turbulence (Overview Talk ) 2008 ICTP International workshop on the frontiers in modern Plasma Physics

  7. Collisionless stopping of current pulses in an inhomogeneous EMHD plasma . (Invited Talk ) 15th International Congress on Plasma Physics (ICPP) & the 13th Latin American workshop on Plasma Physics (LAWPP) held at Santiago, Chile, August 8 - 13, (2010).

  8. Collisionless stopping of current pulses in an inhomogeneous EMHD plasma ). (Invited Talk) (a) "The Nature of Turbulence", KITP in Santa Barbara (UCSB) (b) UCLA and (c) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory U.S.A (March 15th to June 15th (2011).

  9. Guiding and Collimation of electron current pulses in Plasma. (Invited Talk) (a) Plasma Conference (Nov 22nd - Nov 25th) (2011) and (b) the 1st ASHULA ( ASian core program for High energy density Science) (Using intense LAser photons held at Kanazawa, Japan.

  10. Collective behavior in strongly coupled dusty Plasma medium (Keynote address) International Conference on the Physics of dusty Plasmas ICPDP at New Delhi, March (2014).

  11. Collective behavior of strongly coupled dusty plasma medium (Invited Talk) International Congress on Plasma Physics 15th to 19th Sept(2014).

  12. Simulation and modeling of magnetic field dynamics in laser plasma interaction (Invited Talk) 10th Asia Plasma and Fusion Association Conference at Gandhinagar – India 14th to 18th Dec (2015)

  13. Plasma based Particle Accelerators. (Introductory talk) ICTS, Bangalore March 2017.

  14. Electron transport in Plasmas. (Invited Talk) University of Iowa, USA; oct 2017. (Colloquium talk) Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, Gujarat Nov 2017

  15. Plasma an interesting Complex Medium with interdisciplinary reach. (Colloquium Talk) IISER Behrampore; May 2019.

  16. Plasma Turbulence and Transport: Physics and Engineering Challenges. (DAE-CV Raman Lecture ) IIT Patna; Feb 2020.

  17. PLaser Plasma Interaction: New Regime with Magnetized Electrons (Plenary Talk in Laser session ) 4th Asia Pacific Conference in Plasma Physics, DPP-AAPPS; Online talk Oct 2020.

  18. Interaction of laser with magnetized plasma (Online invited talk ) Festivel de Theorie in France; Online talk 2021.