
Kentaro Hara
Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Bio
Ken Hara is an Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. He received a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering and a Graduate Certificate in Plasma Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan, and B.S. and M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the University of Tokyo. He was a Visiting Research Physicist at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellow. Prior to joining Stanford, he spent three years as a faculty member in Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University. Professor Hara’s research interests include electric propulsion, low temperature plasmas, plasma physics (plasma-wall interactions, plasma-wave interactions), and computational fluid and plasma dynamics. He is a recipient of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Graduate Scholarship Award, the Air Force Young Investigator Program Award, and the Department of Energy Early Career Award.
Academic Appointments
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Assistant Professor, Aeronautics and Astronautics
Honors & Awards
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Kuriki Award for Young Professionals, Electric Rocket Propulsion Society (2019)
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Early Career Research Program Award, Department of Energy (2018)
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JPL Summer Faculty Research Program, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech (2017)
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Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) Award, Air Force Office of Scientific Research (2017)
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Postdoctoral Fellowship, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (2015-2016)
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Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Graduate Scholarship Award, IEEE (2015)
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Outstanding Student Paper Award, 41st IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science (2014)
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Richard F. and Eleanor A. Towner Prize for Distinguished Academic Achievement, College of Engineering, University of Michigan (2013)
Professional Education
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PhD, University of Michigan, Aerospace Engineering (2015)
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MS, University of Tokyo, Aeronautics and Astronautics (2010)
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BS, University of Tokyo, Aeronautics and Astronautics (2008)
2020-21 Courses
- Advanced Plasma Physics and Engineering
AA 244B (Spr) - Introduction to Aeronautics and Astronautics
AA 100 (Aut) - Rarefied and Ionized Gases
AA 205, ME 362C (Win) -
Independent Studies (5)
- Directed Research and Writing in Aero/Astro
AA 190 (Aut) - Independent Study in Aero/Astro
AA 199 (Aut, Win) - Practical Training
AA 291 (Win) - Problems in Aero/Astro
AA 290 (Aut, Win) - Problems in Aero/Astro
AA 290S (Sum)
- Directed Research and Writing in Aero/Astro
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Prior Year Courses
2019-20 Courses
- Introduction to Aeronautics and Astronautics
AA 100 (Win) - Spacecraft Electric Propulsion
AA 204 (Spr)
- Introduction to Aeronautics and Astronautics
Stanford Advisees
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Doctoral Dissertation Reader (AC)
Ben Estacio, Wally Maier -
Postdoctoral Faculty Sponsor
Prabhat Kumar -
Doctoral Dissertation Advisor (AC)
Adnan Mansour -
Master's Program Advisor
Andrew Denig, Raymond Lau, Alka Panda, Kareem Ramadan, Shigemitsu Suzuki
All Publications
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Cross-field electron diffusion due to the coupling of drift-driven microinstabilities
PHYSICAL REVIEW E
2020; 102 (2)
View details for DOI 10.1103/PhysRevE.102.023202
View details for Web of Science ID 000555843100009
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Self-organized standing waves generated by AC-driven electron cyclotron drift instabilities
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
2019; 115 (23)
View details for DOI 10.1063/1.5131019
View details for Web of Science ID 000504304400030
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Two-dimensional hybrid-direct kinetic simulation of a Hall thruster discharge plasma
PHYSICS OF PLASMAS
2019; 26 (12)
View details for DOI 10.1063/1.5122290
View details for Web of Science ID 000505578200008
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2D axial-azimuthal particle-in-cell benchmark for low-temperature partially magnetized plasmas
PLASMA SOURCES SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
2019; 28 (10)
View details for DOI 10.1088/1361-6595/ab46c5
View details for Web of Science ID 000503203700010
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A data-driven approach to model calibration for nonlinear dynamical systems
JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS
2019; 125 (24)
View details for DOI 10.1063/1.5085780
View details for Web of Science ID 000474439600008
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Ion kinetics and nonlinear saturation of current-driven instabilities relevant to hollow cathode plasmas
PLASMA SOURCES SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
2019; 28 (5)
View details for DOI 10.1088/1361-6595/ab18e4
View details for Web of Science ID 000468882200003
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An overview of discharge plasma modeling for Hall effect thrusters
PLASMA SOURCES SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
2019; 28 (4)
View details for DOI 10.1088/1361-6595/ab0f70
View details for Web of Science ID 000464043800001
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Spatiotemporal data fusion and manifold reconstruction in Hall thrusters
PLASMA SOURCES SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
2019; 28 (4)
View details for DOI 10.1088/1361-6595/ab0b1f
View details for Web of Science ID 000463548800004
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Multispecies plasma fluid simulation for carbon arc discharge
JOURNAL OF PHYSICS D-APPLIED PHYSICS
2019; 52 (10)
View details for DOI 10.1088/1361-6463/aaf945
View details for Web of Science ID 000455359600003
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Non-oscillatory quasineutral fluid model of cross-field discharge plasmas
PHYSICS OF PLASMAS
2018; 25 (12)
View details for DOI 10.1063/1.5055750
View details for Web of Science ID 000454905100069
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Test cases for grid-based direct kinetic modeling of plasma flows
PLASMA SOURCES SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
2018; 27 (6)
View details for DOI 10.1088/1361-6595/aac6b9
View details for Web of Science ID 000435580100001
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Amplification due to two-stream instability of self-electric and magnetic fields of an ion beam propagating in background plasma
AMER INST PHYSICS. 2018
View details for DOI 10.1063/1.5038878
View details for Web of Science ID 000433961800024
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Numerical analysis of azimuthal rotating spokes in a crossed-field discharge plasma
PLASMA SOURCES SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
2018; 27 (3)
View details for DOI 10.1088/1361-6595/aab39c
View details for Web of Science ID 000428498700001
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On limitations of laser-induced fluorescence diagnostics for xenon ion velocity distribution function measurements in Hall thrusters
PHYSICS OF PLASMAS
2018; 25 (3)
View details for DOI 10.1063/1.5020749
View details for Web of Science ID 000428987800077
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Generation of forerunner electron beam during interaction of ion beam pulse with plasma
AMER INST PHYSICS. 2018
View details for DOI 10.1063/1.5002688
View details for Web of Science ID 000424021700015
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Kinetic simulations of ladder climbing by electron plasma waves
PHYSICAL REVIEW E
2017; 95 (5): 053212
Abstract
The energy of plasma waves can be moved up and down the spectrum using chirped modulations of plasma parameters, which can be driven by external fields. Depending on whether the wave spectrum is discrete (bounded plasma) or continuous (boundless plasma), this phenomenon is called ladder climbing (LC) or autoresonant acceleration of plasmons. It was first proposed by Barth et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 075001 (2015)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.115.075001] based on a linear fluid model. In this paper, LC of electron plasma waves is investigated using fully nonlinear Vlasov-Poisson simulations of collisionless bounded plasma. It is shown that, in agreement with the basic theory, plasmons survive substantial transformations of the spectrum and are destroyed only when their wave numbers become large enough to trigger Landau damping. Since nonlinear effects decrease the damping rate, LC is even more efficient when practiced on structures like quasiperiodic Bernstein-Greene-Kruskal (BGK) waves rather than on Langmuir waves per se.
View details for DOI 10.1103/PhysRevE.95.053212
View details for Web of Science ID 000402019600015
View details for PubMedID 28618641
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Detailed modeling of electron emission for transpiration cooling of hypersonic vehicles
JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS
2017; 121 (5)
View details for DOI 10.1063/1.4974961
View details for Web of Science ID 000394345700008
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AMPLIFICATION DUE TO THE TWO-STREAM INSTABILITY OF SELF-ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC FIELDS OF AN ION OR ELECTRON BEAM PROPAGATING IN BACKGROUND PLASMA
IEEE. 2017
View details for Web of Science ID 000450253400221
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NUMERICAL MODELING OF ROTATING SPOKES IN HALL THRUSTER DISCHARGE PLASMA
IEEE. 2017
View details for Web of Science ID 000450253400168
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Electron acceleration due to the interaction between a neutralized ion beam and background plasma
IEEE. 2017
View details for Web of Science ID 000450253400342
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ADVANCED MAGNETO-GAS-KINETIC SCHEME FOR MHD: ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON TO EXISTING MODELS
IEEE. 2017
View details for Web of Science ID 000450253400063
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Quantitative study of the trapped particle bunching instability in Langmuir waves
PHYSICS OF PLASMAS
2015; 22 (2)
View details for DOI 10.1063/1.4906884
View details for Web of Science ID 000350552000021
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Perturbation analysis of ionization oscillations in Hall effect thrusters
PHYSICS OF PLASMAS
2014; 21 (12)
View details for DOI 10.1063/1.4903843
View details for Web of Science ID 000347162700007
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Mode transition of a Hall thruster discharge plasma
JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS
2014; 115 (20)
View details for DOI 10.1063/1.4879896
View details for Web of Science ID 000337143500016
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One-dimensional hybrid-direct kinetic simulation of the discharge plasma in a Hall thruster
PHYSICS OF PLASMAS
2012; 19 (11)
View details for DOI 10.1063/1.4768430
View details for Web of Science ID 000312033700072