The force-frequency effect in quartz resonators has in the past been utilized as a transducer mechanism in various realizations and, in particular, successfully commercialized as a pressure transducer. More recently the need for a very precise (0.01 psi pressure uncertainty at 10,000 psi) pressure transducer to operate at high temperatures (275 to 300/sup 0/C) in geothermal environments has necessitated further development efforts directed to improve performance. The incorporation of the rotated X-cut into a pressure transducer, similar to the Hewlett-Packard design, represents one such development effort at Sandia National Laboratories. The present report characterizes the pressure-temperature performance of the AT- and rotated X-cut resonators and the Hewlett-Packard sensor where the experimental data in the pressure temperature domain are available.

This note discusses the possibility of magnetically accelerating the plasma rings. At low-to-moderate ring kinetic energy, application to heating, fueling, and efficient current drive of conventional fusion reactors appears possible. At high ring kinetic energy, applications to inertial-confinement fusion through pellet heating and to transuranic element synthesis appear possible. The rings may be considered to be a self-linking flux bundle having net helicity. From an accelerator point of view, the rings represent collective particle entities held together by magnetic forces and may be viewed as macroparticles or micropellets having large magnetic moment per unit mass. Because of the relatively long lifetime and resiliency of the rings, it appears possible to accelerate to multimegajoule kinetic energy over reasonable distances and to focus the rings to centimeter-size dimensions.