Chapter 2: Basic concepts and parameters of plasma physics

• The Debye length is the distance over which electrostatic fields due to
charge imbalance are screened out by collective effects
• Consider the effects of inserting a small charged (say positive) “ball” into
the plasma– this will attract a cloud of electrons which will screen out
the effects of the charge. This has finite size due to thermal agitation. This
effect is called Debye shielding.
Derivation 2.1 – Debye length

  kT 
12 12
T 
D   0 2 e   69  e  m (Te in K)
 ne  n
• The Debye length is the length-scale for which thermal energy balances
electrostatic energy (see derivation)
• The Debye length is usually “small” (see Example Sheet)
• On length-scales L large compared with the Debye length, the plasma is
quasi-neutral – the electron density and ion density are almost equal
with common plasma density n
ni  ne  n
• Therefore usually we do NOT need to solve Poisson’s equation
1
 2   e  ni  ne   0
0
(except in “sheath” near a wall or object)
• But small charge imbalances still give important electromagnetic forces!
• The plasma parameter is the number of particles in a Debye sphere (a
sphere of radius λD )
4
N D  D3 n  1.38 106 Te3 2 n 1 2 (Te in K)
3
Criterion for a plasma: an ionised-gas is usually only regarded as a plasma if
N D  1
- then collective behaviour dominates
Range of plasma parameters and Debye length
 Plasma oscillations and plasma frequency
• Consider a uniform plasma in
which the electrons are displaced
with respect to the ions – this will
create an electric field and hence E→
a restoring force → plasma
oscillations
Derivation 2.2 These oscillations
have a frequency given by the
plasma frequency
12
 ne 
2
p   

 0 e
m
• This gives the frequency in Hertz
of

f p  8.9 n Hz (n in m-3 )
 Plasma frequency
Ex If density is 1018 m-3 , frequency is about 9 GHz. Radiation from plasma
oscillations usually in microwave range

• Another condition sometimes required for an ionised gas to be a plasma is

 p c  1
where τc is the collision time
• Electromagnetic waves couple with plasma oscillations - see
Electromagnetic Radiation course (or textbooks for further details on
plasma waves)

Plasma oscillations
observed near the
heliopause by
Voyager 1
 Collisions
• Ions and electrons in a plasma may undergo collisions with a neutral
background gas (in weakly-ionised plasma) or with other charged particles
(Coulomb collisions – in fully-ionised plasma)
• Coulomb collisions involve long-range interactions through electric fields –
operate at much larger distances than particle radii and are velocity dependent
– small-angle deflections are most probable
• In a plasma, Coulomb forces are screened by Debye shielding – collisions are
mainly a collective effect (combination of many small-angle deflections – over
range of impact parameters up to Debye length)
Derivation 2.3 Approximate formulae for mean-free-path and collision frequency
for electron-ion collisions
 
2
Mean-free-path 32 2 1 1 T 2
1 T (eV)
ei      
2 e 17
kT 3 10 m
 ln  ne4 ln  n  m-3 
e
n

where the Coulomb logarithm is ln Λ ≈ 20.

• Collisions are rare in hot/tenuous plasmas - common in dense/cool plasmas
• A plasma is collisional if L >> λei (L typical length-scale) – collisionless if L << λei
Ex (a) Tokamak λei ≈ 100 m - collisionless (b) Low solar corona λei ≈ 10 km -
fairly collisional (c) Solar wind λei ≈ 1014 m – highly collisionless
 Magnetic fields in plasmas
• If the plasma is permeated by a uniform magnetic
field, charged particles gyrate around fieldlines at the
cyclotron frequency, with orbits of radius rL (the
Larmor radius) – see Chapter 1.
• Recall
eB mvperp
c  , rL 
m eB
• If the length-scale of the system is large compared
with the Larmor radius, L >> rL , the plasma is
magnetically-confined. If L << rL , the particles are
essentially unaffected by magnetic field.
The relative importance of the magnetic field is also measured by the plasma
beta
Thermal energy density p 2 p
  2  02
Magnetic energy density B 20 B
Ex 2.1 Close to the Earth, the magnetic field is dipole-like (inverse cube
dependence on radial distance). Estimate the Larmor radii at a distance of 5Re
in the equatorial plane, for ions and electrons with 1 keV energy. (Magnetic
field on equator at Earth’s surface is 3 X 10-5 T).
 It is not trivial to measure the physical properties of a plasma! We might want to
determine electric and magnetic fields, temperature, density, velocity
distribution function, etc.

Multi channel interferometer

on JET
Thomson scattering on DIII-D tokamak
(from McCracken and Stott book)
Proposed ITER diagnostics
 Cluster

WIND satellite –
monitors solar wind
upstream of Earth –
composition,
particle energies,
magnetic field,
radio and plasma THEMIS spacecraft and orbits
waves…
 EISCAT Svalbard radar

SDO – Solar
Dynamics
Observatory
Hinode – studying solar atmosphere –
including XRT (X-ray telescope) and
SOT (Solar Optical Telescope) and EIS
(EUV Imaging Spectrometer)
 Solar
photospheric
magnetogram
from Kitt Peak
telescope

Solar corona in X-
rays from Hinode
X-ray Telescope

Radio
emission from
interplanetary
shock wave –
WIND/waves
instrument

Hα emission from InterStellar

Medium – excited hydrogen atoms
in recombining/ionising plasmas
 Reading list
Chen Chapters 1 and 4.3
Gurnett and Bhattarcharjee Chapter 2
(also early chapters of most other books on plasma physics!)

[Link] Chapter 2

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