Control of the Interface Between Electron‐Hole and Electron‐Ion Plasmas: Hybrid Semiconductor‐Gas Phase Devices as a Gateway for Plasma Science

Coupling electron‐hole (e^–‐ h⁺) and electron‐ion plasmas across a narrow potential barrier with a strong electric field provides an interface between the two plasma genres and a pathway to electronic and photonic device functionality. The magnitude of the electric field present in the sheath of a low temperature, nonequilibrium microplasma is sufficient to influence the band structure of a semiconductor region in immediate proximity to the solid‐gas phase interface. Optoelectronic devices demonstrated by leveraging this interaction are described here. A hybrid microplasma/semiconductor photodetector, having a Si cathode in the form of an inverted square pyramid encompassing a neon microplasma, exhibits a photosensitivity in the ～420–1100 nm region as high as 3.5 A/W. Direct tunneling of electrons into the collector and the Auger neutralization of ions arriving at the Si surface appear to be facilitated by an n ‐type inversion layer at the cathode surface resulting from bandbending by the microplasma sheath electric field. Recently, an npn plasma bipolar junction transistor (PBJT), in which a low temperature plasma serves as the collector in an otherwise Si device, has also been demonstrated. Having a measured small signal current gain h_fe as large as 10, this phototransistor is capable of modulat‐ing and extinguishing the collector plasma with emitter‐base bias voltages <1 V. Electrons injected into the base when the emitter‐base junction is forward‐biased serve primarily to replace conduction band electrons lost to the collector plasma by secondary emission and ion‐enhanced field emission in which ions arriving at the base‐collector junction deform the electrostatic potential near the base surface, narrowing the potential barrier and thereby facilitating the tunneling of electrons into the collector. Of greatest significance, therefore, are the implications of active, plasma/solid state interfaces as a new frontier for plasma science. Specifically, the PBJT provides the first opportunity to control the electronic properties of a material at the boundary of, and interacting with, a plasma. By specifying the relative number densities of free (conduction band) and bound (valence band) electrons at the base‐collector interface, the PBJT's emitter‐base junction is able to dictate the rates of secondary electron emission (including Auger neutralization) at the semiconductor‐plasma interface, thereby offering the ability to vary at will the effective secondary electron emission coefficient for the base surface (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Effect of Discharge Plasma Potential on Diffusion Plasma Parameters Controlled by a Mesh Grid in a Double Plasma Device

The plasma region under investigation is separated from the discharge region by a mesh grid. Plasma potential and electron number densities and electron temperatures under bi‐Maxwellian approximation for electron distribution function of the multi‐dipole argon plasma are measured. The cold electrons in the diffusion region are produced by local ionization. The hot electrons are the ionizing electrons behaving as Maxwellian. The electron trapping process in the discharge region is produced by potential well due to positive plasma potential with respect to the anode and by a repulsive grid. The dependence of ratios of the density of the hot to the cold electrons N_E (=N_eh/N_ec) and hot to cold electron temperature T(=T_eh/T_ec) in the diffusion region on the depth of the potential well has been investigated. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Ground state of spin liquids,hole-hole attraction and high-T csuperconductivity

We develop a notion of high-T _csuperconductivity, which considers that phenomenon as a general property of close to half-filled bands of strongly correlated electrons confined to low-dimensional orbital lattices. Based on Andersons suggestion [1] we initially investigate the Cud electron system of the undoped mother substances of the high-T _c superconductors in the framework of the spin 1/2 Heisenberg model. We derive a new representation of the corresponding Hamiltonian in terms of triplet quasi-particles. The triplet representation leads to simple physical pictures for the spin liquid state and to a hierarchy of nearly exact variational wave functions for the ground state of the linear chain. These wave functions are employed as vacuum states for doping with holes. Holes are shown to form a conduction band embedded in the Hubbard-Mott insulating phase of strongly correlated electrons. The chemical binding forces among these localized electrons entail a strong attractive pair potential acting between the mobile defects. The generality of the hole-hole attraction and its independence of a strict localization of the electrons in the Hubbard-Mott phase is demonstrated by nearly exact solutions of the Hubbard and Pariser-Parr-Pople models of small regular electron chains at various degrees of electron correlation. It is suggested that this exchange-driven attraction leads to an instability of the free hole gas towards Cooper pair formation.     

真空中微波等离子体喷流电子数密度分布规律实验研究

为了准确诊断真空中微波等离子体喷流的电子数密度，利用统一的发射和单郎缪尔探针测量等离子体的空间电位，再测量等离子体的电流-电压特性曲线.根据空间电位测量结果，在等离子体的电流-电压特性曲线上能准确地获取饱和电流，从而处理出电子数密度.最后的诊断实验表明，当真空环境压强为2—6 Pa、等离子体发生器以60 W以下的微波功率击穿流量范围是42—106 mg/s的氩气时，所产生的微波等离子体喷流中电子数密度分布在1×10¹⁶—7.2×10¹⁶/m³范围内.     

Cold electrons acceleration in TNSA laser-generated plasma using a low-contrast fs laser

The fs laser facility in Bordeaux, delivering an intensity of 10¹⁸ W/cm² at normal incidence on thin foils, has been used to induce forward electron and ion acceleration in target-normal-sheath-acceleration (TNSA) regime. Micrometric thin foils with different composition, thickness, and electron density, were prepared to promote the charge particle acceleration in the forward direction. The plasma electron and ion emission monitoring were performed on-line using SiC semiconductor detectors in time-of-flight (TOF) configuration and gaf-chromics films both covered by thin absorber filters. The experiment has permitted to accelerate electrons and protons. A special attention was placed to detect relativistic hot electrons escaping from the plasma and cold electrons returning to the target position. The electron energies of the order of 100 keV and of about 1 keV were detected as representative of hot and cold electrons, respectively. A high cold electron contribution was measured using low-contrast fs laser, while it is less evident using high-contrast fs lasers. The charge particle acceleration depends on the laser parameters, irradiation conditions, and target properties, as will be presented and discussed.     

Magnetoplasma excitations and the effect of electron and hole velocity renormalization in free-hanging graphene studied by Raman scattering

The properties of plasma and magnetoplasma excitations in free-hanging graphene have been studied for the first time by Raman scattering. In addition to single-particle excitations associated with transitions between empty Landau levels of electrons and holes, collective plasma and magnetoplasma excitations in the system of electrons (and holes) of various densities have been discovered for the first time. Hybridization of plasma and cyclotron modes corresponding to the Kohn law has been shown to occur in the limit of high filling factors, which allows measuring directly the plasma and cyclotron energies. The dependence of the electron and hole velocities on their density has been investigated via the magnetic-field dependence of the cyclotron energy in free-hanging graphene. The effect of strong renormalization of the electron and hole dispersion relations seen as an increase in the velocity (by 40–50%) with a decrease in the charge-carrier density to 10¹¹ cm^–2 has been discovered. The charge-carrier density dependences of the widths of magnetoplasma resonances in free-hanging graphene and graphene lying on a silicon dioxide surface have been measured and shown to be at least 3.5 and 14.8 meV, respectively.     

局域环境中微波等离子体电子密度诊断实验研究

为了研究局域真空环境中微波等离子体喷流电子数密度的分布规律及其影响因素,利用发射/郎缪尔探针测量等离子体的空间电位,再测量等离子体的电流-电压特性曲线,根据空间电位测量结果,在等离子体的电流-电压特性曲线上能准确地获取饱和电流,从而处理出电子数密度.最后的诊断实验表明：在有约束边界条件下,微波等离子体发生器以60 W以下的微波功率击穿流量范围是21—105 mg/s的氩气时,所产生的喷流中电子数密度分布在8.8×10¹⁴—7.53×10¹⁶/m^{3关键词： 等离子体诊断技术 等离子体基本过程 等离子体基本特性}     

Structural properties of Li atom under quantum and classical plasmas: A composite variational framework

Structural properties of 1s²nl (²L) [n = 2–5, l = 0–4; where, n and l are the principal quantum number and orbital angular momentum quantum number, respectively] states of Li atom embedded in classical weakly coupled plasma (WCP) and dense quantum plasma (DQP) have been discussed. The Debye-Hckel potential or the screened-Coulomb potential (SCP) and exponential-cosine-screened Coulomb potential (ECSCP) have been used to mimic the WCP and DQP, respectively. Li atom has been treated as a composite system with a frozen core Li⁺ ion and a chemically active valence electron. The Rayleigh-Ritz variational method with Hylleraas-type basis set has been used to estimate the energy eigenvalue of 1s² (¹S) state of Li⁺ ion core and a pure exponential basis has been considered to compute the energy of nl (²L) states of the valence electron of Li atom. The influence of ECSCP and SCP on the radial probability distribution of the valence electron of the Li atom has also been studied.     

脉冲射频容性耦合氩等离子体的发射探针诊断

利用工作在浮点模式下的发射探针,对500 Hz脉冲调制的27.12 MHz容性耦合氩气等离子体的空间电位和电子温度的时变特性进行了诊断.等离子体空间电位是通过测量强热状态下的发射探针电位获得的,而电子温度则是由发射探针在冷、热状态下的电位差来估算得到.测量结果表明:脉冲开启时,空间电位会快速上升并在300μs内趋于饱和;当脉冲关断后,空间电位经历了快速下降后趋于稳定的过程.电子温度在脉冲开启时存在过冲并趋于稳定的特征;而在脉冲关断期间,电子温度在300μs内则快速下降到0.45 e V后略有上升.无论在脉冲开启或关断期间,空间电位基本上都随功率和气压的变化存在有线性的依赖关系;而放电功率对脉冲开启期间过冲电子温度与稳态电子温度差异的影响较大.针对空间电位和电子温度在各阶段及不同放电条件下的时变特性,给出了相应的解释.     

Evolution of Annular Self-controlled Electron–Nucleus Collapse in Condensed Targets

We considered peculiarities of the evolution of a region with sharp boundaries that is filled with a partially ionized plasma and is a part of the volume of a condensed target. The creation of such a region in the near-surface layer of the target can be related to the action of an external impulse symmetric ionizator or to the action of an intense small-extension shock wave on the target surface. We defined the conditions such that their fulfilment during the establishment of the equilibrium between the Coulomb attraction of electrons and ions with atom ionization multiplicity Z^*₁ and the kinetic pressure of electrons causes both the compression of this region and its ionization to the state with Z^*₂ > Z^*₁. The last leads to a further additional compression and ionization. Under these conditions, the spontaneous avalanche-like ionization of atoms of the target to the state of bare nuclei occurs synchronously with the avalanche-like metallization and the self-compression of the target. We showed that the avalanche-like ionization and the self-compression of the target happen in the case where the gas of degenerate electrons has drift momentum. If the region with initial ionization has the form of thin spherical layer, the process of avalanche-like ionization and self-compression of the target in this region is accompanied by the accelerated movement of the plasma layer to the target center. One of the reasons for the accelerated movement is the surface tension in a bounded domain of the nonequilibrium plasma layer neutralized by ions of the target. With increase in the velocity of movement of this layer to the target center, the additional self-compression of the system of electrons and nuclei to the state of degenerate electron gas occurs. At the leading edge of the running layer with extremely high electron density which is neutralized by nuclei of the target, the formation of a collapse of the electron--nucleus system proceeds, and the binding energy maximum for the electron--nucleus system shifts from A60 to A 60. This result makes possible the fast synthesis of superheavy nuclei. The decay of the collapse state, a partial restoration of the target structure, its rapid cooling, and the condensation of a part of the products of nuclear reactions happen in the target volume at the trailing edge of the moving plasma layer. Upon such a scanning propagation of the wave with high electron density, all the target substance is involved, step-by-step, to the process of nuclear transformations. At the target center, the moving plasma layer is squeezed with the formation of the state of quasistationary collapse under inertial confinement. Then the collapse state decays irreversibly.     

Static structure factor of electrons around a heavy positively charged impurity in a one-component quantum rare plasma

An expression for the static structure factor,g ⁺⁻ (r), of electrons at a distancer from an infinitely heavy positively charged particle in a one component quantum rare plasma has been obtained in linear response theory using an appropriate quantum dielectric function of the rare plasma. The expression is a complicated function of the electron plasma frequency, Debye screening length andr, but reduces to that of classical plasma when quantum corrections are neglected. Forr<r _s (2r _s being the mean distance between two electrons), the temperature dependentg ⁺⁻ (r) has larger values in quantum case in comparison to that in classical situation and keeps increasing with decrease inr, more so at low temperatures when de-Broglie wavelength becomes larger and a considerable fraction ofr _s.     

Optical Emission of Molecular Hydrogen in a Recombining Hydrogen Plasma

We observed optical emission of molecular hydrogen in a recombining hydrogen plasma with an electron temperature of 0.1 eV and an electron density of 3 × 10¹²cm^–3. The optical emission intensities of molecular hydrogen in the recombining plasma were roughly 10%–45% of those in an ionizing plasma with an electron temperature of 4 eV. The ratio was greater for a transition line originated from an excited state with a larger vibrational quantum number. Because of the low electron temperature of 0.1 eV, the production processes of excited states are not considered electron impact excitation in the recombining plasma. Possible recombination processes are discussed which produce excited states of molecular hydrogen in the recombining plasma (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Electrostatic simulations of the radio frequency heating of a non‐neutral plasma in an electron trap

The electrostatic simulations of the radio frequency (RF) heating mechanism, excitations, and ionization process of an electron plasma are carried out using a two‐dimensional (2D) particle‐in‐cell (PIC) code. RF drives with excitation frequencies of 1–15 MHz and amplitudes of 5 and 10 V were applied at two different axial positions, to the centre and to one end on the electrode stack of the ELTRAP device, at ultra‐high vacuum conditions. It is observed that the axial kinetic energy (eV) profile of the confined electrons increases with an increase of the RF excitation amplitudes, and densities from 5 × 10⁷ to 10¹² m^?3 for all cases under consideration. The simulation results indicate that with continuous RF excitations, the electron heating in the beginning is higher at the trap wall of the device and extends towards the central region of the trap over a simulation time of up to 100 µs. These results on the electron heating are in good agreement with the experimental findings (optical diagnostics of ELTRAP). The heating effect is larger when the RF power is applied from the position close to one end of the trap in comparison to the central position. Monte–Carlo PIC simulations with hydrogen as a background gas are also performed to evaluate the ionization process at pressures of 10^?8, 10^?7, and 10^?6 torr using the same electron plasma densities. The results show that at increasing pressures, the electron‐neutral collisions rate increases linearly with the background gas pressure. Increased collision frequency is obtained at higher RF drive amplitudes, which proportionally increases electron temperature, so that more ionization and secondary electrons are generated.     

Wave packet molecular dynamics–density functional theory method for non‐ideal plasma and warm dense matter simulations

A new wave packet molecular dynamics–density functional theory (WPMD‐DFT) method is proposed for atomistic simulations of non‐ideal plasma and warm dense matter. The method is based on the WPMD approach, where the electronic exchange and correlation effects are treated using an additional energy term taken from DFT. This term is calculated by integration over the mesh values of the wave packet density. The local density approximation is implemented so far. WPMD‐DFT is meant as a replacement for the anti‐symmetrized WPMD (AWPMD) method which is more time consuming and lacks electron correlation. In this paper, we compare the results obtained by WPMD‐DFT, WPMD, AWPMD, classical molecular dynamics, and path integral Monte Carlo methods for the internal energy of the hydrogen plasma in the temperature range 10–50 kK and electron number density from 10²⁰ to 10²⁴ cm^?3. We also demonstrate the ability to handle the simultaneous dynamics of electrons and ions by calculating the electron–ion temperature relaxation. The scalability of the WPMD‐DFT method with the number of electrons is shown for implementations in central processing unit and graphical processing unit.     

Energetic Characteristics of Oxygen Plasma

A low-temperature oxygen plasma is studied using the thermocouple, probe and spectral method in the range of 2–8 Torr pressure, 30–100 mA discharge currents, 0, 5, 10 m/s pumping velocity. The gas temperature, concentrations of electrons and oxygen atoms in the 3 p⁵P state, and the longitudinal electric field are measured. Radial distributions of gas temperature and electron concentration are obtained. Ranges of pressures and currents are found in which considerable increases in electric field, discharge voltage, temperatures of gas and electrons are observed at pumping switched on. An estimate of the rate constant of the steplike ionization through the O₂(a¹Δg) state is given. The concentration of atomic oxygen in the ground state and excitation constant of the triplet O(3p⁵P) by electron impact are obtained from the solution of the balance equations and our experimental data.     

Dispersion properties of electron acoustic waves in degenerate and non‐degenerate quantum plasmas

The longitudinal response functions are used to generalize the dispersion properties of electron acoustic waves (EAWs) in the presence of quantum recoil, for isotropic, non‐relativistic, degenerate/non‐degenerate plasmas. In order to study the EAWs, the constituents of non‐degenerate (thermal) plasma are considered to be of two groups of electrons having different number density and temperature, namely the cold electrons and the hot electrons. Similarly in degenerate (Fermi) plasma the two population of electrons are considered to be the thinly populated and the thickly populated electrons. The sparsely populated electrons are termed as cold electrons while the densely populated ones are termed as hot electrons. The ions are stationary which form the neutralizing background. The absorption coefficients for Landau damping with the inclusion of the quantum recoil in both plasmas are calculated and discussed. The results are discussed in the context of laser‐produced plasma.     

Relaxation processes and mobility of electrons in a semiconductor quantum well with the modified Pöschl-teller confining potential

Relaxation processes and mobility of electrons in a semiconductor quantum well are studied. The modified Pöschl-Teller potential is used as a confining potential. Scattering rates due to impurity ions, acoustic and piezoacoustic phonons are calculated taking into account the screening of scattering potentials by charge carriers. It is shown that when degenerate electrons are scattered by acoustic phonons, the dependence of scattering rate on electron wave number ν_ac(k) is almost linear. At small k, the acoustic phonon piezoelectric scattering rate of degenerate electrons increases with k, and then it decreases slightly when k > 8 × 10⁷ m⁻¹. The ionized impurity scattering rate of degenerate electrons does not depend on temperature, is directly proportional to the electron density, and decreases with increasing k. Dependences of electron mobility on surface ion density and temperature are studied. It is shown that in the case of non-degenerate or slightly degenerate electron gas, a maximum appears in the temperature dependence of the mobility, and the screening effect is negligible. The screening significantly increases the mobility of electrons in the case of high degeneration. Obtained results are applied to GaAs-based quantum wells.