Current-Driven Kink-Like Instability in Collisional Plasmas

The stability of left-hand circularly polarized waves propagating along an external magnetic field with wavelengths much larger than the ion Larmor radius is studied for fully-ionized collisional plasmas carrying a field-aligned current. It is found that, in the presence of electron-ion collisions, this "kink-like" instability has two branches of unstable wavenumbers: a main branch and a resistive branch. The resistive branch owes its existence to electron-ion collisions, but its growth rate is much smaller than that of the main branch, which is typically some fraction of the ion cyclotron frequency. The effect of collisions on the main branch is to reduce its maximum growth rate while extending the range of unstable wavenumbers to larger values. However, these changes are significant only when the electron-ion collision frequency is comparable to the electron cyclotron frequency. The dispersion relation is solved numerically for plasma and magnetic field parameters appropriate to the UCLA arcjet plasma. The results show that, within the framework of an infinite and homogeneous theory, the kink-like instability should occur in this plasma device.     

Collision and recombination driven instabilities in variable charged dusty plasmas

The dust-acoustic instability driven by recombination of electrons and ions on the surface of charged and variably-charged dust grains as well as by collisions in dusty plasmas with significant pressure of background neutrals have been theoretically investigated. The recombination driven instability is shown to be dominant in the long wavelength regime even in the presence of dust-neutral and ion-neutral collisions, while in the shorter wavelength regime, the dust-neutral collision is found to play a major role. In an earlier research work, the dust-neutral collision was neglected in comparison to the effect due to the recombination for estimating the dust-acoustic instability; later the other report shows that the recombination effect is negligible in the presence of dust-neutral collisions. In line of this present situation our investigation revealed that the recombination is more important than dust-neutral collisions in laboratory plasma and fusion plasma, while the dust-neutral collision frequency is dominant in the interstellar plasmas. The effects of ion and dust densities and ion streaming on the recombination and collision driven mode in parameter regimes relevant for many experimental studies on dusty plasmas have also been calculated.     

Electromagnetic Instability in Counterstreaming Collisional Plasmas in a Magnetic Field

The stability of low frequency electromagnetic waves is studied for collisional, counterstreaming plasmas situated in a steady magnetic field. Based on the cold fluid equations, it is found that obliquely propagating waves are unstable when the parallel component of the phase velocity is smaller than the electron streaming velocity. The frequency of the instability is of the order of but always smaller than the ion cyclotron frequency. The growth rate is proportional to the electron-ion collisional frequency.     

Instability of Electromagnetic Ion Cyclotron Harmonic Waves in Plasmas

The stability of electromagnetic ion cyclotron harmonic waves propagating normal to an external magnetic field is studied for plasmas whose ions possess loss cone type velocity distributions. It is found that, if the ions are stationary, no instability develops except in the extreme case when the ratio of parallel to perpendicular "temperatures" of the ions is of the order mi/me, where mi and me are the ion and electron masses respectively. However, for the case of two counterstreaming ion beams in a neutralizing background of electrons, instability at zero frequency and near the first several ion cyclotron harmonics can occur if the streaming velocity is of the order of the electron thermal speed.     

Kinetic Nonlinear Buneman's Instability in Field-Free Isothermal Collisonal Plasma

A nonlinear dispersion relation is derived and solved for a 1-D electron-ion two-stream (Buneman) instability excited in an isothermal field-free plasma. The major nonlinear mechanism is the qualilinear modification of the background distribution function. We take into consideration the effect of Coulomb collisions which describes the broadening of the Cherenkov interaction of waves with particles. Nonlinear effects seem to lead, in field-free plasma, to the increase in the current velocity and consequently, to the growth of the instability and a rapid turbulent heating of plasma electrons. The methods used here to solve the Vlasov's kinetic equation may also be used to investigate other types of current micro-instabilities in plasmas.     

Unstable twisted modes in interpenetrating space plasmas containing superthermal species

The electrostatic twisted modes with orbital angular momentum and associated kinetic instability are studied in a permeating space plasma containing streaming particle species. The plasma containing superthermal electrons and ions is modeled by using a non-gyrotropic Kappa distribution function which penetrates through a relatively slow moving (static) plasma and gives rise to dispersion, damping and growth of ion-acoustic mode under various conditions. Using the Vlasov-Poisson model, the solutions of twisted modes are defined by Laguerre-Gaussian mode functions, which decompose the plasma distribution function and electric field into components characterized by the axial and azimuthal wave numbers. The dielectric constant is derived and analyzed for threshold condition of wave dispersion and instability in the presence of helical electric field with illustrations. The wave excitations due to penetration of solar wind into cometary clouds or interstellar electron-ion plasmas is examined.     

The ion streaming effect on Weibel instability in the relativistic dense plasma

The Weibel instability plays an important role in stopping hot electrons and energy deposition mechanism in fast ignition of inertial fusion process. In this paper, the ion Weibel instability in counter propagating electron‐ion plasmas is investigate. The obtained results show that the growth rate of Weibel instability will be decreased about 40% with the anisotropy velocity as v_xe = 2v_ze = 20; the ion density ratio, b = n _{0i 1}/n _{0i 2}, and density gradient, are increasing 50 and 90% respectively. The ion streaming in density gradient of dense plasma leads to increasing the Weibel instability growth rate and its amplification through ion streaming in the large wavenumber. The maximum unstable wavenumber has been decreased with decreasing the ion beam density ratio. For fixed ion density ratio, increasing 90% of the density gradient in the near of fuel plasma corona leads to reducing growth rate and unstable wavenumber about 43 and 42% respectively.     

Conformity between linear response and binary collision treatments of an ion energy loss in a magnetized quantum plasma

In this paper the energy loss of a heavy ion moving in a magnetized quantum electron plasma is considered within the linear response and binary collision treatments. Treating the electron-ion interaction force as a small perturbation to the electron nth Landau level we show within the second order perturbation theory the conformity between these two models.Received: 8 August 2003PACS: 52.40.Mj Particle beam interactions in plasmas - 34.50.Bw Energy loss and stopping power - 03.65.Nk Scattering theory - 52.20.Hv Atomic, molecular, ion, and heavy-particle collisions     

Simulation of Electron Temperature in Argon Clusters Subjected to Intense Laser Fields

Argon clusters subjected to intense femtosecond laser pulses are ionized by the optical fields and inelastic electron-ion collisions. The cluster plasmas absorb the laser energy through collisional inverse bremsstrahlung, leading the argon cluster plasmas to very hot states. The calculated electron temperature in the clusters indicates that the intense laser-cluster interactions are more energetic than interactions with molecules.     

Cross-Sections,Rate Constants and Transport Coefficients in Silane Plasma Chemistry

This paper presents a critical review of the basic data concerning the physics and chemistry of low pressure SiH₄ glow discharges used to deposit hydrogenated amorphous silicon films (a-Si:H). Starting with an updated table of thermochemical data, we analyze the gas-phase elementary processes consisting of i) electron-molecule collisions, ii) ion-molecule collisions, iii) neutral-neutral collisions, iv) other electron and ion collisions involving electron-ion and ion-ion recombination, electron attachment on radicals and detachment of anions, and v) cluster growth kinetics in dusty plasmas. Experimental data or theoretical estimates are given and discussed in terms of cross-sections, collision and reaction rate constants, and transport coefficients. We also analyze the surface processes and reaction probabilities of ions, radicals and molecules.     

Fundamentals of electron-ion interaction

A brief review on the physics of electron-ion collisions is given. After an introduction focussing on the applied importance of electron-ion interactions a discussion of experimental techniques based on colliding beams of electrons and ions follows. The main part deals with the different types of electron-ion collision processes. An overview is provided on (1) electronimpact ionization of ions, (2) electron scattering from ions, (3) electron-impact excitation of ions, and (4) recombination of ions with free electrons.     

Simulation of Electron Temperature in Argon Clusters Subjected to Intense Laser Fields

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Fundamentals and applications of ion-ion plasmas

Ion-ion plasmas can form in the late afterglow of pulsed discharges or downstream of continuous wave discharges in electronegative gases. In ion-ion plasmas, negative ions replace electrons as the negative charge carriers. In the absence of electrons, ion-ion plasmas behave quite differently compared to conventional electron-ion plasmas. Application of a radio frequency bias to a substrate immersed in an ion-ion plasma can be used to extract alternately positive and negative ions, thereby minimizing charging on device features during micro-device fabrication. Ion-ion plasmas are also important in negative ion sources, dusty plasmas, and the D-layer of the earth's atmosphere.     

电子与氢及其同位素分子碰撞的非解离性电离截面研究

在边界等离子体中, 氢及其同位素分子与高能电子碰撞可发生电离反应. 对于尚无可利用的氢及其同位素分子的电子碰撞非解离性电离反应截面, 基于莫尔斯函数、弗兰克-康登原理, 采用半经典的Gryzinski方法进行了计算. 得到反应截面随电子能量的变化情况以及振动能级对反应截面的影响. 计算结果表明分子的振动激发对电离反应有着显著影响.     

Kinetic instability of twisted ion-acoustic mode with superthermal species of plasma

The electrostatic twisted ion-acoustic waves with finite orbital angular momentum states and associated kinetic instability are investigated in an electron-ion plasma. The plasma consisting of superthermal electrons and ions is modeled by using a non-gyrotropic Kappa distribution function in which the free energy source for wave excitation is provided by the relative directed motion of streaming electrons with respect to the ions. In the frame work of kinetic theory, the Vlasov-Poisson equations are employed to derive the expressions for dispersion relation and Landau damping rate under paraxial approximation. The results are analyzed for threshold condition of wave dispersion and instability growth rate in the presence of helical electric field structure. The relevance of study to the observed situations is also described.     

Simultaneous projectile-target ionization: a novel approach to (e, 2e) experiments on ions

A kinematically complete experiment for simultaneous ionization of a projectile and target has been performed for 3.6 MeV/u C2+ on He collisions measuring the final vector momenta of the He1+ recoil ion and of two electrons (projectile, target) in coincidence with the emerging C3+ projectile. The feasibility of an event-by-event separation of the various reaction channels, among them the ionization of C2+ by the interaction with a quasifree target electron, is demonstrated in agreement with six-body classical trajectory Monte Carlo calculations, paving the way to kinematically complete electron-ion scattering experiments.     

Solitary electromagnetic pulses detected with super-Alfvénic flows in Earth's geomagnetic tail

Solitary nonlinear (deltaB/B>1) electromagnetic pulses have been detected in Earth's geomagnetic tail accompanying plasmas flowing at super-Alfvénic speeds. The pulses in the current sheet had durations of approximately 5 s, were left-hand circularly polarized, and had phase speeds of approximately the Alfvén speed in the plasma frame. These pulses were associated with a field-aligned current J(parallel) and observed in low density (approximately 0.3 cm(-3)), high temperature (T(e) approximately T(i) approximately 3x10(7) K), and beta approximately 10 plasma that included electron and ion beams streaming along B. The wave activity was enhanced from below the ion cyclotron frequency to electron cyclotron and upper hybrid frequencies. The detailed properties suggest the pulses are nonlinearly steepened ion cyclotron or Alfvén waves.     

Dust ion‐acoustic solitons with trapped q‐non‐extensive electrons,dissipative processes,and streaming ions

The characteristics of dust ion‐acoustic waves (DIAWs) that are excited because of streaming ions and hot q‐non‐extensive electrons obeying a vortex‐like distribution are investigated. By exploiting a pseudo‐potential technique, we have derived an energy integral equation. The presence of non‐extensive q‐distributed hot trapped electrons and a streaming ion beam has been shown to influence soliton structure quite significantly. The evolution of the soliton‐like perturbations in complex plasmas, taking into account the dissipation processes, are also investigated, obtained by numerically solving the modified Schamel, equation whose widths are dependant on electron trapping efficiency β. Our illustrations indicate that compressive DIAWs develop in this plasma. As the plasmas in reality have a relative flow, such an analysis can be used to understand the DIA solitary structures observed in the mesospheric noctilucent clouds.     

Mathematical simulation of the space-time evolution of fission-fragment plasma tracks

A theoretical investigation of the space-time evolution of tracks created by heavy charged particles in noble gases is given, taking into account electron and ion diffusion, electron energy relaxation due to collisions, molecular ion formation and electron-ion recombination due to ternary collisions. Results of a mathematical simulation in helium are presented.