Study of plasma—solid interaction in electronegative gas mixtures

Low-temperature reactive plasmas employing electronegative gases are often used in modern technologies. Negative ions in such plasmas affect the transport of charged species and in this way influence the processes in the boundary layer between plasma and surface of metal substrate or probe. The contribution presents results of the computer experiment describing the interaction of electronegative plasma with immersed substrates. The method of solution was the particle simulation technique and several approximations were used; the most important was the simplified geometry of substrates. The simulation is based on experimental data obtained in a dc glow discharge in mixtures of oxygen with rare gases. This work is a part of the research plan MSM0021620834 that is financed by the Ministry of Education of Czech Republic.     

Step propagation of a streamer in an electronegative gas

It is shown on the basis of numerical simulation and an experimental investigation that a streamer can propagate in a step manner in an electronegative gas. The experiments and most calculations were performed for air under close to normal conditions. The step motion is associated with the appearance of a secondary ionization wave near the electrode and propagation of this wave along the channel of the streamer; this wave maintains the channel in a conducting state and allows for the propagation of the streamer in a nonuniform external field over distances which are inaccessible under ordinary conditions of a streamer discharge. Simulation in heated air, oxygen, and SF₆ demonstrated that the phenomenon studied is common for various gases and that the special features of its manifestation remain in a wide range of decay rates of the streamer channel.     

Comprehensive decay law for emission of charged particles and exotic cluster radioactivity

A general decay formula for the emission of charged particles from metastable nuclei is developed based on the basic phenomenon of resonances occurring in quantum scattering process under Coulomb-nuclear potential. It relates the half-lives of radioactive decays with the Q values of the outgoing elements with masses and charges of the nuclei involved in the decay. The relation is found to be a generalization of the Geiger–Nuttall law in α radioactivity and explains well all the known emissions of charged particles including clusters, alpha and proton.     

Coagulation of charged particles in a dusty plasma

An investigation is made of characteristic features in the behavior of small particles in a dusty plasma attributable partly to the suppression of coagulation as a result of monopolar charging for particle sizes smaller than the Debye shielding length and partly to the reduction in the effect of charging for larger particles. Similarity relations linking the plasma composition and particle charge with the parameters of the dust component are used to determine the range of parameters for which the linear approximation of the particle charge as a function of their sizes holds. A modified classical theory of coagulation in the diffusion approximation is used to study some anomalies in the behavior of the particle size distribution. It is established that unlike an ordinary aerosol, in a dusty plasma the dispersion of the distribution and the average particle size may decrease with time. It is shown for the first time that a long-lived “quasi-liquid” state of a dusty plasma may be established as a result of the anomalous behavior of the size distribution function of coagulating charged particles.     

Technological sources of charged particles with plasma emitters

At present, ion and electron beams, extensively used in industry, usually have a small cross section. Presented are generators of ion and electron flows with a large cross section using plasma emitters. These devices have a wide range of currents and voltages and are designed for metallurgical treatment and microelectronics. The author discusses a technological source of ions based on the vacuum-arc excited by a constricted discharge electron-beam installation with a large cross-section beam for microelectronics technology, a high-power electron-energy complex for heat treatment of manufactured articles and a generator of a low-energy, high-current electron beam with a plasma anode     

Velocities of charged particles at a plasma boundary

A generalized criterion has been derived for the directed velocities of charged particles at the boundary of a plasma. The well-known Bohm criterion is a special case of the condition obtained. The applicability of the generalized criterion is shown by the example of a calculation of the characteristics of the plasma in a lowpressure discharge with a hollow cathode.     

Electric strength of an accelerating gap in a plasma source of charged particles

An investigation is performed on the electric strength of accelerating gaps of plasma sources of electrons and ions in the presence of beam plasma behind the accelerating electrode. For the bipolar mode, when the gas ionization in the accelerating gas may be ignored, the conditions of bridging the gap of plasma discharge of a source with beam plasma and of disruption of emission current are found.     

Energy loss of charged particles in nonuniform electron gas

On the basis of the quantum dielectric formalism energy loss formulas for fast charged particles in a nonuniform electron gas have been obtained. The theory shows that the effect of channeling on the energy loss of charged particles remains in force at relativistic velocities too.     

Study of the fine structure of charged particles flows in the bow shock wave

The paper presents a study of the bow shock wave based on the data from an energy ion spectrometer installed on board the satellite Prognoz 8. In the experiment both the vector of total ion flux and the ion energy spectra were measured, the energy range being from 0·16 to 4·2 keV with the time resolution of about 1 sec. The paper describes a statistical data processing of basic parameters from several consecutive shock wave crossings, following each other in short time intervals. The results, compared with the behaviour of other parameters characteristic for this region, enable to draw a qualitative conclusion about the processes responsible for fast thermalization in the region after the shock wave front.Presented at the Fifth Scientific Assembly of IAGA in Prague, 1985.We would like to express our thanks to Dr. Russel who kindly supplied the data from ISEE-3 mag. field measurements. We are grateful to Dr. Vaisberg for many valuable suggestions concerning data processing and interpretation.     

Classical charged fluids at equilibrium near an interface: Exact analytical density profiles and surface tension

The structure of equilibrium density profiles in an electrolyte in the vicinity of an interface with an insulating or conductive medium is of crucial importance in chemical physics and colloidal science. The Coulomb interaction is responsible for screening effects, and in dilute solutions the latter effects give rise to universal leading corrections to nonideality, which distinguish electrolyte from nonelectrolyte solutions. An example is provided by the excess surface tension for an air-water interface, which is determined by the excess particle density, and which was first calculated by Onsager and Samaras. Because of the discrepancy between the dielectric constants on both sides of the interface, every charge in the electrolyte interacts with an electrostatic image, and the Boltzmann factor associated with the corresponding self-energy has an essential singularity over the length scalel from the wall. Besides Coulomb interactions, short-range repulsions must be taken into account in order to prevent the collapse between charges with opposite signs or between each charge and its image when the solvent dielectric constant is lower than that of the continuous medium on the other side of the interface. For a dilute and weaklycoupled electrolyte,l is negligible with respect to the bulk Debye screening length ξ_D. In the framework of the grand-canonical ensemble, systematic partial resummations in Mayer diagrammatics allow one to exhibit that, in this regime, the exact density profiles at leading order are the same as if they were calculated in a partially-linearized mean-field theory, where the screened pair interaction obeys an inhomogeneous Debye equation. In the latter equation the effective screening length depends on the distancex from the interface: it varies very fast over the lengthl and tends to its bulk value over a few ξDs. The equation can be solved iteratively at any distancex, and the exact density profiles are calculated analytically up to first order in the coupling parameter l/ξ_D. They show the interplay between three effects: (1) the geometric repulsion from the interface associated with the deformation of screening clouds, (2) the polarization effects described by the images on the other side of the interface, (3) the interaction between each charge and the potential drop created by the electric layer which appears as soon as the fluid has not a charge-symmetric composition. Moreover, the expressions allow us to go beyond Onsager-Samaras theory: the surface tension is calculated for charge-asymmetric electrolytes and for any value of the ratio between the dielectric constants on both sides of the interface. Similar diagrammatic techniques also allow one to investigate the charge renormalization in the dipolar effective pair interaction along the interface with an insulating medium.     

Application of PSP to low density gas flows

Recently optical pressure measurement systems using pressure sensitive paints (PSP) have actively developed to measure continuous pressure distributions on solid surfaces. However, the pressure range has been almost limited above 130 Pa (about 1 Torr) and there is no application to lower pressure range because the pressure sensitivity seems to be not so high in that range. In this study, we have applied three types of PSP [two types are composed by organic dye and polymer (luminophore/binder); PtOEP/GP197 and PtTFPP/poly(TMSP), and another one is Bath-Ru adsorbed on anodized aluminum] to the rarefied gas flow mainly lower than 130 Pa and examine those fundamental properties such as pressure sensitivity, leading to selection of the most suitable PSP among them for the low-pressure range. Since PtTFPP/poly(TMSP) has the highest sensitivity, it is applied successfully to the measurement of the two-dimensional pressure distribution on the surface interacting with a low density supersonic free jet.     

Interaction of charged particle flows with plasmons in two-dimensional electron gas

The theory of interaction of charged particle beams with 2D electron gas, located in the field of the delta-like potential wallU(y) =U _o(y) has been developed. The kinetic equation for plasmons in 2D electron gas was obtained; the conditions of arising of their instability are given and the corresponding expressions for the increment of plasmons are found.     

On the lifetime of charged charmed particles first direct observation of a charmed baryon decay

Two new examples of production by neutrinos and subsequent decay of charged charmed hadrons are reported. Together with two similar events reported previously they show that the lifetime of charged charmed particles is in the neighbourhood of 5 × 10^?13 s, as expected from current theoretical models. One of the new events is identified as a baryon λ_c⁺ of mass 2.295 ± 0.015 GeV/c² which undergoes the decay process λ_c⁺ → pπ⁺K^? with a proper decay time (7.3 ± 0.1) × 10^?13 s.     

Polarization's interaction and bound states of like charged particles in plasma

It has been shown that, as a result of the plasma polarization, there appears a minimum of potential energy of interaction of small like charged particles. With a use of the quasi-classical approximation, an existence condition of the bound state of two like unit charges has been obtained. An opportunity of electron pairs formation caused by the plasma polarization in high temperature superconductors is evaluated.