An escape of fast electrons from a plasma cluster in subcritical electric field

A behaviour of electrons with high initial thermal velocities in plasma clusters is discussed in the paper. These electrons from the tail of the Maxwell velocity distribution can be accelerated into considerable energies by means of an external electric field. Both numerical and analytical estimates of the energy of the escaping electrons and an estimate of the total energy transferred by the electrons from the cluster are treated in the paper. The calculations are performed for a situation usual in coaxial and rail accelerators of the plasma clusters.