On the Boil-Off Time of Probe Surfaces in Plasmas

The time required for the melting of the surface of a glass-insulated probe inserted in a plasma is computed including the influence of plasma mass motion. This effect is relevant for probe measurements in moving current sheaths of electrical gas discharges. For dense plasma focus experiments, it is shown that the time of formation of a transition layer of evaporated material is shorter than the ion relaxation time in the plasma and the transit time of the current sheath by the probe position.