Drift wave instability in the presheath of a fully ionized collisional plasma

B. Alterkop*, S. Goldsmith, R. L. Boxman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

It is shown that a presheath near a wall in fully ionized collisional plasma is unstable due to resistive excitation of electrostatic drift waves. The instability depends on the plasma inhomogeneity and resistivity but is independent of the particle flows to the wall. The wave spectrum and growth rate were calculated using a fluid model of the plasma and the Wentzel-Kramers- Brillouin approximation. The electron-wave collision frequency and the additional diffusion flux of the particles were calculated. The resistive instability may be a cause of the fluctuations in plasma parameters observed in transporting vacuum arc plasma beams through magnetized ducts.

Original languageEnglish
Article number011
Pages (from-to)670-675
Number of pages6
JournalPlasma Sources Science and Technology
Volume15
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2006

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