Oscillations of the collisionless sheath at grazing incidence of the magnetic field

Journal Article · Thu Oct 15 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3250290· OSTI ID:21272744

Shoucri, M ^[1]; Gerhauser, H; Finken, K H ^[2]

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1. Institut de Recherche d'Hydro-Quebec, Varennes, Quebec J3X 1S1 (Canada)
2. Institut fuer Plasmaphysik, Forschungszentrum Juelich, D-52425 Juelich (Germany)

An Eulerian Vlasov code is used to study the physics of a collisionless sheath with grazing angles of incidence of the magnetic field. The electrons are treated with a parallel-B kinetic equation. In the case where the ion gyroradius is large compared to the Debye length, the electrons, frozen by the magnetic field line, have to move rapidly along the magnetic field B in their attempt to follow the ions gyrating perpendicular to B. Below a critical angle of incidence of the magnetic field, the large gyroradius ions can be scraped off at the plasma-wall interface of the sheath. The electrons now determine the characteristic time for information propagation, with low frequency oscillations appearing in the system. In the case where the ion gyroradius is reduced to the same order as the Debye length, the results evolve closer to those of the classical sheath, and the amplitude of the low frequency oscillations is reduced.

• OSTI ID: 21272744
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Journal Name: Physics of Plasmas Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 16; ISSN PHPAEN; ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
DEBYE LENGTH
ELECTRONS
IONS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
PLASMA SHEATH
PLASMA WAVES