Theory and Modeling of Self-Organization and Propagation of Filamentary Plasma Arrays in Microwave Breakdown at Atmospheric Pressure

Journal Article · Fri Jan 08 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.104.015002· OSTI ID:21386888

Boeuf, Jean-Pierre ^[1]; Chaudhury, Bhaskar; Guoqiang, Zhu ^[1]

---

1. Universite de Toulouse, UPS, INPT, LAPLACE (Laboratoire Plasma et Conversion d'Energie), 118 route de Narbonne, F-31062 Toulouse cedex 9 (France)

High power microwave breakdown at atmospheric pressure leads to the formation of filamentary plasma arrays that propagate toward the source. A two-dimensional model coupling Maxwell equations with plasma fluid equations is used to describe the formation of patterns under conditions similar to recent experiments and for a wave electric field perpendicular to the simulation domain or in the simulation domain. The calculated patterns are in excellent qualitative agreement with the experiments, with good quantitative agreement of the propagation speed of the filaments. The propagation of the plasma filaments is due to the combination of diffusion and ionization. Emphasis is put on the fact that free electron diffusion (and not ambipolar diffusion) associated with ionization is responsible for the propagation of the front.

• OSTI ID: 21386888
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.015002; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
AMBIPOLAR DIFFUSION
ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE
BREAKDOWN
ELECTRIC FIELDS
ELECTRONS
IONIZATION
MAXWELL EQUATIONS
MICROWAVE RADIATION
PLASMA FILAMENT
PLASMA FLUID EQUATIONS
SIMULATION
TWO-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
BOLTZMANN-VLASOV EQUATION
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
DIFFUSION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUATIONS
FERMIONS
LEPTONS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
RADIATIONS