Experimental Test of Instability-Enhanced Collisional Friction for Determining Ion Loss in Two Ion Species Plasmas
- Department of Engineering Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)
Recent experiments have shown that ions in weakly collisional plasmas containing two ion species of comparable densities nearly reach a common velocity at the sheath edge. A new theory suggests that collisional friction between the two ion species enhanced by two stream instability reduces the drift velocity of each ion species relative to each other near the sheath edge and finds that the difference in velocities at the sheath edge depends on the relative concentrations of the species. It is small when the concentrations are comparable and is large, with each species reaching its own Bohm velocity, when the relative concentration differences are large. To test these findings, ion drift velocities were measured with laser-induced fluorescence in argon-xenon plasmas. We show that the predictions are in excellent agreement with the first experimental tests of the new model.
- OSTI ID:
- 21410389
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 22; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.225003; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
ARGON
COLLISIONAL PLASMA
ENERGY LOSSES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLUORESCENCE
ION DRIFT
IONS
LASER RADIATION
PLASMA INSTABILITY
PLASMA SHEATH
TWO-STREAM INSTABILITY
VELOCITY
XENON
CHARGED PARTICLES
DATA
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTS
EMISSION
FLUIDS
GASES
INFORMATION
INSTABILITY
LOSSES
LUMINESCENCE
NONMETALS
NUMERICAL DATA
PHOTON EMISSION
PLASMA
PLASMA MICROINSTABILITIES
RADIATIONS
RARE GASES