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Plasma

Plasma is one of the four fundamental states of matter and is unique from solids, liquids, and gases. Plasma can be created by heating or subjecting a gas to strong electromagnetic fields, which increases the number of charged particles called ions and electrons. Plasma is electrically conductive and responds strongly to electromagnetic fields. Plasma exists in both natural forms, such as in stars and nebulae, and artificial forms produced in laboratories and devices. The properties of plasma, including its density, temperature, and degree of ionization, can vary widely between different plasma environments.

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45 views4 pages

Plasma

Plasma is one of the four fundamental states of matter and is unique from solids, liquids, and gases. Plasma can be created by heating or subjecting a gas to strong electromagnetic fields, which increases the number of charged particles called ions and electrons. Plasma is electrically conductive and responds strongly to electromagnetic fields. Plasma exists in both natural forms, such as in stars and nebulae, and artificial forms produced in laboratories and devices. The properties of plasma, including its density, temperature, and degree of ionization, can vary widely between different plasma environments.

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Sourav Ranjan
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Plasma (from Greek , "anything formed"[1]) is one of the four fundamental states of matter, the others being solid,liquid,

and gas. A plasma has properties unlike those of


the other states.
A plasma can be created by heating a gas or subjecting it to a strong electromagnetic field, applied with a laser or microwavegenerator. This decreases or increases the number
of electrons, creating positive or negative charged particles called ions,[2] and is accompanied by the dissociation ofmolecular bonds, if present.[3]
The presence of a significant number ofcharge carriers makes plasma electrically conductive so that it responds strongly toelectromagnetic fields. Like gas, plasma does not
have a definite shape or a definite volume unless enclosed in a container. Unlike gas, under the influence of a magnetic field, it may form structures such as filaments, beams
and double layers.
Plasma is the most abundant form ofordinary matter in the Universe (of the forms proven to exist; the more abundant dark matter is hypothetical and may or may not be
explained by ordinary matter), most of which is in the rarefiedintergalactic regions, particularly the intracluster medium, and instars, including the Sun.[4][5] A common form of
plasma on Earth is produced in neon signs.
Much of the understanding of plasma has come from the pursuit of controlled nuclear fusion and fusion power, for which plasma physics provides the scientific foundation.
Contents
[hide]

1Properties and parameters

1.1Definition

1.2Ranges of parameters

1.3Degree of ionization

1.4Temperatures

1.4.1Thermal vs. nonthermal plasmas

1.4.2Complete vs. incomplete ionization

1.5Plasma potential

1.6Magnetization

1.7Comparison of plasma and gas phases

2Common plasmas

3Complex plasma phenomena

3.1Filamentation

3.2Shocks or double layers

3.3Electric fields and circuits

3.4Cellular structure

3.5Critical ionization velocity

3.6Ultracold plasma

3.7Non-neutral plasma

3.8Dusty plasma/grain plasma

3.9Impermeable plasma

4Mathematical descriptions

4.1Fluid model

4.2Kinetic model

5Artificial plasmas
5.1Generation of artificial plasma

5.1.1Electric arc

5.2Examples of industrial/commercial plasma

5.2.1Low-pressure discharges

5.2.2Atmospheric pressure

6History

7Research

8See also

9Notes

10References

11External links

Properties and parameters[edit]

Artist's rendition of the Earth'splasma fountain, showing oxygen, helium, and hydrogen ions that gush into space from regions near the Earth's poles. The faint yellow area shown above the
north pole represents gas lost from Earth into space; the green area is the aurora borealis, where plasma energy pours back into the atmosphere.[6]

Definition[edit]
Plasma is an electrically neutral medium of unbound positive and negative particles (i.e. the overall charge of a plasma is roughly zero). It is important to note that although the
particles are unbound, they are not free in the sense of not experiencing forces. When a charged particle moves, it generates an electric current with magnetic fields; in plasma,
the movement of a charged particle affects and is affected by the general field created by the movement of other charges. This governs collective behavior with many degrees of
variation.[3][7] Three factors are listed in the definition of a plasma stream: [8][9]

1.

The plasma approximation: Charged particles must be close enough together that each particle influences many nearby charged particles, rather than just
interacting with the closest particle (these collective effects are a distinguishing feature of a plasma). The plasma approximation is valid when the number of
charge carriers within the sphere of influence (called the Debye sphere whose radius is the Debye screening length) of a particular particle is higher than unity to
provide collective behavior of the charged particles. The average number of particles in the Debye sphere is given by theplasma parameter,[ambiguous] ""
(the Greek uppercase letterLambda).

2.

Bulk interactions: The Debye screening length (defined above) is short compared to the physical size of the plasma. This criterion means that interactions in the
bulk of the plasma are more important than those at its edges, where boundary effects may take place. When this criterion is satisfied, the plasma is quasineutral.

3.

Plasma frequency: The electron plasma frequency (measuring plasma oscillations of the electrons) is large compared to the electron-neutral collision frequency
(measuring frequency of collisions between electrons and neutral particles). When this condition is valid, electrostatic interactions dominate over the processes of
ordinary gas kinetics.

Ranges of parameters[edit]
The factors of a plasma stream can vary by many orders of magnitude, but the properties of plasmas with apparently disparate parameters may be very similar (see plasma
scaling). The following chart considers only conventional atomic plasmas and not exotic phenomena like quark gluon plasmas:

Range of plasmas. Density increases upwards, temperature increases towards the right. The free electrons in a metal may be considered an electron plasma. [10]

Typical ranges of plasma parameters: orders of magnitude (OOM)

Characteristic

Terrestrial plasmas

Cosmic plasmas

Size

106 m (lab plasmas) to

106 m (spacecraft sheath) to

in meters

102 m (lightning) (~8OOM)

1025 m (intergalactic nebula) (~31 OOM)

Lifetime

1012 s (laser-produced plasma) to

101 s (solar flares) to

in seconds

107 s (fluorescent lights) (~19 OOM)

1017 s (intergalactic plasma) (~16 OOM)

107 m3 to

1 m3 (intergalactic medium) to

1032 m3 (inertial confinement plasma)

1030 m3 (stellar core)

Density
in particles per
cubic meter

Temperature

~0 K (crystalline non-neutral plasma[11]) to

102 K (aurora) to

in Kelvin

108 K (magnetic fusion plasma)

107 K (solar core)

Magnetic fields

104 T (lab plasma) to

1012 T (intergalactic medium) to

in teslas

103 T (pulsed-power plasma)

1011 T (near neutron stars)

Degree of ionization[edit]
For plasma to exist, ionization is necessary. The term "plasma density" by itself usually refers to the "electron density", that is, the number of free electrons per unit volume.
The degree of ionization of a plasma is the proportion of atoms that have lost or gained electrons, and is controlled mostly by the temperature. Even a partially ionized gas in
which as little as 1% of the particles are ionized can have the characteristics of a plasma (i.e., response to magnetic fields and high electrical conductivity). The degree of
ionization, , is defined as , where is the number density of ions and is the number density of neutral atoms. Theelectron density is related to this by the average charge state of
the ions through , where is the number density of electrons.

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