Plasma

Dr.
Avradip Pradhan,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Physics,
Narajole Raj College, Narajole.
C13T (Electromagnetic Theory)

Topic – EM Wave Propagation in Unbounded Media
(Part – 2)
We have already discussed part 1 of this e-report.
Now let us continue part 2 of it.
Plasma:
Plasma exists in many forms in nature and has a widespread use in science and
technology. It is a special kind of partially ionized gas and in general consists of
positively charged ions, electrons and neutrals (i.e. atoms, molecules, radicals
etc.). Here we call an ionized gas as plasma if it is quasi-neutral and its
properties are dominated by electric and/or magnetic forces. Owing to the
presence of free charge carriers, plasma reacts to electromagnetic fields,
conducts electrical current and possesses a well-defined space potential.
Positive ions may be singly charged or multiply charged. For a plasma
containing only singly charged ions, the ion population is adequately described
by the ion density . Besides the ion density, we characterize a plasma by its
electron density and the neutral density .
Quasi-neutrality of a plasma means that the densities of negative and positive

charges are (almost) equal. In the case of plasma containing only singly charged
ions, this means that
In the presence of multiple charged ions, we have to modify this relation. If is

the charge number of a positive ion and is the density of -times charged
ions, the condition of quasi-neutrality reads
PAPER: C13T (Electromagnetic Theory)

TOPIC(s): EM Wave Propagation in Unbounded Media (Part – 2)
Dr. Avradip Pradhan,
Plasma Oscillations and Plasma Frequency. To investigate quasi-neutrality

further, let us assume that a cloud of electrons in plasma has moved to a certain
area, forming a negative space charge there (shown in Fig. 1). A similar ion
cloud is left without electrons in a distance , forming a positive space
charge. Thus one obtains between these space charge clouds an electric field
having its value at the mutual borders having cross-sectional area . We can
now estimate the value of by using Poisson’s Equation, given by
or
Fig. 1
Thus we obtain for the movement of, say, electrons, under the action of the
restoring force given by .
The equation of motion of the electrons thus becomes
or
or .

This is the equation of a simple harmonic motion with natural frequency ,

known as the plasma frequency (or electron plasma frequency), where
These plasma oscillations are oscillations of the electron charge cloud as a

whole. The inert ions are considered to remain at rest.
Electrical Conductivity of Plasma. As a first step we consider EM waves in

plasma without an external magnetic field, that is, for . In contrast to
vacuum, we may have space charge and electric current in plasma. So, we have
and here. For an applied AC electric field of the form
, the equation of motion of the electrons is plasma is given as
Here is the damping coefficient of the medium which is a dominating factor

for highly concentrated plasma, and therefore can be neglected for a dilute
plasma ( ). Therefore we have
Assuming an oscillatory solution of the form we get
or
or
The drift velocity ( ) at any instant will be equal to
From Drude Formula, we get the current density ( ) as

Comparing this result with the known formula , we get the expression
for the conductivity ( ) of a dilute plasma as
where is the plasma frequency defined before. We find that the conductivity
of a plasma is a purely imaginary quantity. We conclude that plasma is not a
typical Ohmic conductor but a reactance. There is a phase shift by 900 between
the electric field and the current density. The imaginary conductivity is due to
the inertia of the electrons, where plasma behaves like an inductance.
EM Wave Propagation through Dilute Plasma:

One of the Maxwell Equations for this case becomes
or
Taking curl on both sides of the equation, and using the fact we get
Similarly we get for the electric field
We look for a plane wave solution given by , which gives

us
or

or
This relation is known as the Dispersion Relation for a plasma. Here

is the speed of EM wave in free space or vacuum. One typical plasma
dispersion plot has been shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2
The phase velocity ( ) is calculated as
The group velocity ( ) is calculated as
Here the refractive index ( ) is calculated as .
Depending on the values of and we can have three possible cases,

(a) For , we find that the refractive index ( ) is real. Since wave number
is also real, waves can propagate without damping. Plasma behaves as a
lossless dielectric with a refractive index . Thus the phase velocity of
waves exceeds the phase velocity of electromagnetic waves in vacuum,
.
(b) For , we have refractive index and . That means, there

is no wave, but only a plasma oscillation.
(c) For , both and are imaginary. Let us consider , where is
expressed as . There is no wave propagation here. EM waves when

penetrating a plasma will decay exponentially over a length scale known as the
attenuation length ( ) given by
It plays the same role as the skin depth for a metallic conductor. For small
frequencies ( ), the attenuation length becomes independent of the
frequency.
EM Wave Propagation through Ionosphere:

The ionosphere exists between about and km above the earth’s
surface. Radiation from the sun ionizes atoms and molecules here, liberating
electrons from molecules and creating a space of free electron and ions.
Subjected to an external electric field from a radio signal, these free and ions
will experience a force and be pushed into motion. However, since the mass of
the ions is much larger than the mass of the electrons, ionic motions are
relatively small and will be ignored here. Free electron densities on the order of
to electrons per cubic metre are produced by ionization from the
sun’s rays (we take typically m-3). Layers of high densities of
electrons are given special names called the D, E and F layers, as shown in Fig.

3. During the day the F layer splits into two layers called the F1 and F2 layers,
while the D layer vanishes completely at night.
Fig. 3
Radio waves below MHz are significantly affected by the ionosphere,

primarily because radio waves in this frequency range are effectively reflected
by the ionosphere. The E and F layers are the most important for this process.
For frequencies beyond MHz, the waves tend to penetrate through the
atmosphere versus being reflected. The major usefulness of the ionosphere is
that the reflections enable wave propagation over a much larger distance than
would be possible with line-of-sight or even atmospheric refraction effects. This
is shown graphically in Fig. 4.
Let us try to understand the facts from the theoretical background. For an
electron concentration m-3, the plasma frequency ( ) of the
ionosphere becomes
s-1
or MHz.

Fig. 4
AM radio waves having typical frequency MHz get blocked, and

therefore get reflected (via total internal reflection) by the ionosphere (since
). On the other hand, FM radio waves (having typical frequency
MHz) just pass through the ionosphere due to the fact .

Reference(s):
A Short Introduction to Plasma Physics, K. Wiesemann, Ruhr-
Universität Bochum, Germany
Optics, Eugene Hecht, Pearson Education
Ionospheric Propagation (Course Notes), Sean Victor Hum, University

of Toronto
(All the figures have been collected from the above mentioned references)


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Dr.

C13T (Electromagnetic Theory)

We have already discussed part 1 of this e-report.

Now let us continue part 2 of it.

Quasi-neutrality of a plasma means that the densities of negative and positive

In the presence of multiple charged ions, we have to modify this relation. If is

PAPER: C13T (Electromagnetic Theory)

Plasma Oscillations and Plasma Frequency. To investigate quasi-neutrality

The equation of motion of the electrons thus becomes

PAPER: C13T (Electromagnetic Theory)

This is the equation of a simple harmonic motion with natural frequency ,

These plasma oscillations are oscillations of the electron charge cloud as a

Electrical Conductivity of Plasma. As a first step we consider EM waves in

Here is the damping coefficient of the medium which is a dominating factor

Assuming an oscillatory solution of the form we get

The drift velocity ( ) at any instant will be equal to

From Drude Formula, we get the current density ( ) as

PAPER: C13T (Electromagnetic Theory)

EM Wave Propagation through Dilute Plasma:

Similarly we get for the electric field

We look for a plane wave solution given by , which gives

PAPER: C13T (Electromagnetic Theory)

This relation is known as the Dispersion Relation for a plasma. Here

The phase velocity ( ) is calculated as

The group velocity ( ) is calculated as

Here the refractive index ( ) is calculated as .

Depending on the values of and we can have three possible cases,

PAPER: C13T (Electromagnetic Theory)

(b) For , we have refractive index and . That means, there

(c) For , both and are imaginary. Let us consider , where is

expressed as . There is no wave propagation here. EM waves when

EM Wave Propagation through Ionosphere:

PAPER: C13T (Electromagnetic Theory)

Radio waves below MHz are significantly affected by the ionosphere,

PAPER: C13T (Electromagnetic Theory)

AM radio waves having typical frequency MHz get blocked, and

PAPER: C13T (Electromagnetic Theory)

Optics, Eugene Hecht, Pearson Education

Ionospheric Propagation (Course Notes), Sean Victor Hum, University

PAPER: C13T (Electromagnetic Theory)

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