Current Limitation and Inertial Resistance of an Inhomogeneous Plasma Diode

Inhomogeneous, collisionfree and bounded plasmas may support large potential drops even for steady electron motion. We present an experimental investigation of the exdended potential drops and transient current pulses, which form when a voltage drop U-a is suddenly applied to a magnetized, collision...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physica scripta 2001, Vol.64 (4), p.372-381
Main Authors: Wendt, M, Bohm, M, Torvén, S
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Inhomogeneous, collisionfree and bounded plasmas may support large potential drops even for steady electron motion. We present an experimental investigation of the exdended potential drops and transient current pulses, which form when a voltage drop U-a is suddenly applied to a magnetized, collisionfree plasma column with an axial ion density minimum. For well magnetized electrons the resistance at the current maximum agrees with the "intertial resistance" which is approximately proportional to U-a(1/2) for U-a much larger than the electron thermal temperature. The sharp drop following the current maximum is caused by the radial redistribution of the unmagnetized ions due to the transient radial electric field. For larger times (t > 10 omega (-1)(pi)) the measured resistance becomes approximately proportional to U-a as in the strong double layer that finally forms.
ISSN:1402-4896
0031-8949
0281-1847
1402-4896
DOI:10.1238/Physica.Regular.064a00372