Temperature screening and cross-field impurity accumulation from a thermodynamic perspective

•Plasma impurity accumulation can be described thermodynamically.•Ambipolarity plays a central role in determining how ions accumulate.•Temperature screening can be described generically in terms of Onsager coefficients. In a variety of different systems, high-Z ion species show a marked tendency to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics letters. A 2022-09, Vol.447 (C), p.128298, Article 128298
Main Authors: Kolmes, E.J., Ochs, I.E., Mlodik, M.E., Fisch, N.J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Differential transport
Impurity pinch
Impurity transport
Non-equilibrium thermodynamics
Plasma thermodynamics
Temperature screening
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Summary:•Plasma impurity accumulation can be described thermodynamically.•Ambipolarity plays a central role in determining how ions accumulate.•Temperature screening can be described generically in terms of Onsager coefficients. In a variety of different systems, high-Z ion species show a marked tendency to accumulate in regions of high plasma density. It has previously been suggested that the apparent universality of this behavior could be explained thermodynamically, in terms of the maximum-entropy state attainable when the system must obey an ambipolarity condition. However, the previous treatment did not allow for the possibility of temperature gradients. Here, tools from non-equilibrium (Onsager) thermodynamics are used to show that ambipolarity continues to play a key role in producing this behavior in the presence of temperature gradients, and to recover well-known temperature screening effects that appear in these cases.
ISSN:0375-9601
1873-2429
DOI:10.1016/j.physleta.2022.128298