Plasma Physics

Matter
— Anything that has mass and takes up space
 Matter is made up of tiny particles called atoms.
 Substances that contain only one type of atom are
elements.

What is not matter?

 Anything that does not have mass or take up space.

 Examples: heat, light, emotions, thoughts, ideas

 States of Matter
Commonly known states of matter
 Solid
 Liquid
 Gas
Basis of Classification of the three Types

 Based upon particle arrangement

 Based upon energy of particles
 Based upon distance between particles
 States of Matter
Solids
 The molecules in a solid are closely packed together and contain the least amount of
kinetic energy.
 A solid is characterized by structural rigidity and resistance to a force applied to the
surface.

Liquids
 Particles of liquids are tightly packed, but are far enough apart to slide over one
another.
 Liquids have an indefinite shape and a definite volume.

Gases
 Particles of gases are very far apart and move freely.
 Gases have an indefinite shape and an indefinite volume.
 States of Matter
What happens if you raise the temperature to super- high levels
between 1000°C and 1,000,000,000°C ?
Will everything just be a gas?
 Formation of Plasma
 When more heat is provided to
atoms or molecules, they may
be ionized.
 An electron may gain enough
energy to escape its atom.
 After the escape of electron,
atoms become ions.
 In sufficiently heated gas,
ionization happens many times,
creating clouds of free
electrons and ions.
 This ionized gas mixture
consisting of ions, electrons
and neutral atoms is called
PLASMA.
 Plasma…
 A plasma is a quasi-neutral gas consisting of positive and negative
charged particles (usually ions & electrons)
 Liquid is heated, atoms vaporize => gas
 Gas is heated, atoms collide each other and knock their electrons =>
decompose into ions & electrons (plasma).
 A plasma is a very good conductor of electricity and is affected by
magnetic fields.
 Plasma, like gases have an indefinite shape and an indefinite volume.
 Plasma…
 Plasma is considered the 4th State of
Matter despite solids, liquids and
gases.
 It is one of the fundamental states of
matter.
 Technically, it is an ionized gas
consisting of positive ions and free
electrons, typically at low pressures
(as in the upper atmosphere and in
fluorescent lamps) or at very high
temperatures (as in stars and nuclear
fusion reactors).
 Plasma should be called 1st state of Plasma particles:
matter because it is what all the The negatively charged electrons
states arise from. (yellow) are freely streaming through
the positively charged ions (blue).
 Plasma…
 Ions & electrons interact
– via short-range atomic forces (during collision)
– via long-range electro-magnetic forces due to currents and
charge
 Long range nature of electromagnetic forces means that
plasma can show collective behavior (oscillations,
instabilities)
 Plasmas can also contain some neutral particles
– Which interact with charged particles via collisions or
ionizations
– Ex. interstellar medium, molecular clouds etc.
 Simplest Plasma: equal numbers of electrons and protons
(formed by ionization of atomic hydrogen)
 States of Matter

SOLID LIQUID GAS PLASMA

Tightly packed, in a Close together with Well separated with Has no definite
regular pattern no regular no regular volume or shape and
Vibrate, but do not arrangement. arrangement. is composed of
move from place to Vibrate, move Vibrate and move electrical charged
place about, and slide past freely at high particles
each other speeds
 Examples of Plasmas

Liquid => gas

thermal energy > Van del Waasl force (10-2 eV)
Ionize to neutral atoms
Need 1~ 30 eV (104 ~ 105.5 K in temperature)
To make a fully ionized gas, we must give
large energies on the matter
Most of matter are not in plasma state on the
earth
 Occurrence of plasma
Three forms of plasma

 Plasmas occur naturally but can also be artificially made. Naturally occurring
plasmas can be Earth-based (terrestrial) or space-based (astrophysical).

There are three major types of Plasma i.e.

 Natural Plasma: Natural Plasma only exist at very high temperature or low
temperature vacuum. It do not react rapidly but it is extremely hot (over 20,000
oC). Their energy is so high that it vaporizes everything they touch.

 Artificial Plasma: Artificial Plasma can be created by ionization of a gas, as in

neon signs. Plasma at low temperature is hard to maintain because outside a
vacuum, low temperature plasma reacts rapidly with any molecule it encounters.
This aspect makes this material, both very useful and hard to use.

 Terrestrial is a plasma layer that blankets the outer reaches of the Earth’s
atmosphere.
 Plasma in early universe
 Over 99% of the matter in the visible universe is believed to be plasma.
When the atoms in a gas are broken up, the pieces are called electrons
and ions. Because they have an electric charge, they are pulled
together or pushed apart by electric fields and magnetic fields. This
makes a plasma act differently than a gas.

 For example, magnetic fields can be used to hold a plasma, but not to
hold a gas.

 Plasma is a better conductor of electricity than copper.

 Plasma is usually very hot, because it takes very high temperatures to

break the bonds between electrons and the nuclei of the atoms.

 Sometimes plasmas can have very high pressure, like in stars. Stars
(including the Sun) are mostly made of plasma.

 Plasmas can also have very low pressure, like in outer space.
 Plasmas in the Universe
 Most of (visible) universe is in form of plasma
 Plasma form wherever temperatures are high enough or
radiation is strong enough to ionize atoms

For examples
– Sun’s and star’s atmosphere and winds
– Interstellar medium
– Astrophysical jet, outflows
– Pulsars and their magnetosphere
– Accretion disk around stars and compact objects etc.
 Plasma exist wide range of number densities and temperatures
 Debye shielding
 Even though a plasma is electrically neutral in an
average sense, charge density deviates from zero if we
look at a very small region
 Electrostatic potential around an ion
– In the vicinity of ion, electrons are moving around by its
thermal motion
– Forming a kind of “cloud”
– Screens the positive charge of ion

 Investigate this screening effect quantitatively

 Debye shielding (cont.)
 Suppose immerse test particle +Q within a plasma with ni = ne = n

 At t = 0, electric potential is

 As time progresses, electrons are attracted, while ions are repelled.

As mi >> me, we neglect motion of ions.

 At t >> 0, ne > ni and a new potential is set up, with charge density
 Debye shielding (cont.)
 New potential evaluated using Poisson’s equation:

 In presence of potential, electron number density is

 Subbing this into Poisson’s equation in spherical coordinates.

 For , it can be done Taylor expansion:

 Where lD is the Debye shielding length.

 Debye shielding (cont.)
 Solution to previous is

 As r => 0, potential is that of a free charge

in free space, but for r >> lD potential falls
exponentially.
 Coloumb force is long range in free space,
but only extends to Debye length in plasma.
 For positive test charge, shielding cloud
contains excess of electrons.

Recall
 size of shielding cloud increases as electron temperature becomes high
which electrons can overcome Coulomb attraction. Also, lD is smaller
for denser plasma because more electrons available to populate
shielding cloud.
 The plasma parameter
 The typical number of particles in a Debye sphere is given by
the plasma parameter:

 If L<<1, the Debye sphere is sparsely populated, corresponding

to a strongly coupled plasma.
 Strongly coupled plasmas tend to be cold and dense, whereas
weakly coupled plasmas tend to be diffuse and hot.
 Strongly coupled plasma: White dwarf, Neutron star atmosphere
 Weakly coupled plasma: space plasma, Magnetic fusion
 Plasma in Nature and Technology
Sun & stars Aurorae Molecular cloud

Laser produced plasma plasma TV Tokamaks

 Historical background of plasma physics
 When blood is cleared of its various corpuscles there remains a
transparent liquid, which was named plasma (Greek word,
means "mouldable substance'' or ``jelly'').
 Langmuir first used this term to describe an ionized gas in 1927;
 Analogues to blood plasma that carries red and white Irving Langmuir; The Nobel
corpuscles, similarly, electrified fluid carries electrons and ions. prize winner American chemist

 Langmuir and his colleague Lewi Tonks, were working on physics and chemistry of
tungsten-filament light-bulbs, to find a way to extend the lifetime of the filament (a goal
which he eventually achieved).
 In the process, he developed the theory of plasma sheaths--the boundary layers which form
between ionized plasmas and solid surfaces.
 He also discovered that certain regions of a plasma discharge tube exhibit periodic
variations of the electron density, which we nowadays term Langmuir waves. This was the
genesis of Plasma Physics.
 Langmuir's research nowadays forms the theoretical basis of most plasma processing
techniques for fabricating integrated circuits. After Langmuir, plasma research gradually
spread in other directions, of which five are particularly significant.
 Firstly: radio broadcasting
 The development of radio broadcasting led to the
discovery of the Earth's ionosphere, a layer of
partially ionized gas in the upper atmosphere
which reflects radio waves, and is responsible for
the fact that radio signals can be received when the
transmitter is over the horizon.

 Unfortunately, the ionosphere also occasionally absorbs and distorts radio waves,
for instance, the Earth's magnetic field causes waves with different polarizations
(relative to the orientation of the magnetic field) to propagate at different
velocities, an effect which can give rise to "ghost signals'' (i.e., signals which
arrive a little before, or a little after, the main signal).
 In order to understand, and possibly correct, some of the deficiencies in radio
communication, various scientists, such as E.V. Appleton and K.G. Budden,
systematically developed the theory of electromagnetic wave propagation
through non-uniform magnetized plasmas.
 Secondly: astrophysical phenomena
 Astrophysicists quickly recognized that much of the Universe consists
of plasma, thus, better understanding of astrophysical phenomena
requires a better grasp of plasma physics.
 The pioneer in this field (Hannes Alfvén) around 1940 developed the
theory of magnetohydrodyamics (MHD) in which plasma is treated
essentially as a conducting fluid. Hannes Alfvén
 This theory has been widely and successfully employed to investigate sunspots, solar flares,
the solar wind, star formation, and a host of other topics in astrophysics.
 Two topics of particular interest in MHD theory are magnetic reconnection and dynamo
theory: Magnetic reconnection is a process by which magnetic field-lines suddenly change
their topology: it can give rise to the sudden conversion of a great deal of magnetic energy
into thermal energy, as well as the acceleration of some charged particles to extremely high
energies, and is generally thought to be the basic mechanism behind solar flares.
 Dynamo theory studies how the motion of an MHD fluid can give rise to the generation of a
macroscopic magnetic field.
 This process is important because both the terrestrial and solar magnetic fields would decay
away comparatively rapidly (in astrophysical terms) were they not maintained by dynamo
action. The Earth's magnetic field is maintained by the motion of its molten core, which can
be treated as an MHD fluid to a reasonable approximation.
 Thirdly: thermonuclear fusion
 The creation of the hydrogen bomb in 1952 generated a
great deal of interest in controlled thermonuclear fusion
as a possible power source for the future.

 At first, this research was carried out secretly, and independently, by the United States,
the Soviet Union, and Great Britain.

 However, in 1958 thermonuclear fusion research was declassified, leading to the

publication of a number of immensely important and influential papers in the late
1950's and the early 1960's.

 Broadly speaking, theoretical plasma physics first emerged as a mathematically

rigorous discipline in these years.

 Not surprisingly, Fusion physicists are mostly concerned with understanding how a
thermonuclear plasma can be trapped--in most cases by a magnetic field--and
investigating the many plasma instabilities which may allow it to escape.
 Fourthly: space plasma physics
 James A. Van Allen's discovery in 1958 of the Van
Allen radiation belts surrounding the Earth, using data
transmitted by the U.S.

 Explorer satellite, marked the start of the systematic

exploration of the Earth's magnetosphere via satellite,
and opened up the field of space plasma physics. James A. VanAllen
 Space scientists borrowed the theory of plasma
trapping by a magnetic field from fusion research, the
theory of plasma waves from ionospheric physics, and
the notion of magnetic reconnection as a mechanism
for energy release and particle acceleration from
astrophysics.
 Finally: laser plasma physics.
 The development of high powered lasers in the
1960's opened up the field of laser plasma physics.
 When a high powered laser beam strikes a solid
target, material is immediately ablated, and a plasma
forms at the boundary between the beam and the
target.
 Laser plasmas tend to have fairly extreme properties
(e.g., densities characteristic of solids) not found in
more conventional plasmas. The CLF’s laser systems are built and
maintained by our laser experts (Credit:
STFC)

 A major application of laser plasma physics is the approach to fusion energy known as
inertial confinement fusion. In this approach, tightly focused laser beams are used to
implode a small solid target until the densities and temperatures characteristic of nuclear
fusion (i.e., the centre of a hydrogen bomb) are achieved.

 Another interesting application of laser plasma physics is the use of the extremely
strong electric fields generated when a high intensity laser pulse passes through a
plasma to accelerate particles. High-energy physicists hope to use plasma acceleration
techniques to dramatically reduce the size and cost of particle accelerators.