THEORY OF SPHERICAL PROBES IN MONOENERGETIC PLASMAS.

Abstract

The paper gives a survey of the behavior of a plasma probe in a monoenergetic isotropic homogeneous plasma. (Monoenergetic means that all electrons have the same energy, the energies of the electrons and ions may be different). The analysis is carried out in the Vlasov approximation. It begins with the derivation and a discussion of the equation for the potential in the field around the functions are specialized to delta-functions. The governing equation is a non-linear differential equation containing parameters which are ultimately defined by the solution which one wants to find. This solution is found iteratively. In order to obtain the p(th) approximation a linearization for the vicinity of the (p-1)th approximation is used. A special technique is used in order to obtain a formulation which is numerically stable. On this basis probe characteristics (probe current versus probe potential) were computed for a considerable number of cases, so that a fairly complete survey of the behavior of a probe is obtained. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 1966
Accession Number
AD0637513

Entities

People

  • Emma M. Valentine
  • Karl G. Guderley

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Delta Functions
  • Differential Equations
  • Electrons
  • Equations
  • Linear Differential Equations
  • Mathematical Analysis
  • Mathematics
  • Nonlinear Differential Equations
  • Real Variables

Readers

  • Calculus or Mathematical Analysis
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Plasma Physics.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics