AN ION RESONANCE INSTABILITY IN GROSSLY NON-NEUTRAL PLASMAS.

Abstract

The addition of a certain fraction of ions to an otherwise stable cloud of electrons can in certain circumstances result in an instability. The case of a low density electron cloud is considered in detail. The condition for onset of the instability is that the unperturbed ion orbits (which characteristically traverse the entire electron cloud) should involve frequencies close to that of the diocotron wave that can propagate on the electron cloud. This condition is equivalent to having the ratio Zme/miq of the order of unity and is independent of the ion density. When instability is present, the growth rate is of the order of the ion plasma frequency. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1968
Accession Number
AD0676642

Entities

People

  • J. D. Daugherty
  • O. Buneman
  • R. H. Levy

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Charged Particles
  • Electrons
  • Frequency
  • Instability
  • Ion Density
  • Ions
  • Low Density
  • Physical Properties
  • Resonance
  • Resonant Frequency

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster
  • Space - Orbital Debris