Plasma potential
Plasma potential
Since plasmas are very good electrical conductors,
electric potentials play an important role. The potential as it exists
on average in the space between charged particles, independent of the
question of how it can be measured, is called the "plasma potential", or
the "space potential". If an electrode is inserted into a plasma, its
potential will generally lie considerably below the plasma potential due
to what is termed a Debye sheath.
The good electrical conductivity of plasmas makes their electric fields
very small. This results in the important concept of "quasineutrality",
which says the density of negative charges is approximately equal to
the density of positive charges over large volumes of the plasma (
), but on the scale of the Debye length there can be charge imbalance. In the special case that double layers are formed, the charge separation can extend some tens of Debye lengths.
The magnitude of the potentials and electric fields must be determined by means other than simply finding the net charge density. A common example is to assume that the electrons satisfy the Boltzmann relation:
Differentiating this relation provides a means to calculate the electric field from the density:
It is possible to produce a plasma that is not quasineutral. An electron beam, for example, has only negative charges. The density of a non-neutral plasma must generally be very low, or it must be very small, otherwise it will be dissipated by the repulsive electrostatic force.
In astrophysical plasmas, Debye screening prevents electric fields from directly affecting the plasma over large distances, i.e., greater than the Debye length. However, the existence of charged particles causes the plasma to generate, and be affected by, magnetic fields. This can and does cause extremely complex behavior, such as the generation of plasma double layers, an object that separates charge over a few tens of Debye lengths. The dynamics of plasmas interacting with external and self-generated magnetic fields are studied in the academic discipline of magnetohydrodynamics.
