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Excitation of Surface Currents on a Plasma‐ Immersed Cylinder by Electromagnetic and Electrokinetic Waves. Part II.; The Inhomogeneous Sheath
Author(s) -
Miller E. K.,
Olte A.
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
radio science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1944-799X
pISSN - 0048-6604
DOI - 10.1002/rds19661121425
Subject(s) - physics , cylinder , debye sheath , surface wave , plasma , reflection (computer programming) , plane wave , mechanics , isotropy , electromagnetic radiation , electron , electrokinetic phenomena , atomic physics , optics , materials science , geometry , mathematics , quantum mechanics , computer science , programming language , nanotechnology
An investigation of the surface currents excited by plane electromagnetic (EM) and electrokinetic (EK) waves on a metal cylinder immersed in a uniform, collisionless isotropic plasma is described. The formulation is based on a linearized treatment which proceeds from velocity moments of the Boltzmann equation for electrons together with Maxwell's equations. The analysis includes the inhomogeneous sheath (assumed to be of finite thickness) which forms about the cylinder when at floating potential in the plasma, for an arbitrary angle of wave incidence. Some results of numerical calculations carried out for normal wave incidence are presented. The effects of varying the sheath thickness and static potential are examined. In addition, numerical calculations are performed assuming either complete reflection or absorption of the electrons at the cylinder surface. It is found that the surface currents for EK wave incidence are substantially in agreement with results obtamed when the actual sheath is replaced by a free‐space region. In particular, the mhomogeneous sheath model which was used has the effect of decreasing the currents excited by the EK wave compared with the case where the plasma is uniform everywhere. For EM wave incidence on the other hand, the surface currents are found to be negligibly affected, both by the inhomogeneous sheath and plasma compressibility.