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Hydrodynamic radio‐frequency model of an ion sheath near a conductor in a plasma
Author(s) -
Morin Gilbert A.,
Balmain Keith G.
Publication year - 1991
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 - 10.1029/90rs02757
Subject(s) - conductor , admittance , debye sheath , plasma , physics , mechanics , boundary value problem , radio frequency , computational physics , boundary (topology) , atomic physics , materials science , electrical impedance , electrical engineering , mathematics , mathematical analysis , engineering , quantum mechanics , composite material
A warm‐plasma, hydrodynamic, radio‐frequency model of the ion sheath region adjacent to a conductor in a plasma is developed. The sheath has a stepped density profile consisting of several contiguous regions of uniform plasma density. A consistent set of boundary conditions developed from hydrodynamic theory is imposed on the fields at the density steps, and the absorptive boundary condition is used at the conductor‐plasma interface. When applied to calculate the radio‐frequency admittance of a spherical probe, the single‐step version of this theoretical model (1) agrees closely with the admittance calculated using hydrodynamic theory and a continuous density profile and (2) agrees at low frequencies with the admittance calculated using kinetic theory. As a consequence, the single‐step or multistep sheath models of this type should be useful in theoretical analyses of a wide range of radio‐frequency interactions involving a conductor in contact with a plasma.