Kiel 2004 – scientific programme

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P: Plasmaphysik

P 17: Postersitzung: Plasma-Wand-Wechselwirkung III, Grundlegende Probleme Theorie II, Schwerionen- Laserplasmen II, Dichte Plasmen II

P 17.13: Poster

Wednesday, March 10, 2004, 17:45–19:30, Foyer

THEORETICAL AND NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF THE ELECTRON MOTION NEAR THE NEUTRAL POINT OF THE MAGNETIC FIELD — •Murat Vural und Ralf Peter Brinkmann — Lehrstuhl für Theoretische Elektrotechnik, Ruhr Universität Bochum

Electron heating, i.e. the conversion of directed field energy into thermal electron energy, requires a randomization process which destroys the coherence in the motion of the electrons accelerated by the field. The standard Ohmic heating, i.e. the scattering of electrons at the neutrals of the background becomes very inefficient at gas pressures below 1 Pa. In this work, we investigate the efficiency of an alternative mechanism, namely the “scattering“ of magnetized electrons at a neutral loop in the magnetic field configuration.

In the neighborhood of neutral points (where the magnetic field vanishes), however, the adiabatic invariance is destroyed and the electron motion becomes strongly chaotic. We consider a simple but realistic model of a stationary non-uniform and rotational invariant magnetic field configuration with neutral loop superimposed with an electrical RF modulation, similar to that of a neutral loop discharge (NLD). We find that the randomization of the electron motion by the neutral point provides a very efficient heating mechanism at low gas pressure.