Effect of Magnetic Field on Plasma Density Distribution

Abstract

Summary form only given. A numerical study of the fluid model for a cylindrical weakly ionized quasi-neutral plasma in an axial magnetic field is presented. The model takes into account inertia, ionization and frictional forces for ions and electrons for arbitrary magnitudes of the axial magnetic field. Accounting for both, ion inertia and nonlinear ion friction force, which is due to the ion charge exchange process, makes the model applicable for a wide range of discharge plasma conditions from near-collisionless to diffusion-dominated regime. The eigenvalue of the problem (the ionization frequency) and the plasma space distribution are found for a wide range of the magnetic parameter be=R/r e as well as electron and ion collisional parameters ce =nenR/vs and ci=R/li. Here R is the plasma radius, re is the electron cyclotron radius, nen is the electron-neutral collision frequency and v s is the ion sound speed. The behavior of plasma parameters and effect of plasma density distribution under the action of the magnetic field for a wide range of magnetic and collision parameters is discussed