Abstract
This article presents an overview of recent advances in the field of electron kinetics in low-temperature plasmas (LTPs). It also provides author's views on where the field is headed and suggests promising strategies for further development. The authors have selected several problems to illustrate multidisciplinary nature of the subject (space and laboratory plasma, collisionless and collisional plasmas, and low-pressure and high-pressure discharges) and to illustrate how cross-disciplinary research efforts could enable further progress. Nonlocal electron kinetics and nonlocal electrodynamics in low-pressure rf plasmas resemble collisionless effects in space plasma and hot plasma effects in fusion science, terahertz technology, and plasmonics. The formation of electron groups in dc and rf discharges has much in common with three groups of electrons (core, strahl, and halo) in solar wind. Runaway electrons in LTPs are responsible for a wide range of physical phenomena from nano- and picoscale breakdown of dielectrics to lightning initiation. Understanding electron kinetics of LTPs could promote scientific advances in a number of topics in plasma physics and accelerate modern plasma technologies.
Highlights
Low-Temperature Plasmas (LTPs) can be broadly defined as plasmas with electron energies of the order of ionization potential of atoms and molecules
It turned out that the formation of distinct electron groups is a common phenomenon for dc, rf capacitive, inductive discharges, and space plasma
We present an overview of recent advances in the field of electron kinetics in low-temperature plasmas (LTPs) focusing in four areas: (1) nonlocal and nonlinear electrodynamics, (2) formation of distinct electron groups in gas discharges and space plasmas, (3) kinetics of fast runaway electrons, and (4) nonlocal and transient effects
Summary
Low-Temperature Plasmas (LTPs) can be broadly defined as plasmas with electron energies of the order of ionization potential of atoms and molecules (about 10 eV). Many of the plasma parameter definitions are based on the assumption of a Maxwellian EDF As discussed above, this assumption is not valid under most of the relevant gas discharge and space plasma conditions. Deep understanding of the particle kinetics is required for identifying the applicability of the fluid description and selecting appropriate closure models The latter depend on plasma conditions (collisionless vs collisional, magnetized vs nonmagnetized), the particle type, and energy. We present an overview of recent advances in the field of electron kinetics in LTP focusing in four areas: (1) nonlocal and nonlinear electrodynamics, (2) formation of distinct electron groups in gas discharges and space plasmas, (3) kinetics of fast runaway electrons, and (4) nonlocal and transient effects. The authors’ views on where the field is headed and on promising strategies for progress are described
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