Electron-Electron Interaction and Heat Conduction in Gaseous Plasmas

Abstract

The phenomenon of heat conduction in gaseous plasmas is observed in order to explore the problem of the mutual electron interaction. In addition to the technique of interaction of pulsed microwaves in decaying plasmas, the phenomenon of "afterglow quenching" is exploited in the experiments. The experimental values of the thermal conductivity, in low-gas-pressure neon and xenon plasmas of adequately high charge density, are determined by two different methods. They have been found to be of the order of ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}6}$-${10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$ (joules/cm sec degree) for the electron density range ${10}^{11}$-${10}^{13}$ (${\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$) at room temperature (\ensuremath{\sim}300\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K). The most significant result of these experiments is that the thermal conductivity in the plasmas described is chiefly determined by heat flow in the electron gas of the plasma. Thus the mutual interaction of the electrons plays a predominant role in the phenomenon of heat conduction. The experimentally obtained values of the thermal conductivity are in agreement within less than one order of magnitude with those given by the theory of Spitzer and H\"arm.