Ionization fronts and their velocities in a coupled Ginzburg-Landau model

Abstract

The nonlinear dynamics within the transition region between p and s waves is studied for a neon glow discharge. Starting from a coupled set of complex Ginzburg-Landau equations, the coherent ionization waves are studied where we focus on a special subclass of uniformly translating front solutions. A stability analysis is performed to give necessary conditions for the existence of wave fronts and limits of their velocities. It is shown that the wave fronts that mark the transition between s and p waves, respectively, propagate with different velocities. The front velocities strongly depend on the chosen plasma parameters. The analytical results are supplemented by numerical simulations for selected values of the plasma parameters that have relevance to experimental results.