Nonneutral and quasi‐neutral diffusion of weakly ionized multiconstituent plasma

Abstract

A theory is developed for ambipolar diffusion in a multiconstituent weakly ionized plasma. The implications of the presence of negative ions and of differing positive ion and negative ion diffusion coefficients are found. In particular, the presence of numerous negative ions is found to enhance the diffusion of the electrons. Furthermore, this theory of multiconstituent ambipolar diffusion is extended to include the nonneutral case in which the scale length of the inhomogeneity is smaller than or of the order of the electron Debye length.