Surface impedance and skin depth for transverse waves in temperature anisotropic unmagnetized plasma

Abstract

The anomalous skin depth has been calculated using the surface impedance for the transverse waves in unmagnetized plasma. The effect of temperature anisotropy on the surface impedance and the anomalous skin effect have been studied using the kinetic model for an electromagnetic wave normally impinging on a plasma surface filling the half space z > 0. It is noted that the maximum value of the real part of the surface impedance occurs when ωωpe=π8vt||cT⊥T||. The imaginary part, however, is not affected by the temperature anisotropy parameter significantly. It has been found that in the case of anisotropic plasma, the skin depth varies as ω−1 in the low frequency regime which is different from isotropic plasma where the skin depth varies as ω−1/3. In the low frequency regime, the skin depth first increases with the temperature anisotropy and then starts decreasing with an increase in the temperature anisotropy parameter η. However, in the large frequency regime, the skin depth is inversely proportional to the temperature anisotropy parameter η. These results have been confirmed by numerically plotting the surface impedance and the skin depth for a wide range of plasma parameters.