The Influence of the Magnetic Field on the Plasma Characteristics in Hollow Electrodes Discharge System

Abstract

This work is an experimental study about the effects of gas pressure and magnetic field on plasma characteristics produced in an internal hollow electrodes discharge (HED) system. The results show that the breakdown voltage values increase with increasing the working pressure (especially with the presence of a magnetic field). The breakdown voltage depends on the p.d. product, where p is the gas pressure and d is the distance between the electrodes. While the values of current discharge decrease with the increase of the working pressure. The temperature of electron and the number density of electron are calculated from the Boltzmann method and the broadening of Stark, respectively. The results showed that the electron number density ( ) and plasma frequency ( ) increase with increasing the gas pressure, especially with the presence of a magnetic field, i.e. the plasma is more stable with the presence of magnetic field. While the electron temperature ( ) and Debye length ( ) decrease with increasing the gas pressure.