Thermionic and photoelectric emission of electrons from positively charged particles in a plasma with Debye shielding

Abstract

By utilizing the recent concept [G. Delzanno et al., Phys. Plasmas 12, 062102 (2005) and G. Delzanno and X. Tang, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 035002 (2014)] that the radial potential, experienced by an electron in the vicinity of a positively charged spherical particle depends on the transverse momentum of the electron, we have evaluated the rate of thermionic and photoelectron emission from a positively charged spherical particle and the corresponding average electron energy in a plasma, with Debye Screening. The effect of screening is manifested in the magnitude of a maximum in the radial potential energy versus r curve and is characterized by a parameter β which depends solely on (r0/λ). Simple expressions for the change in the rates of emission and corresponding electron energy due to inclusion of the mechanism (mentioned above) in the analysis have been derived. The results of numerical computations have been presented and discussed. Simple expressions for the rates of electron emission from positively charged particles and corresponding average electron energy are necessary in the study of kinetics of complex plasmas. This work suffers from the limitation that the Debye length and even the nature of screening is not apriori known. In general, the evaluation of the nature of shielding and the shielding length requires a self consistent computation, similar to that carried out by Delzanno and Tang [Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 035002 (2014)] in their work on thermionic emission in vacuum.