Validity of Saha’s equation of thermal ionization for negatively charged spherical particles in complex plasmas in thermal equilibrium

Abstract

The authors have discussed the validity of Saha’s equation for the charging of negatively charged spherical particles in a complex plasma in thermal equilibrium, even when the tunneling of the electrons, through the potential energy barrier surrounding the particle is considered. It is seen that the validity requires the probability of tunneling of an electron through the potential energy barrier surrounding the particle to be independent of the direction (inside to outside and vice versa) or in other words the Born’s approximation should be valid.