Electronic Resource
[S.l.]
:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Physics of Fluids
31 (1988), S. 2135-2143
ISSN:
1089-7666
Source:
AIP Digital Archive
Topics:
Physics
Notes:
Long-term (〉an electron transit time over the system) stability of a one-dimensional current-driven double layer is studied by numerical experiments using particles. In these experiments, the potential difference across the system is self-consistently determined by the space charge distributions inside the system. Each boundary of the system supplies a nondrifting half-Maxwellian plasma. The current density is increased by increasing the number density of the source plasma at the injection (right) boundary. A double layer can be developed by injection of a sufficiently high current density. For a fixed level of current injection, plasmas carrying no current with various densities (n ˆ0) are loaded on the left side of the system. Whether or not the generated double layer can maintain its potential drop for a long period depends on the density (n ˆ0) relative to the initial density (n@B|0) near the injection boundary: (1) the double layer is found to grow when n ˆ0=n*0; (2) the steady double layer is seen for a long period when n ˆ0(approximately-greater-than)n@B|0; (3) the double layer is found to decay when n ˆ0 is even higher than n*0. A new concept of the current polarizability Pc=J/n# is introduced for understanding these results, where J is the current density flowing through the double layer and n# is the plasma density at the injection front, i.e., the low-potential edge of the double layer. Here Pc represents the potential of negatively polarizing a plasma. The different long-term features of the double layers in results 1–3 above can be explained by analyzing physical processes to control the current polarizability Pc.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.866613
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