Plasma transport under neutral gas depletion conditions

Abstract

It was previously shown that plasma transport is enhanced by neutral gas depletion when the plasma pressure is not negligible compared with the neutral gas pressure. Consequently, the plasma flux leaving the discharge is not a linear function of the central plasma density. The latest theoretical treatments of this problem have assumed isothermal fluids in pressure balance, discarding neutral gas heating. We present a model that incorporates the effects of neutral gas heating on the plasma transport enhancement. This model shows that (i) neutral gas depletion is more pronounced than previously calculated due to gas heating and (ii) as a consequence the plasma transport is further enhanced and the non-linearity of the plasma flux leaving the discharge is more pronounced.