Adiabatic Time Development of Plasma Sheaths

Abstract

The formation of the electromagnetic sheath separating a field free Maxwellian plasma from a confining field is treated by an adiabatic approximation. It is found that the condition imposed by the approximation is not severe. Solutions are shown for several values of the ion-electron temperature ratio. The problem is done in plane symmetry and with the collisionless approximation. The question of stability is not considered.