MODERN UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROPERTIES OF DC-EXCITED GAS-DISCHARGE PLASMA AS AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM IN UNIFORM WEAK LONGITUDINAL MAGNETIC FIELDS
P.F. Kurbatov
Institute of Laser Physics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
Keywords: DC gas discharge, synergetic bifurcation model, plasma reactions, coherence, longitudinal magnetic field
Abstract
Changes in the properties of a DC-excited gas-discharge plasma in uniform weak longitudinal magnetic fields are analyzed. The state and behavior of such a system in a weak magnetic field can be studied using the reaction-diffusion equation, which describes the ionization-recombination equilibrium in the plasma, together with modern concepts of ambipolar diffusion. It is shown that, in the presence of an external magnetic field, the transverse diffusion coefficient decreases, the coherence of emerging plasma states in the system is disrupted, noise or turbulence arises in diffusive and stratified regimes (including contracted ones), and the striation period increases. Complete destruction of the spatiotemporal structure of a striation occurs when the magnetic field strength exceeds a critical value. A similar effect is also achieved by increasing the working gas pressure. The presented findings allow all the above-mentioned behavioral features of the ionized gas to be interpreted as different manifestations of an integrated plasma-field system.
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