On The Physical Mechanism At The Origin Of Multiple Double Layers Appearance In Plasma

摘要

Double layer in plasma are nonlinear potential structures consisting of two adjacent layers of positive and negative space charges, respectively. Between these layers a potential jump exists, creating an electric field. A common way to obtain a double layer structure is to positively bias an electrode immersed into stable plasma. Under certain experimental conditions, a more complex structure in form of two or more subsequent double layers was observed, which was called multiple double layers. It appears as several bright and concentric plasma shells attached to the electrode. The successive double layers are located at the abrupt changes of luminosity between two adjacent plasma shells. However, if the electrode is large, the multiple double layers structure appears non-concentrically, as a network of plasma spots, near each other, almost equally distributed on the electrode surface. Each of the plasma spots is confined by an electrical double layer. Here, we will present experimental results on the appearance and dynamics of concentric, as well as non-concentric multiple double layers. The results prove that the same physical mechanism is at the origin of their appearance in plasma. In this mechanism, the electron-neutral impact excitations and ionizations play the key role.