Appendix F

Electron Relaxation and Thermalization Times

Spitzer [1] derived an expression for the slowing-down time of test particles (primary electrons in our case) with a velocity v = 2Vp m , where eVp is the test particle energy, in a population of Maxwellian electrons at a temperature Te . Spitzer defined the inverse mean velocity of the Maxwellian electron field particles in one-dimension as l f = m 2 kTe . The slowing-down time is then given by

s =

1+ m m

v AD l 2 f G (l f v )

(F-1)

where m is the mass of the test particles, m f is the mass of the field particles, and AD is a diffusion constant given by

AD =

8 e 4 n f Z 2 Z 2 f ln
m2

(F-2)

where Z is the charge and ln
is the collisionality parameter [2] equal to

23 ln n f 1/2 / Te 3/2 . The function G (l f v ) is defined as

G(x) =
and
( x ) is the erf function:
479

( x ) x
 ( x ) 2 x2

(F-3)

480

Appendix F

2 x 2
( x ) = 1/ 2  e y dy . 0 

(F-4)

Spitzer gave the values of G ( x ) in a table, which is plotted in Fig. F-1 and fitted. For x = 12 v greater than 1.8, a power function fits best with the relation

G ( x ) = 0.463x 1.957 .
In our case, the field particles and the test particles have the same mass, which is the electron mass, and charge Z = e . The slowing-down time is plotted in Fig. F-2 as a function of the primary particle energy for three representative plasma densities found near the baffle, in the discharge chamber, and near the grids. For 15-eV primaries in the discharge chamber plasma with an average temperature of 4 eV and a density approaching 1012 cm3, the slowing-down time is about 106 s. The slowing-down time is also plotted in Fig. F-3 as a function of the plasma density for several values of the primary electron energy, again assuming the plasma has an electron temperature of about 4 eV. As the plasma density increases, the slowing-down time becomes very small (<106 s). This will lead to rapid thermalization of the primary electrons.

0.25 0.20 0.15 Polynominal Fit 1.8 < Power Fit 0.10 0.05 0.00 y = 0.46338x1.957 R2 = 0.9995 y = 0.05409x3 0.32513x2 + 0.48955x 0.00716 R2 = 0.99686

G (x)

4 x

10

Fig. F-1. Spitzers G(x) with fits.

Electron Relaxation and Thermalization Times

481

104 Te = 4 eV 105

Time (s)

106

107

108

1e11 1e12 1e13 5 10 15 Primary Temperature (eV) 20 25

Fig. F-2. Spitzers slowing-down time as a function of the primary electron energy for three densities of electrons at 4 eV.

1.6 105 1.4 105 1.2 105 1.0 105

Time (s)

Te = 4 eV

Vp = 18 Vp = 16 Vp = 14 Vp = 12 Vp = 10

8.0 106 6.0 106 4.0 106 2.0 106 0 5.0 1010 1.5 1011 2.5 1011 3.5 1011
3

4.5 1011

5.5 1011

Primary Density (cm )

Fig. F-3. Spitzers slowing-down time as a function of the plasma density with an electron temperature of 4 eV for several primary energies.

482

Appendix F

For the case of primary electrons with some spread in energy, we can examine the time for the equilibration between that population and the plasma electrons. Assuming that the primaries have a temperature T1 and the plasma electrons have a temperature T2 , the time for the two populations to equilibrate is

 eq =

3m1/2 ( kT1 + kT2 ) 8 ( 2 )

1/2

3/2

ne 4 ln

(F-5)

As an example, the slowing time for monoenergetic primaries and primaries with a Maxwellian distribution of energies injected into a 4-eV plasma is shown in Fig. F-4. The slowing time is significantly faster than the equilibration time.

References
[1] [2] L. Spitzer, Jr., Physics of Fully Ionized Gases, New York, Interscience, pp. 127135, 1962. D. L. Book, NRL Plasma Formulary, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington D.C., pp. 3334, 38, 1987.

2.5 106 ne = 1018 m3 2.0 106

Relaxation Time (s)

1.5 106

1.0 106 Equilibrating Slowing

5.0 107

10

15 Primary Temperature (eV)

20

25

Fig. F-4. Relaxation times of monoenergetic primaries and a 18 3 Maxwellian primary population in a 4 eV, 10 m plasma.