Physisorption kinetics of electrons at plasma boundaries

Abstract

Plasma-boundaries floating in an ionized gas are usually negatively charged. They accumulate electrons more efficiently than ions which leads to the formation of a quasi-stationary electron film at the boundaries. We propose, in a colloquial manner, a physisorption-inspired quantum-kinetic description of the build-up of surface charges at inert plasma boundaries and calculate the electron sticking coefficient and the electron desorption time, which play an important role in determining the quasi-stationary surface charge, and about which little is empirically and theoretically known, from a microscopic model for the electron-wall interaction. In an exploratory calculation we specifically consider a metallic boundary. But thereby we identify quite generally what we believe are the key issues of the electronic microphysics at inert plasma boundaries in the hope to inspire other groups to join us on our journey.

accepted version, 30 pages, 14 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Surface states and the charge of a dust particle in a plasma
• Self-energy and lifetime of Shockley and image states on Cu(100) and Cu(111): Beyond the GW approximation of many-body theory

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• Plasma walls beyond the perfect absorber approximation for electrons
• Phonon-mediated sticking of electrons at dielectric surfaces
• Phonon-mediated desorption of image-bound electrons from dielectric surfaces