Overview

Contents:

Basics of plasmas : Plasma as a state of matter, Debye length, plasma frequency, collisions, dc conductivity, ac conductivity.

Plasma production and measurements : dc discharge, rf discharge, photo-ionization, tunnel ionization, avalanche breakdown, laser produced plasmas, Langmuir probe.

Waves and instabilities : Electromagnetic waves, Langmuir wave, ion acoustic wave, surface plasma wave, ionosphere propagation, two stream instability, Weibel instability.



Plasma confinement : Single particle motion in a magnetic field, motion in magnetic and electric fields, motion in inhomogeneous and curved magnetic fields, magnetic moment invariance, mirror confinement, tokamak confinement.

Applications : Medium and short wave communication, plasma processing of materials, laser ablation, laser driven fusion, magnetic fusion.