Nonlinear features associated with radio-frequency plasma sheaths

What is it about?

Plasma sheaths are thin layers of electric charge that form between material surfaces and plasmas. When radio-frequency (RF) electromagnetic waves interact with plasma sheaths, several interesting features arise due to the nonlinear physics at play within the sheath. In this paper, these nonlinear features are analyzed in detail and their consequences are elucidated.

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Photo by Lucas Santos on Unsplash

Photo by Lucas Santos on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Radio-frequency electromagnetic waves are one of the primary ways to heat a plasma to fusion temperatures. In the evolving effort to simulate the injection of these waves, it has become increasingly more important to understand how these electromagnetic waves interact with the sheath regions bounding the plasma. In this publication, new analytic results are leveraged to examine several unintuitive features that arise due to the nonlinear interaction of electromagnetic waves with plasma sheaths.