Introduction to Plasmas

Catalog description

This course provides the education on models that are used for description of plasma phenomena as applicable to plasma confinement, plasma assisted materials processing, astrophysical plasmas and plasmas in the near Earth's space environment. It provides practical training in solution of problems involving collisional and collisionless plasmas. In particular, it investigates dynamics of charged particles in specified uniform, non-uniform and time varying electric and magnetic fields. It explores collective behavior of plasmas, including various electrostatic and electromagnetic waves that can be excited and propagate in plasmas parallel and perpendicular to the externally applied magnetic field. The course considers non-linear effects in plasmas, as typically occurring in the sheath regions near the plasma confining walls. It discusses concepts of equilibrium and stability of plasmas, and various models of unstable plasma motions, especially in relation to plasma confinement.