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Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Building Langmuir Probes and Emissive Probes for Plasma Potential Measurements in Low Pressure, Low Temperature Plasmas
Published on: May 25, 2021
Charged state of a spherical plasma in vacuum
F Cornolti1, F Ceccherini, S Betti
1Dipartimento di Fisica Enrico Fermi, INFM & CNISM, Università di Pisa, Largo B. Pontecorvo 3, 56127 Pisa, Italy.
Abstract:
The stationary state of a spherically symmetric plasma configuration is investigated in the limit of immobile ions and weak collisions. Configurations with small radii are positively charged as a significant fraction of the electron population evaporates during the equilibration process, leaving behind an electron distribution function with an energy cutoff. Such charged plasma configurations are of interest for the study of Coulomb explosions and ion acceleration from small clusters irradiated by ultraintense laser pulses and for the investigation of ion bunches propagation in a plasma.
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