Plasma currents and electron distribution functions under a dc electric field of arbitrary strength

S M Weng1, Z M Sheng, M Q He

  • 1Beijing National Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, CAS, Beijing 100190, China.

Related Concept Videos

Electric Field of Parallel Conducting Plates01:16

Electric Field of Parallel Conducting Plates

Gauss' law relates the electric flux through a closed surface to the net charge enclosed by that surface. Gauss's law can be applied to find the electric field and the charge enclosed in a region depending on its charge distribution.
Consider a cross-section of a thin, infinite conducting plate having a positive charge. For such a large thin plate, as the thickness of the plate tends to zero, the positive charges lie on the plate's two large faces. Without an external electric field, the...
Ampere-Maxwell's Law: Problem-Solving01:17

Ampere-Maxwell's Law: Problem-Solving

A parallel-plate capacitor with capacitance C, whose plates have area A and separation distance d, is connected to a resistor R and a battery of voltage V. The current starts to flow at t = 0. What is the displacement current between the capacitor plates at time t? From the properties of the capacitor, what is the corresponding real current?
To solve the problem, we can use the equations from the analysis of an RC circuit and Maxwell's version of Ampère's law.
For the first part of the problem,...
Electric Field at the Surface of a Conductor01:26

Electric Field at the Surface of a Conductor

Consider a conductor in electrostatic equilibrium. The net electric field inside a conductor vanishes, and extra charges on the conductor reside on its outer surface, regardless of where they originate.
In the 19th century, Michael Faraday conducted the famous ice pail experiment to prove that the charges always reside on the surface of a conductor. The experimental set-up consists of a conducting uncharged container mounted on an insulating stand. The outer surface of the container is...
Induced Electric Fields: Applications01:27

Induced Electric Fields: Applications

An important distinction exists between the electric field induced by a changing magnetic field and the electrostatic field produced by a fixed charge distribution. Specifically, the induced electric field is nonconservative because it does not work in moving a charge over a closed path. In contrast, the electrostatic field is conservative and does no net work over a closed path. Hence, electric potential can be associated with the electrostatic field but not the induced field. The following...
Electric Field of a Charged Disk01:23

Electric Field of a Charged Disk

The simplest case of a surface charge distribution is the uniformly charged disk. Calculating its electric field also helps us calculate the electric field of a large plane of charge.
The system's symmetry is in the cylindrical directions across the plane of the charge. As a result, the electric fields created by various surface charge elements nullify each other in the direction parallel to the surface. Thereby, the resulting electric field is perpendicular to the plane. Since the disk is...
Electrostatic Boundary Conditions in Dielectrics01:27

Electrostatic Boundary Conditions in Dielectrics

When an electric field passes from one homogeneous medium to another, crossing the boundary between the two mediums imparts a discontinuity in the electric field. This results in electrostatic boundary conditions that depend on the type of mediums the field propagates through.
Consider a case where both the mediums across a boundary are two different dielectric materials. Recall that the electric field and electric displacement are proportional and related through the material's permittivity.