The Diffusion of Charged Particles in Collisional Plasmas: Free and Ambipolar Diffusion at Low and Moderate Pressures

The interpretation of measurements of the properties of weakly ionized plasmas in terms of diffusion of electrons and ions is reviewed both critically and tutorially. A particular effort is made to tie together various aspects of charged particle diffusion phenomena in quiescent, partially ionized plasmas. The concepts of diffusion length and effective diffusion coefficient and the treatment of partially reflecting boundaries are developed in the limit of the space-charge-free motion of the electrons or ions. A simplified derivation of the screening length for space charge electric fields is followed by a review of the conventional derivation of diffusion in the ambipolar limit. A discussion of the scaling parameters of the ratio of the diffusion length to the screening length and the ratio of the diffusion length to the ion mean-free-path leads to a map used to correlate published models covering the complete range of these parameters. The models of measurements of the diffusion of electrons, several types of positive ions, and negative ions are reviewed. The role of diffusion in the decay of charged particle densities and wall currents during the afterglow of a discharge is then considered. The effects of collapse of the space charge field and of diffusion cooling are reviewed. Finally, the application of the diffusion models to a number of different discharges is discussed.