Polaron

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A polaron is a quasiparticle used in condensed matter physics used to understand the interactions
between electrons and atoms in a solid material. The polaron concept was first proposed by Lev Landau in
1933 to describe an electron moving in a dielectric crystal where the atom move from their equilibrium positions
to effectively screen the charge of an electron, known as a phonon cloud. This lowers theelectron mobility and
increases the electron's effective mass.
The general concept of a polaron has been extended to describe other interactions between the electrons and
ions in metals that result in a bound state, or a lowering of energy compared to the non-interacting system.
Major theoretical work has focused on solving Frhlich and Holstein Hamiltonians. This is still an active field of
research to find exact numerical solutions to the case of one or two electrons in a large crystal lattice, and to
study the case of many interacting electrons.
Experimentally, polarons are important to the understanding of a wide variety of materials. The electron mobility
in semiconductor can be greatly decreased by the formation of polarons. Organic semiconductors are also
sensitive to polaronic effects, and is particularly relevant in the design of organic solar cells that effectively
transport charge. The electron phonon interactions that form cooper pairs intype-I superconductors can also be
modelled as a polaron, and two opposite spin electrons may form a bipolaron sharing a phonon cloud. This has
been suggested as a mechanism for cooper pair formation in type-II superconductors. Polarons are also
important for interpreting the optical conductivity of these types of materials.
The polaron, a fermionic quasiparticle, should not be confused with the polariton,
a bosonic quasiparticle analogous to a hybridized state between a photon and an optical phonon.

Polaron theory[edit]
L. D. Landau [1] and S. I. Pekar [2] formed the basis of polaron theory. A charge placed in a polarizable medium will be
screened. Dielectric theory describes the phenomenon by the induction of a polarization around the charge carrier.
The induced polarization will follow the charge carrier when it is moving through the medium. The carrier together
with the induced polarization is considered as one entity, which is called a polaron (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Artist view of a polaron.[3] A conduction electron in an ionic crystal or a polar semiconductor repels the negative ions and attracts the
positive ions. A self-induced potential arises, which acts back on the electron and modifies its physical properties.

Table 1: Frhlich coupling constants [4]

Material

Material

InSb

0.023

KI

2.5

InAs

0.052

TlBr

2.55

GaAs

0.068

KBr

3.05

GaP

0.20

RbI

3.16

CdTe

0.29

Bi12SiO20

3.18

ZnSe

0.43

CdF2

3.2

CdS

0.53

KCl

3.44

AgBr

1.53

CsI

3.67

AgCl

1.84

SrTiO3

3.77

-Al2O3

2.40

RbCl

3.81

A conduction electron in an ionic crystal or a polar semiconductor is the prototype of a polaron. Herbert
Frhlich proposed a model Hamiltonian for this polaron through which its dynamics are treated quantum mechanically
(Frhlich Hamiltonian).[5][6] This model assumes that electron wavefunction is spread out over many ions which are all
somewhat displaced from their equilibrium positions, or the continuum approximation. The strength of the electronphonon interaction is expressed by a dimensionless coupling constant introduced by Frhlich.[6] In Table 1 the
Frhlich coupling constant is given for a few solids. The Frhlich Hamiltonian for a single electron in a crystal
using second quantization notation is:

The exact form of gamma depends on the material and the type of phonon being used in the model. A detailed
advanced discussion of the variations of the Frhlich Hamiltonian can be found in J. T. Devreese and A. S.
Alexandrov [7] The terms Frhlich polaron and large polaron are sometimes used synonymously, since the Frhlich
Hamiltonian includes the continuum approximation and long range forces. There is no known exact solution for the
Frhlich Hamiltonian with longitudinal optical (LO) phonons and linear (the most commonly considered variant of
the Frhlich polaron) despite extensive investigations.[2][4][5][6][8][9][10][11][12][13]
Despite the lack of an exact solution, some approximations of the polaron properties are known.

The physical properties of a polaron differ from those of a band-carrier. A polaron is characterized by its selfenergy
, an effective mass
and by its characteristic response to external electric and magnetic fields (e. g.
dc mobility and optical absorption coefficient).
When the coupling is weak (

small), the self-energy of the polaron can be approximated as:[14]

and the polaron mass

, which can be measured by cyclotron resonance experiments, is larger than the band
mass m of the charge carrier without self-induced polarization:[15]

When the coupling is strong ( large), a variational approach due to Landau and Pekar indicates that the self-energy
is proportional to and the polaron mass scales as . The Landau-Pekar variational calculation [2] yields an upper
bound to the polaron self-energy
, valid for all , where
is a constant determined by
solving an integro-differential equation. It was an open question for many years whether this expression was
asymptotically exact as tends to infinity. Finally, Donsker and Varadhan, [16] applying large deviation theory to
Feynman's path integral formulation for the self-energy, showed the large exactitude of this Landau-Pekar formula.
Later, Lieb and Thomas [17] gave a shorter proof using more conventional methods, and with explicit bounds on the
lower order corrections to the Landau-Pekar formula.
Feynman [18] introduced a variational principle for path integrals to study the polaron. He simulated the interaction
between the electron and the polarization modes by a harmonic interaction between a hypothetical particle and the
electron. The analysis of an exactly solvable ("symmetrical") 1D-polaron model,[19][20] Monte Carlo schemes [21][22] and
other numerical schemes [23] demonstrate the remarkable accuracy of Feynman's path-integral approach to the
polaron ground-state energy. Experimentally more directly accessible properties of the polaron, such as its mobility
and optical absorption, have been investigated subsequently.

Polaron optical absorption[edit]

The expression for the magnetooptical absorption of a polaron is:[24]

Here,
is the cyclotron frequency for a rigid-band electron. The magnetooptical absorption () at the frequency
takes the form () is the so-called "memory function", which describes the dynamics of the polaron. () depends
also on , what is beta? and
.
In the absence of an external magnetic field (
) the optical absorption spectrum (3) of the polaron at weak
coupling is determined by the absorption of radiation energy, which is reemitted in the form of LO phonons. At larger
coupling,
, the polaron can undergo transitions toward a relatively stable internal excited state called the
"relaxed excited state" (RES) (see Fig. 2). The RES peak in the spectrum also has a phonon sideband, which is
related to a Franck-Condon-type transition.

Fig.2. Optical absorption of a polaron at

and 6. The RES peak is very intense compared with the Franck-Condon (FC) peak. [10][25]

A comparison of the DSG results [25] with the optical conductivity spectra given by approximation-free
numerical [26] and approximate analytical approaches is given in ref.[27]
Calculations of the optical conductivity for the Frhlich polaron performed within the Diagrammatic Quantum Monte
Carlo method,[26] see Fig. 3, fully confirm the results of the path-integral variational approach [25] at

In the

intermediate coupling regime

the low-energy behavior and the position of the maximum of
the optical conductivity spectrum of ref.[26] follow well the prediction of ref.[25] There are the following qualitative
differences between the two approaches in the intermediate and strong coupling regime: in ref.,[26] the dominant peak
broadens and the second peak does not develop, giving instead rise to a flat shoulder in theoptical
conductivity spectrum at
. This behavior can be attributed to the optical processes with participation of
two [28] or more phonons. The nature of the excited states of a polaron needs further study.

Fig. 3: Optical conductivity spectra calculated within the Diagrammatic Quantum Monte Carlo method (open circles) compared to the DSG
calculations (solid lines).[25][26]

The application of a sufficiently strong external magnetic field allows one to satisfy the resonance
condition
, which {(for
)} determines the polaron cyclotron resonance
frequency. From this condition also the polaron cyclotron mass can be derived. Using the most accurate theoretical
polaron models to evaluate

, the experimental cyclotron data can be well accounted for.

Evidence for the polaron character of charge carriers in AgBr and AgCl was obtained through high-precision cyclotron
resonance experiments in external magnetic fields up to 16 T.[29] The all-coupling magneto-absorption calculated in
ref.,[24] leads to the best quantitative agreement between theory and experiment for AgBr and AgCl. This quantitative
interpretation of the cyclotron resonance experiment in AgBr and AgCl [29] by the theory of ref.[24] provided one of the
most convincing and clearest demonstrations of Frhlich polaron features in solids.

Experimental data on the magnetopolaron effect, obtained using far-infrared photoconductivity techniques, have been
applied to study the energy spectrum of shallow donors in polar semiconductor layers of CdTe.[30]
The polaron effect well above the LO phonon energy was studied through cyclotron resonance measurements, e. g.,
in II-VI semiconductors, observed in ultra-high magnetic fields.[31] The resonant polaron effect manifests itself when
the cyclotron frequency approaches the LO phonon energy in sufficiently high magnetic fields.

Polarons in two dimensions and in quasi-2D structures[edit]

The great interest in the study of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) has also resulted in many investigations
on the properties of polarons in two dimensions.[32][33][34] A simple model for the 2D polaron system consists of an
electron confined to a plane, interacting via the Frhlich interaction with the LO phonons of a 3D surrounding
medium. The self-energy and the mass of such a 2D polaron are no longer described by the expressions valid in 3D;
for weak coupling they can be approximated as:[35][36]

It has been shown that simple scaling relations exist, connecting the physical properties of polarons in 2D with those
in 3D. An example of such a scaling relation is:[34]

where

) and

) are, respectively, the polaron and the electron-band masses in 2D (3D).

The effect of the confinement of a Frhlich polaron is to enhance the effective polaron coupling. However, manyparticle effects tend to counterbalance this effect because of screening.[32][37]
Also in 2D systems cyclotron resonance is a convenient tool to study polaron effects. Although several other effects
have to be taken into account (nonparabolicity of the electron bands, many-body effects, the nature of the confining
potential, etc.), the polaron effect is clearly revealed in the cyclotron mass. An interesting 2D system consists of
electrons on films of liquid He.[38][39] In this system the electrons couple to the ripplons of the liquid He, forming
"ripplopolarons". The effective coupling can be relatively large and, for some values of the parameters, self-trapping
can result. The acoustic nature of the ripplon dispersion at long wavelengths is a key aspect of the trapping.
For GaAs/AlxGa1-xAs quantum wells and superlattices, the polaron effect is found to decrease the energy of the
shallow donor states at low magnetic fields and leads to a resonant splitting of the energies at high magnetic fields.
The energy spectra of such polaronic systems as shallow donors ("bound polarons"), e. g., the D0 and D- centres,
constitute the most complete and detailed polaron spectroscopy realised in the literature.[40]
In GaAs/AlAs quantum wells with sufficiently high electron density, anticrossing of the cyclotron-resonance spectra
has been observed near the GaAs transverse optical (TO) phonon frequency rather than near the GaAs LO-phonon
frequency.[41] This anticrossing near the TO-phonon frequency was explained in the framework of the polaron theory.
[41]

Besides optical properties,[4][12][42] many other physical properties of polarons have been studied, including the
possibility of self-trapping, polaron transport,[43] magnetophonon resonance, etc.

Extensions of the polaron concept[edit]

Significant are also the extensions of the polaron concept: acoustic polaron, piezoelectric polaron, electronic polaron,
bound polaron, trapped polaron, spin polaron, molecular polaron, solvated polarons, polaronic exciton, Jahn-Teller
polaron, small polaron, bipolarons and many-polaron systems.[4] These extensions of the concept are invoked, e. g.,
to study the properties of conjugated polymers, colossal magnetoresistance perovskites, highsuperconductors,
layered MgB2 superconductors, fullerenes, quasi-1D conductors, semiconductor nanostructures.
The possibility that polarons and bipolarons play a role in highsuperconductors has renewed interest in the
physical properties of many-polaron systems and, in particular, in their optical properties. Theoretical treatments have
been extended from one-polaron to many-polaron systems.[4][44][45]
A new aspect of the polaron concept has been investigated for semiconductor nanostructures: the exciton-phonon
states are not factorizable into an adiabatic product Ansatz, so that a non-adiabatictreatment is needed.[46] The nonadiabaticity of the exciton-phonon systems leads to a strong enhancement of the phonon-assisted transition
probabilities (as compared to those treated adiabatically) and to multiphonon optical spectra that are considerably
different from the Franck-Condon progression even for small values of the electron-phonon coupling constant as is
the case for typical semiconductor nanostructures.[46]
In biophysics Davydov soliton is a propagating along the protein -helix self-trapped amide I excitation that is a
solution of the Davydov Hamiltonian. The mathematical techniques that are used to analyze Davydov's soliton are
similar to some that have been developed in polaron theory. In this context the Davydov soliton corresponds to
a polaron that is (i) large so the continuum limit approximation in justified, (ii) acoustic because the self-localization
arises from interactions with acoustic modes of the lattice, and (iii) weakly coupled because the anharmonic energy is
small compared with the phonon bandwidth.[47]
More recently it was shown that the system of an impurity in a Bose-Einstein condensate is also a member of the
polaron family.[48] This is very promising for experimentally probing the hitherto inaccessible strong coupling regime
since in this case interaction strengths can be externally tuned through the use of a Feshbach resonance.

Polariton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dispersion relation of polaritons in GaP. Red curves are the uncoupled phonon and photon dispersion relations, black curves are the result
of coupling (from top to bottom: upper polariton, LO phonon, lower polariton).

In physics, polaritons /plrtnz/ are quasiparticles resulting from strong coupling of electromagnetic
waves with an electric or magnetic dipole-carrying excitation. They are an expression of the
common quantum phenomenon known as level repulsion, also known as the avoided crossing principle.
Polaritons describe the crossing of the dispersion of light with any interacting resonance.
Contents
[hide]

1 Types

2 Principles

3 See

4 References

5 Further

of Polaritons
of Polaritons

also

reading

Types of Polaritons[edit]
Thus, a polariton is the result of the mixing of a photon with an excitation of a material. The following are types
of polaritons:

Phonon-polaritons result from coupling of an infrared photon with an optic phonon;

Exciton-polaritons result from coupling of visible light with an exciton

intersubband-polaritons result from coupling of an infrared or terahertz photon with an intersubband

excitation.

Surface plasmon polaritons, resulting from coupling of surface plasmons with light (the wavelength
depends on the substance and its geometry).

Bragg-polaritons or Braggoritons, have been observed

[1]

and studied theoretically.

Principles of Polaritons[edit]
Whenever the polariton picture is valid, the model of photons propagating freely in crystals is insufficient. A
major feature of polaritons is a strong dependency of the propagation speed of light through the crystal on
the frequency. For exciton-polaritons, rich experimental results on various aspects have been gained in copper
(I) oxide.
The polariton is a bosonic quasiparticle, and should not be confused with the polaron, a fermionic one, e.g. an
electron plus attached phonon cloud. Polaritons were first considered theoretically by Kirill Borisovich Tolpygo,[2]
[3]

a Ukrainian physicist, and were initially termed light-excitons in Ukrainian and Russian scientific literature.

Plasmon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In physics, a plasmon is a quantum of plasma oscillation. The plasmon is a quasiparticle resulting from
the quantization of plasma oscillations just as photons and phonons are quantizations of electromagnetic
and mechanical vibrations, respectively (although the photon is an elementary particle, not a quasiparticle).
Thus, plasmons are collective oscillations of the free electron gas density, for example, at optical frequencies.
Plasmons can couple with a photon to create another quasiparticle called a plasma polariton.
Since plasmons are the quantization of classical plasma oscillations, most of their properties can be derived
directly from Maxwell's equations.
Contents
[hide]

1 Explanation

1.1 Role of plasmons

2 Surface plasmons

3 Possible applications

4 See also

5 References

6 External links

Explanation[edit]
Plasmons can be described in the classical picture as an oscillation of free electron density with respect to the
fixed positive ions in a metal. To visualize a plasma oscillation, imagine a cube of metal placed in an
external electric field pointing to the right. Electrons will move to the left side (uncovering positive ions on the
right side) until they cancel the field inside the metal. If the electric field is removed, the electrons move to the
right, repelled by each other and attracted to the positive ions left bare on the right side. They oscillate back
and forth at the plasma frequency until the energy is lost in some kind ofresistance or damping. Plasmons are
a quantization of this kind of oscillation.

Role of plasmons[edit]
Plasmons play a large role in the optical properties of metals. Light of frequency below the plasma
frequency is reflected, because the electrons in the metal screen the electric field of the light. Light of frequency
above the plasma frequency is transmitted, because the electrons cannot respond fast enough to screen it. In
most metals, the plasma frequency is in the ultraviolet, making them shiny (reflective) in the visible range.
Some metals, such as copper[1] and gold,[2] have electronic interband transitions in the visible range, whereby
specific light energies (colors) are absorbed, yielding their distinct color. In semiconductors, the valence
electron plasma frequency is usually in the deep ultraviolet, [3][4] which is why they are reflective.
The plasmon energy can often be estimated in the free electron model as

where

is the conduction electron density,

the permittivity of free space,

is the elementary charge,

the reduced Planck constant and

is the electron mass,

the plasmon frequency.

Surface plasmons[edit]
Main article: Surface plasmon
Surface plasmons are those plasmons that are confined to surfaces and that interact strongly with light
resulting in a polariton.[5] They occur at the interface of a vacuum and material with a small positive
imaginary and large negative real dielectric constant (usually a metal or doped dielectric). They play a role
in Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy and in explaining anomalies in diffraction from
metalgratings (Wood's anomaly), among other things. Surface plasmon resonance is used
by biochemists to study the mechanisms and kinetics of ligands binding to receptors (i.e. a substrate
binding to anenzyme).

Gothic stained glass rose window ofNotre-Dame de Paris. The colors were achieved by colloids of gold nano-particles.

More recently surface plasmons have been used to control colors of materials. [6] This is possible since
controlling the particle's shape and size determines the types of surface plasmons that can couple to it and
propagate across it. This in turn controls the interaction of light with the surface. These effects are
illustrated by the historic stained glass which adorn medieval cathedrals. In this case, the color is given by
metal nanoparticles of a fixed size which interact with the optical field to give the glass its vibrant color. In
modern science, these effects have been engineered for both visible light and microwave radiation. Much
research goes on first in the microwave range because at this wavelength material surfaces can be
produced mechanically as the patterns tend to be of the order a few centimeters. To produce optical range
surface plasmon effects involves producing surfaces which have features <400 nm. This is much more
difficult and has only recently become possible to do in any reliable or available way.

Possible applications[edit]
Position and intensity of plasmon absorption and emission peaks are affected by molecular adsorption,
which can be used in molecular sensors. For example, a fully operational prototype device
detecting casein in milk has been fabricated. The device is based on detecting a change in absorption of a
gold layer.[7] Localized surface plasmons of metal nanoparticles can be used for sensing different types
molecules, proteins, etc.
Plasmons are being considered as a means of transmitting information on computer chips, since plasmons
can support much higher frequencies (into the 100 THzrange, while conventional wires become very lossy
in the tens of GHz). However, for plasmon-based electronics to be useful, the analog to the transistor,
called aplasmonster, first needs to be created.[8]
Plasmons have also been proposed as a means of high-resolution lithography and microscopy due to their
extremely small wavelengths. Both of these applications have seen successful demonstrations in the lab
environment. Finally, surface plasmons have the unique capacity to confine light to very small dimensions
which could enable many new applications.
Surface plasmons are very sensitive to the properties of the materials on which they propagate. This has
led to their use to measure the thickness of monolayers on colloid films, such as screening and
quantifying protein binding events. Companies such as Biacore have commercialized instruments which
operate on these principles. Optical surface plasmons are being investigated with a view to improve
makeup by L'Oral among others.[9]
In 2009, a Korean research team found a way to greatly improve organic light-emitting diode efficiency with
the use of plasmons.[10]
A group of European researchers led by IMEC has begun work to improve solar cell efficiencies and costs
through incorporation of metallic nanostructures (using plasmonic effects) that can enhance absorption of
light into different types of solar cells: crystalline silicon (c-Si), high-performance III-V, organic, and dyesensitized solar cells. [11]
Full color holograms using plasmonics[12] have been demonstrated.

Plasma (physics)
Plasma oscillation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Plasma oscillations, also known as "Langmuir waves" (after Irving Langmuir), are rapid oscillations of
the electron density in conducting media such as plasmas or metals. The oscillations can be described as an
instability in the dielectric function of a free electron gas. The frequency only depends weakly on the
wavelength of the oscillation. The quasiparticle resulting from the quantization of these oscillations is
the plasmon.
Langmuir waves were discovered by American physicists Irving Langmuir and Lewi Tonks in the 1920s. They
are parallel in form to Jeans instability waves, which are caused by gravitational instabilities in a static medium.

Explanation[edit]
Consider an electrically neutral plasma in equilibrium, consisting of a gas of positively charged ions and
negatively charged electrons. If one displaces by a tiny amount all of the electrons with respect to the ions,
the Coulomb force pulls the electrons back, acting as a restoring force.

'Cold' electrons[edit]
If the thermal motion of the electrons is ignored, it is possible to show that the charge density oscillates at
the plasma frequency

(SI units),

(cgs units),
where

is the number density of electrons, e is the electric charge, m* is the effective mass of the

electron, and

is the permittivity of free space. Note that the above formula is derived under

theapproximation that the ion mass is infinite. This is generally a good approximation, as the electrons
are so much lighter than ions. (One must modify this expression in the case of electronpositron plasmas, often encountered in astrophysics).[1] Since the frequency is independent of
the wavelength, these oscillations have an infinite phase velocity and zero group velocity.
Note that, if

is electron mass

constants and concentration of electrons

is
Hz

, plasma frequency

depends only on physical

. The numeric expression for plasma ordinary frequency

with number density

in cm3.

'Warm' electrons[edit]

When the effects of the electron thermal speed

are taken into

account, the electron pressure acts as a restoring force as well as the electric field and the
oscillations propagate with frequency and wavenumber related by the longitudinal
Langmuir[2] wave:

,
called the Bohm-Gross dispersion relation. If the spatial scale is large compared to
the Debye length, the oscillations are only weakly modified by the pressure term, but at
small scales the pressure term dominates and the waves become dispersionless with a
speed of

. For such waves, however, the electron thermal speed is

comparable to the phase velocity, i.e.,

so the plasma waves can accelerate electrons that are moving with speed nearly
equal to the phase velocity of the wave. This process often leads to a form of
collisionless damping, called Landau damping. Consequently, the large-k portion in
the dispersion relation is difficult to observe and seldom of consequence.
In a bounded plasma, fringing electric fields can result in propagation of plasma
oscillations, even when the electrons are cold.
In a metal or semiconductor, the effect of the ions' periodic potential must be taken
into account. This is usually done by using the electrons' effective mass in place
of m.

Plasma (from Greek , "anything formed"[1]) is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others
being solid, liquid, and gas). It comprises the major component of the Sun. Heating a gas may ionize its
molecules or atoms (reducing or increasing the number of electrons in them), thus turning it into a plasma,
which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions.[2] Ionization can be induced by

other means, such as strong electromagnetic field applied with a laser or microwave generator, and is
accompanied by the dissociation of molecular bonds, if present.[3] Plasma can also be created by the
application of an electric field on a gas, where the underlying process is the Townsend avalanche.
The presence of a non-negligible number of charge carriers makes the plasma electrically conductive so that it
responds strongly to electromagnetic fields. Plasma, therefore, has properties quite unlike those
of solids, liquids, or gases and is considered a distinct state of matter. Like gas, plasma does not have a
definite shape or a definite volume unless enclosed in a container; unlike gas, under the influence of a
magnetic field, it may form structures such as filaments, beams and double layers. Some common plasmas are
found in stars and neon signs. In the universe, plasma is the most common state of matter for ordinary matter,
most of which is in the rarefied intergalactic plasma (particularly intracluster medium) and in stars. Much of the
understanding of plasmas has come from the pursuit of controlled nuclear fusion and fusion power, for which
plasma physics provides the scientific basis.

Properties and parameters[edit]

Artist's rendition of the Earth'splasma fountain, showing oxygen, helium, and hydrogen ions that gush into space from regions near the
Earth's poles. The faint yellow area shown above the north pole represents gas lost from Earth into space; the green area is the aurora
borealis, where plasma energy pours back into the atmosphere. [4]

Definition[edit]
Plasma is loosely described as an electrically neutral medium of positive and negative particles (i.e. the overall
charge of a plasma is roughly zero). It is important to note that although they are unbound, these particles are
not free. When the charges move they generate electrical currents with magnetic fields, and as a result, they

are affected by each others fields. This governs their collective behavior with many degrees of freedom. [3][5] A
definition can have three criteria:[6][7]
1. The plasma approximation: Charged particles must be close enough together that each particle
influences many nearby charged particles, rather than just interacting with the closest particle (these
collective effects are a distinguishing feature of a plasma). The plasma approximation is valid when
the number of charge carriers within the sphere of influence (called the Debye sphere whose radius is
the Debye screening length) of a particular particle is higher than unity to provide collective behavior
of the charged particles. The average number of particles in the Debye sphere is given by the plasma
parameter, "" (the Greek letter Lambda).
2. Bulk interactions: The Debye screening length (defined above) is short compared to the physical size
of the plasma. This criterion means that interactions in the bulk of the plasma are more important than
those at its edges, where boundary effects may take place. When this criterion is satisfied, the plasma
is quasineutral.
3. Plasma frequency: The electron plasma frequency (measuring plasma oscillations of the electrons) is
large compared to the electron-neutral collision frequency (measuring frequency of collisions between
electrons and neutral particles). When this condition is valid, electrostatic interactions dominate over
the processes of ordinary gas kinetics.

Ranges of parameters[edit]
Plasma parameters can take on values varying by many orders of magnitude, but the properties of plasmas
with apparently disparate parameters may be very similar (see plasma scaling). The following chart considers
only conventional atomic plasmas and not exotic phenomena like quark gluon plasmas:

Range of plasmas. Density increases upwards, temperature increases towards the right. The free electrons in a metal may be considered
an electron plasma.[8]

Typical ranges of plasma parameters: orders of magnitude (OOM)

Characteri
stic

Terrestrial plasmas

Cosmic plasmas

Size
in meters

106 m (lab plasmas) to

102 m (lightning) (~8 OOM)

106 m (spacecraft sheath) to

1025 m (intergalactic nebula)
(~31 OOM)

Lifetime
in seconds

1012 s (laser-produced plasma)

to
107 s (fluorescent lights) (~19
OOM)

101 s (solar flares) to

1017 s (intergalactic plasma)
(~16 OOM)

Density
107 m3 to
in particles
1032 m3 (inertial confinement
per
plasma)
cubic meter

1 m3 (intergalactic medium) to
1030 m3 (stellar core)

Temperatu ~0 K (crystalline non-neutral

re
plasma[9]) to
in kelvin
108 K (magnetic fusion plasma)

102 K (aurora) to
107 K (solar core)

Magnetic
fields
in teslas

1012 T (intergalactic medium) to

1011 T (near neutron stars)

104 T (lab plasma) to

103 T (pulsed-power plasma)

Degree of ionization[edit]
For plasma to exist, ionization is necessary. The term "plasma density" by itself usually refers to the "electron
density", that is, the number of free electrons per unit volume. The degree of ionization of a plasma is the
proportion of atoms that have lost or gained electrons, and is controlled mostly by the temperature. Even a
partially ionized gas in which as little as 1% of the particles are ionized can have the characteristics of a plasma
(i.e., response to magnetic fields and high electrical conductivity). The degree of ionization, , is defined
as = ni/(ni + na) where ni is the number density of ions and na is the number density of neutral atoms.
Theelectron density is related to this by the average charge state <Z> of the ions through ne =
<Z> ni where ne is the number density of electrons.

Temperatures[edit]
See also: Nonthermal plasma
Plasma temperature is commonly measured in kelvin or electronvolts and is, informally, a measure of the
thermal kinetic energy per particle. Very high temperatures are usually needed to sustain ionization, which is a
defining feature of a plasma. The degree of plasma ionization is determined by the "electron temperature"
relative to the ionization energy (and more weakly by the density), in a relationship called the Saha equation. At
low temperatures, ions and electrons tend to recombine into bound statesatoms [10]and the plasma will
eventually become a gas.
In most cases the electrons are close enough to thermal equilibrium that their temperature is relatively welldefined, even when there is a significant deviation from a Maxwellian energy distribution function, for example,
due to UV radiation, energetic particles, or strong electric fields. Because of the large difference in mass, the
electrons come to thermodynamic equilibrium amongst themselves much faster than they come into equilibrium
with the ions or neutral atoms. For this reason, the "ion temperature" may be very different from (usually lower
than) the "electron temperature". This is especially common in weakly ionized technological plasmas, where
the ions are often near the ambient temperature.

Thermal vs. non-thermal plasmas[edit]

Based on the relative temperatures of the electrons, ions and neutrals, plasmas are classified as "thermal" or
"non-thermal". Thermal plasmas have electrons and the heavy particles at the same temperature, i.e., they are
in thermal equilibrium with each other. Non-thermal plasmas on the other hand have the ions and neutrals at a
much lower temperature (sometimes room temperature), whereas electrons are much "hotter" (T e >> Tneutrals).
A plasma is sometimes referred to as being "hot" if it is nearly fully ionized, or "cold" if only a small fraction (for
example 1%) of the gas molecules are ionized, but other definitions of the terms "hot plasma" and "cold
plasma" are common. Even in a "cold" plasma, the electron temperature is still typically several thousand
degrees Celsius. Plasmas utilized in "plasma technology" ("technological plasmas") are usually cold plasmas in
the sense that only a small fraction of the gas molecules are ionized.
Since plasmas are very good electrical conductors, electric potentials play an important role. The potential as it
exists on average in the space between charged particles, independent of the question of how it can be
measured, is called the "plasma potential", or the "space potential". If an electrode is inserted into a plasma, its
potential will generally lie considerably below the plasma potential due to what is termed a Debye sheath. The
good electrical conductivity of plasmas makes their electric fields very small. This results in the important
concept of "quasineutrality", which says the density of negative charges is approximately equal to the density of
positive charges over large volumes of the plasma (ne = <Z>ni), but on the scale of the Debye length there can

be charge imbalance. In the special case that double layers are formed, the charge separation can extend
some tens of Debye lengths.
The magnitude of the potentials and electric fields must be determined by means other than simply finding the
net charge density. A common example is to assume that the electrons satisfy the Boltzmann relation:

Differentiating this relation provides a means to calculate the electric field from the density:

It is possible to produce a plasma that is not quasineutral. An electron beam, for example, has only
negative charges. The density of a non-neutral plasma must generally be very low, or it must be very
small, otherwise it will be dissipated by the repulsive electrostatic force.
In astrophysical plasmas, Debye screening prevents electric fields from directly affecting the plasma
over large distances, i.e., greater than the Debye length. However, the existence of charged particles
causes the plasma to generate and can be affected by magnetic fields. This can and does cause
extremely complex behavior, such as the generation of plasma double layers, an object that separates
charge over a few tens of Debye lengths. The dynamics of plasmas interacting with external and selfgenerated magnetic fields are studied in the academic discipline of magnetohydrodynamics.

Magnetization[edit]
Plasma with a magnetic field strong enough to influence the motion of the charged particles is said to
be magnetized. A common quantitative criterion is that a particle on average completes at least one
gyration around the magnetic field before making a collision, i.e., ce/coll > 1, where ce is the
"electron gyrofrequency" and coll is the "electron collision rate". It is often the case that the electrons
are magnetized while the ions are not. Magnetized plasmas are anisotropic, meaning that their
properties in the direction parallel to the magnetic field are different from those perpendicular to it.
While electric fields in plasmas are usually small due to the high conductivity, the electric field
associated with a plasma moving in a magnetic field is given by E = v B (where E is the electric
field, v is the velocity, and B is the magnetic field), and is not affected by Debye shielding.[12]

Comparison of plasma and gas phases[edit]

Plasma is often called the fourth state of matter after solid, liquids and gases.[13][14] It is distinct from
these and other lower-energy states of matter. Although it is closely related to the gas phase in that it
also has no definite form or volume, it differs in a number of ways, including the following:
Property

Gas

Plasma

Very low: Air is an

excellent insulator
Electrical until it breaks down
Usually very high: For many purposes, the conductivity
conductivit into plasma at electric
of a plasma may be treated as infinite.
y
field strengths above
30 kilovolts per
centimeter.[15]

One: All gas particles

behave in a similar
Independe
way, influenced
ntly acting
by gravity and
species
bycollisions with one
another.

Two or three: Electrons, ions, protons and neutrons can

be distinguished by the sign and value of their charge so
that they behave independently in many circumstances,
with different bulk velocities and temperatures, allowing
phenomena such as new types ofwaves and instabilities.

Maxwellian:
Collisions usually lead
to a Maxwellian
Velocity
velocity distribution of
distribution
all gas particles, with
very few relatively fast
particles.

Often non-Maxwellian: Collisional interactions are often

weak in hot plasmas and external forcing can drive the
plasma far from local equilibrium and lead to a significant
population of unusually fast particles.

Binary: Two-particle
Collective: Waves, or organized motion of plasma, are
Interaction collisions are the rule,
very important because the particles can interact at long
s
three-body collisions
ranges through the electric and magnetic forces.
extremely rare.

Plasma parameters define various characteristics of a plasma, an electrically conductive collection of charged
particles that responds collectively toelectromagnetic forces. Plasma typically takes the form of neutral gas-like
clouds or charged ion beams, but may also include dust and grains. [1] The behaviour of such particle systems can be
studied statistically.

Fundamental plasma parameters[edit]

All quantities are in Gaussian (cgs) units except temperature expressed in eV and ion mass expressed in units of
the proton mass
; Zis charge state; k is Boltzmann's constant; K is wavenumber; is the adiabatic
index; ln is the Coulomb logarithm.

Frequencies[edit]

electron gyrofrequency, the angular frequency of the circular motion of an electron in the plane
perpendicular to the magnetic field:

ion gyrofrequency, the angular frequency of the circular motion of an ion in the plane perpendicular to the
magnetic field:

electron plasma frequency, the frequency with which electrons oscillate (plasma oscillation):

ion plasma frequency:

electron trapping rate:

ion trapping rate:

electron collision rate:

ion collision rate:

Lengths[edit]

Electron thermal de Broglie wavelength, approximate average de

Broglie wavelength of electrons in a plasma:

classical distance of closest approach, the closest that two

particles with the elementary charge come to each other if they
approach head-on and each have a velocity typical of the
temperature, ignoring quantum-mechanical effects:

electron gyroradius, the radius of the circular motion of an

electron in the plane perpendicular to the magnetic field:

ion gyroradius, the radius of the circular motion of an ion

in the plane perpendicular to the magnetic field:

plasma skin depth, the depth in a plasma to which

electromagnetic radiation can penetrate:

Debye length, the scale over which electric fields

are screened out by a redistribution of the
electrons:

Ion inertial length, the scale at which ions

decouple from electrons and the magnetic
field becomes frozen into the electron fluid
rather than the bulk plasma:

Velocities[edit]

electron thermal velocity, typical

velocity of an electron in a MaxwellBoltzmann distribution:

ion thermal velocity, typical

velocity of an ion in a MaxwellBoltzmann distribution:

ion sound velocity, the

speed of the longitudinal
waves resulting from the mass
of the ions and the pressure of
the electrons:

Alfvn velocity, the

speed of
the waves resulting from
the mass of the ions and
the restoring force of the
magnetic field: