Compact Plasma and Focused Ion Beams

51

4

Genesis of a Wave Induced Discharge:

ANew Perspective

Introduction

With increased use of intense short-pulsed lasers or high-frequency elec-

tromagnetic waves (EWs) for basic and applied plasma research, an under-

standing of the predischarge electron dynamics has become crucial, and for

this a knowledge of the dependence of N over

Λ

/

λ

in the presence of the

high-frequency EWs and magnetostatic (B) elds (in case of magnetically

assisted discharges) is required, where N is the number of collisions suffered

by an electron in diffusing out of the container,

λ

is the mean-free path, and

Λ

is the characteristic diffusion length. This is essentia ...