Waves in Plasma

April 28, 2021

1 Electron Plasma Wave

Chen writes in his book on page 87 that, “There is another effect that can cause plasma oscillations
to propagate, and that is thermal motion. Electrons streaming into adjacent layers of plasma with
their thermal velocities will carry information about what is happening in the oscillating region. The
plasma oscillation can then properly be called a plasma wave”. The linearized electron equation of
motion is,
me ne0 ∂t ue1 = −ene0 E1 − ∇pe1 (1)
In this case there are two restoring forces, the electrostatic force and the pressure gradient force.
The linearized adiabatic equation is given by,
γpe0
∇pe1 = ∇ne1 (2)
ne0
pe0 = ne0 kB Te and ρe0 = me ne0 for electron gas where kB Te is the electron temperature at equilib-
rium. Use equation (2) in equation (1),

me ne0 ∂t ue1 = −ene0 E1 − γkB Te ∇ne1 (3)

and take divergence of equation (3),

ne0 e γkB Te 2
∂t {∇ · (ne0 ue1 )} = − ∇ · E1 − ∇ ne1 (4)
me me

∇ · (ne0 ue1 ) and ∇ · E1 can be obtained from linearized continuity equation,

∇ · (ne0 ue1 ) = −∂t ne1 (5)

and Gauss’s law,

e
∇ · E1 = − ne1 (6)
0
Equation (4) becomes,
∂t2 ne1 − vthe
2
∇2 ne1 = −ωpe
2
ne1 (7)
q
γkB Te
where vthe = me is the electron thermal speed. If we assume sinusoidal perturbations then
equation (7) can be written as,
ω 2 = ωpe
2 2
+ vthe k2 (8)

1
2 Ion Wave
Chen writes in his book on pages 95-96 that, “In the absence of collisions, ordinary sound waves
would not occur. Ions can still transmit vibrations to each other because of their charge, however;
and acoustic waves can occur through the intermediary of an electric field. Since the motion of
massive ions will be involved, these will be low-frequency oscillations, and we can use the plasma
approximation of Section 3.6. We therefore assume ni = ne = n and do not use Poisson’s equation.”
He further writes on page 97 that, “In electron plasma oscillations, the other species (namely, ions)
remains essentially fixed. In ion acoustic waves, the other species (namely, electrons) is far from
fixed; in fact, electrons are pulled along with the ions and tend to shield out electric fields arising
from the bunching of ions. However, this shielding is not perfect because, as we saw in Section 1.4,
potentials of the order of kB Te /e can leak out because of electron thermal motions. What happens is
as follows. The ions form regions of compression and rarefaction, just as in an ordinary sound wave.
The compressed regions tend to expand into the rarefactions, for two reasons. First, the ion thermal
motions spread out the ions; this effect gives rise to the second term in the square root of Eq. [4-41].
Second, the ion bunches are positively charged and tend to disperse because of the resulting electric
field. This field is largely shielded out by electrons, and only a fraction, proportional to kB Te , is
available to act on the ion bunches. This effect gives rise to the first term in the square root of
Eq. [ 4-41 ]. The ions overshoot because of their inertia, and the compressions and rarefactions are
regenerated to form a wave.”
The linearized ion equation of motion in the absence of external magnetic field is,

mi ni0 ∂t ui1 = eni0 E1 − ∇pi1 (9)

Linearized adiabatic equation for ions is given by,

∇pi1 = γi kB Ti ∇ni1 (10)

Replace ∇pi1 from equation (10) and E1 = −∇φ1 in equation (9),

mi ni0 ∂t ui1 = −eni0 ∇φ1 − γi kB Ti ∇ni1 (11)

Take divergence of equation (11),

mi ∂t {∇ · (ni0 ui1 )} = −eni0 ∇2 φ1 − γi kB Ti ∇2 ni1 (12)

∇ · (ni0 ui1 ) can be obtained from the linearized ion continuity equation,

∇ · (ni0 ui1 ) = −∂t ni1 (13)

−mi ∂t2 ni1 = −eni0 ∇2 φ1 − γi kB Ti ∇2 ni1 (14)

Use the plasma approximation,
ni1 = ne1 (15)
where ne1 is given by the linearized Boltzmann relation,
eφ1
ne1 = ne0 (16)
kB Te
Chen writes in his book on page 97 that, “The electrons move so fast relative to these waves that
they have time to equalize their temperature everywhere; therefore, the electrons are isothermal,
and γe = 1”
Use equation (15) and (16) in equation (14),

kB Te γi kB Ti 2
∂t2 φ1 − ( + )∇ φ1 = 0 (17)
mi mi

2
where ni0 = ne0 (quasi-neutrality). If we assume sinusoidal perturbations then equation (17) can be
written as,
ω 2 = c2s k 2 + vthi
2
k2 (18)
where c2s = kB Te /mi is the ion acoustic speed and vthi
2
= kB Ti /mi is the ion thermal speed.
If instead of using Plasma Approximation we use the Gauss’s law,
e
∇ · E1 = (ni1 − ne1 ) (19)
0
and use the Boltzmann relation and E = −∇φ,
1 e
∇ 2 φ1 − φ1 =− ni1 (20)
λ2De 0

If we assume sinusoidal perturbations then equation (14) can be written as,

mi ω 2 ni1 = eni0 k 2 φ + γi kB Ti k 2 ni1 (21)

or
1 eni0 2
ni1 = { 2 k 2 ) ( m )k }φ1 (22)
(ω 2 − vthi i

Equation (20) can be written as,

1 2 2 e
(k λDe + 1)φ1 = ni1 (23)
λ2De 0

where ni1 can be obtained from equation (22),

0 kB Te e2 n0 2
(ω 2 − vthi
2
k 2 )(k 2 λ2De + 1)φ1 = k φ1 (24)
n0 e2 0 mi
The dispersion relation turns out to be,

ω2 c2s 2
= + vthi (25)
k2 (1 + k 2 λ2De )

If λ2De  λ where λ is the wavelength of the wave, then equation (25) reduces to equation (18). If
λ  λ2De then,
ω 2 → ωpi
2 2
+ vthi k2 (26)
2
where ωpi is the ion plasma frequency. If Ti → 0 then equation (26) reduces to,

ω 2 → ωpi
2
(27)