APPROXIMATION OF THE BOUNDED PLASMA PROBLEM BY THE PLASMA AND THE SHEATH MODELS

A common approach found in the literature to study the static bounded plasma problem is to model the plasma and the sheath separately. It is shown that when this approach is used for finite non-neutrality, the plasma-sheath interface cannot be considered as a single point where t he plasma ends and the sheath begins, but rather as a transition regio n between the plasma and the sheath. Through a study of the transition region, the locations of the plasma and sheath boundaries are found, as well as the ion velocity and the electric field at each boundary. A comparison of the plasma and the sheath solutions with the solution o f the bounded plasma-wall problem has shown good agreement in the corr esponding data.