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The word plasma has a Greek root which means to be
formed or molded (the word plastic shares this root) and has a few definitions:
In physics and chemistry,
plasma (also called an ionized gas) is an energetic state of matter in which some or all of the electrons in the
outer atomic orbitals have become separated from the atom. The result is a collection of ions and electrons which are no longer bound to each other.
This state of matter was first identified by Sir William
Crookes in 1879, and dubbed "plasma" by Irving Langmuir.
Plasma is the fourth state of matter. It is distinct from the three lower-energy phases of matter solid, liquid, and gas. Plasmas are the most common form of matter, comprising more
than 99% of the known visible universe. Commonly encountered forms of plasma
include the Sun and other stars (which are plasmas
heated by nuclear fusion), lit fluorescent lamps, lightning, the Aurora borealis, the solar
wind, and interstellar nebulae. A plasma is also generated in front of a spacecraft's heat shield on
reentering the atmosphere.
In astrophysical plasmas, Debye screening
prevents electric fields from affecting the plasma very much, but the
existence of charged particles causes the plasma to generate and be affected by magnetic fields. This can and does cause extremely complex behavior. The dynamics of plasmas interacting
with external and self-generated magnetic fields are studied in the academic discipline of magnetohydrodynamics.
There are two broad categories of plasma, hot plasmas and cold plasmas. The Sun is an example of a hot plasma. Full ionization
takes place, and the ions and the electrons are in thermal
equilibrium. This is what would commonly be known as the "fourth-state of matter". A cold plasma is one where only a small
fraction of the atoms in a gas are ionized, and the electrons reach a very high temperature, whereas the ions remain at the
ambient temperature. These plasmas can be created by using a very high electric field to accelerate electrons which ionize the
atoms. The electric field is either capacitively or inductively coupled into the gas by means of a plasma source. Common applications of cold plasmas include Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition, Plasma Ion Doping, and Reactive Ion Etching.
The term plasma is generally reserved for a system of charged particles large enough to behave collectively, excluding
microscopically small collections of charged particles. The typical characteristics of a plasma are:
- Debye screening lengths that are short compared
to the physical size of the plasma.
- Large number of particles within a sphere with a radius of the Debye length.
- Mean time between collisions usually are long when compared to the period of plasma oscillations.
See plasma physics, plasma cosmology, plasma chemistry, and plasma processing
for research and development topics.
See also
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