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Jai Ganesh

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Registered: 2005-06-28

Posts: 48,390

Plasma

Plasma

Gist

What is Plasma? Plasma is a state of matter along with solids, liquids and gases. When a neutral gas is heated such that some of the electrons are freed from the atoms or molecules, it changes state and becomes a plasma. It consists of a partially-ionized gas, containing ions, electrons, and neutral atoms.

Summary

Plasma, in physics, an electrically conducting medium in which there are roughly equal numbers of positively and negatively charged particles, produced when the atoms in a gas become ionized. It is sometimes referred to as the fourth state of matter, distinct from the solid, liquid, and gaseous states.

The negative charge is usually carried by electrons, each of which has one unit of negative charge. The positive charge is typically carried by atoms or molecules that are missing those same electrons. In some rare but interesting cases, electrons missing from one type of atom or molecule become attached to another component, resulting in a plasma containing both positive and negative ions. The most extreme case of this type occurs when small but macroscopic dust particles become charged in a state referred to as a dusty plasma. The uniqueness of the plasma state is due to the importance of electric and magnetic forces that act on a plasma in addition to such forces as gravity that affect all forms of matter. Since these electromagnetic forces can act at large distances, a plasma will act collectively much like a fluid even when the particles seldom collide with one another.

Nearly all the visible matter in the universe exists in the plasma state, occurring predominantly in this form in the Sun and stars and in interplanetary and interstellar space. Auroras, lightning, and welding arcs are also plasmas; plasmas exist in neon and fluorescent tubes, in the crystal structure of metallic solids, and in many other phenomena and objects. The Earth itself is immersed in a tenuous plasma called the solar wind and is surrounded by a dense plasma called the ionosphere.

A plasma may be produced in the laboratory by heating a gas to an extremely high temperature, which causes such vigorous collisions between its atoms and molecules that electrons are ripped free, yielding the requisite electrons and ions. A similar process occurs inside stars. In space the dominant plasma formation process is photoionization, wherein photons from sunlight or starlight are absorbed by an existing gas, causing electrons to be emitted. Since the Sun and stars shine continuously, virtually all the matter becomes ionized in such cases, and the plasma is said to be fully ionized. This need not be the case, however, for a plasma may be only partially ionized. A completely ionized hydrogen plasma, consisting solely of electrons and protons (hydrogen nuclei), is the most elementary plasma.

Details

Plasma (from Ancient Greek (plásma) 'moldable substance') is one of four fundamental states of matter (the other three being solid, liquid, and gas) characterized by the presence of a significant portion of charged particles in any combination of ions or electrons. It is the most abundant form of ordinary matter in the universe, mostly in stars (including the Sun), but also dominating the rarefied intracluster medium and intergalactic medium. Plasma can be artificially generated, for example, by heating a neutral gas or subjecting it to a strong electromagnetic field.

The presence of charged particles makes plasma electrically conductive, with the dynamics of individual particles and macroscopic plasma motion governed by collective electromagnetic fields and very sensitive to externally applied fields. The response of plasma to electromagnetic fields is used in many modern devices and technologies, such as plasma televisions or plasma etching.

Depending on temperature and density, a certain number of neutral particles may also be present, in which case plasma is called partially ionized. Neon signs and lightning are examples of partially ionized plasmas. Unlike the phase transitions between the other three states of matter, the transition to plasma is not well defined and is a matter of interpretation and context. Whether a given degree of ionization suffices to call a substance "plasma" depends on the specific phenomenon being considered.

Early history

Plasma was first identified in laboratory by Sir William Crookes. Crookes presented a lecture on what he called "radiant matter" to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in Sheffield, on Friday, 22 August 1879. Systematic studies of plasma began with the research of Irving Langmuir and his colleagues in the 1920s. Langmuir also introduced the term "plasma" as a description of ionized gas in 1928:

Except near the electrodes, where there are sheaths containing very few electrons, the ionized gas contains ions and electrons in about equal numbers so that the resultant space charge is very small. We shall use the name plasma to describe this region containing balanced charges of ions and electrons.

Lewi Tonks and Harold Mott-Smith, both of whom worked with Langmuir in the 1920s, recall that Langmuir first used the term by analogy with the blood plasma. Mott-Smith recalls, in particular, that the transport of electrons from thermionic filaments reminded Langmuir of "the way blood plasma carries red and white corpuscles and germs."

The fourth state of matter

Plasma is called the fourth state of matter after solid, liquid, and gas. It is a state of matter in which an ionized substance becomes highly electrically conductive to the point that long-range electric and magnetic fields dominate its behaviour.

Plasma is typically an electrically quasineutral medium of unbound positive and negative particles (i.e., the overall charge of a plasma is roughly zero). Although these particles are unbound, they are not "free" in the sense of not experiencing forces. Moving charged particles generate electric currents, and any movement of a charged plasma particle affects and is affected by the fields created by the other charges. In turn, this governs collective behaviour with many degrees of variation.

Plasma is distinct from the other states of matter. In particular, describing a low-density plasma as merely an "ionized gas" is wrong and misleading, even though it is similar to the gas phase in that both assume no definite shape or volume.

Additional Information

Plasma is superheated matter – so hot that the electrons are ripped away from the atoms forming an ionized gas. It comprises over 99% of the visible universe. In the night sky, plasma glows in the form of stars, nebulas, and even the auroras that sometimes ripple above the north and south poles. That branch of lightning that cracks the sky is plasma, so are the neon signs along our city streets. And so is our sun, the star that makes life on earth possible.

Plasma is often called “the fourth state of matter,” along with solid, liquid and gas. Just as a liquid will boil, changing into a gas when energy is added, heating a gas will form a plasma – a soup of positively charged particles (ions) and negatively charged particles (electrons).

Because so much of the universe is made of plasma, its behavior and properties are of intense interest to scientists in many disciplines. Importantly, at the temperatures required for the goal of practical fusion energy, all matter is in the form of plasma. Researchers have used the properties of plasma as a charged gas to confine it with magnetic fields and to heat it to temperatures hotter than the core of the sun. Other researchers pursue plasmas for making computer chips, rocket propulsion, cleaning the environment, destroying biological hazards, healing wounds and other exciting applications.

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It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics, one should study the masters and not the pupils. - Niels Henrik Abel.

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ktesla39

Member

From: Nepal

Registered: 2024-10-08

Posts: 47

Website

Re: Plasma

I know about it.
I tried to study about 22 states of matter 2 years ago and found Plasma at 4 th state and Quark Gluon Plasma at 22 th state.

My favourite way of watching plasma are large thunder or lightning or Tesla coils. I like plasma.

I got to know that physicists use plasma in fusion reactors. That's cool or too hot.

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"Talent hits the target no one else can hit. Genius hits the target no one else can see." - Arthur Schopenhauer