Plasma Physics: An Introduction to Laboratory, Space, and Fusion Plasmas

Plasma Physics: An Introduction to Laboratory, Space, and Fusion Plasmas, Alexander PielSpringer, New York, 2010. $79.95 (398 pp.). ISBN 978-3-642-10490-9

“Plasma physics is at the cusp of a new era.” So began the National Research Council’s most recent decadal survey, Plasma Science: Advancing Knowledge in the National Interest (National Academies Press, 2007). On the energy front, the laser-based National Ignition Facility came online two years ago and the magnetic-confinement ITER project in France is on track for first plasma in 2019 (see the news stories in PHYSICS TODAY, March 2011, page 26 , and April 2010, page 20 ). In the space-physics arena, several solar satellites, including Hinode, STEREO, and the Solar Dynamics Observatory, have been launched in anticipation of the upcoming solar maximum; they are expected to yield spectacular images and data. In the lab and in the electronics manufacturing industry, low-temperature plasmas are used to fabricate complex electronics and large-scale displays such as plasma TVs.

Progress has also been made in the availability of undergraduate physics texts. Until 15 years ago, there was only one: Francis Chen’s Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion (2nd edition, Springer, 1984). Then two excellent texts emerged and have become the standards for senior elective and first-year graduate school courses in plasma physics: Robert Goldston and Paul Rutherford’s Introduction to Plasma Physics (Taylor & Francis, 1995) and Paul Bellan’s Fundamentals of Plasma Physics (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Other more specialized texts focus on the theory and application of plasma in such areas as astrophysics, diagnostics, or fusion devices.

A welcome addition to this growing suite of excellent texts is Alexander Piel’s Plasma Physics: An Introduction to Laboratory, Space, and Fusion Plasmas. As the title suggests, Plasma Physics offers a broad and modern introduction to the many aspects of plasma science, but it also gives a rigorous treatment of important topics. It complements the books by Chen and Bellan, being much more up-to-date than the former and less rigorous than the latter. The text will be accessible to undergraduates with only a background in electrodynamics.

Plasma Physics does a fine job with the standard subjects, including single-particle motion, dispersion relations for the various waves that exist in cold, magnetized plasma, and plasma instabilities. The text includes several useful parenthetical “Application” sections on Hall thrusters, the Parker spiral, ion beams, anisotropic etching of silicon, and other topics. Also interesting are some historical asides such as on the terminology “gas discharge,” which arose from early Leyden jar experiments that sounded like a gunshot.

Particularly useful is the author’s emphasis on and presentation of low-temperature plasma experiments and diagnostics. Piel provides an exceptional discussion of the implementation of Langmuir probes—a technique that practicing plasma scientists have used for decades—and an analysis of Langmuir probe data. A curious student or interested researcher could track down laboratory notes, older monographs, and obscure papers describing Langmuir probe operation, but it is satisfying to have a complete description in an introductory plasma text. The final two chapters, “Dusty Plasmas” and “Plasma Generation,” are comprehensive; they distinguish Piel’s text from others and stand out since the author has particular expertise on those topics. The treatment of dusty plasmas is thorough and modern with careful descriptions of experimental apparatus and detailed discussions of data.

I have only a few criticisms. First, although the book has several interesting photographs from solar and astrophysical plasmas and from low-temperature and laboratory plasmas, none of the images are in color. Also, readers and lecturers will have to turn elsewhere for a more formal mathematical treatment and a greater variety of end-of-chapter problems. Still, with an extensive list of more than 300 references and, in particular, its excellent overview of the various techniques to generate plasma in a laboratory, Plasma Physics is an excellent entrée for students into this rapidly growing field. It’s also a useful reference for professional low-temperature plasma researchers.