Ambipolar diffusion in strongly electronegative plasma

This paper presents the treatment of the analytical model of ambipolar diffusion in quasi-neutral electronegative plasma consisting of electrons, a single species of negative ions and a single species of positive ions, which was proposed by Thompson J.B. [Proc. Phys. Soc., 73 (1959) 818]. We demonstrate that in plasma with the concentration of negative ions more than 10 times exceeding that of electrons one has to take into account the mobility of negative and positive ions. We established that in strongly electronegative plasma when both conditions $\alpha $~$>>$~1 ($\alpha $~=~$n_{-}$/$n_{e})$ and $\mu _{e}$~$<<$~$\alpha \cdot \mu _{-}$ hold, the ambipolar diffusion coefficients for positive and negative ions as well as electrons are close to the coefficients of their free diffusion. Consequently in strongly electronegative plasma the diffusion ceases to be ambipolar (even for large plasma concentration) and becomes to be free, i.e. charged particles of different species and sign cease to affect the diffusion motion of each other.