Debye Shielding

The electric field - due to the positive and negative ions of the

plasma - is shielded (cancelled ) in the debye sphere.

The Debye sphere is a sphere inside the plasma of radius equal to

.

( The Debye length) is the distance at which the a charge is

shielded by surrounding ions.

In another words, the electric field due to the positive charge - in

the graph - is shielded (cancelled) by the surrounding charges

present that form the debye sphere.

The Black circle represents the Debye sphere.

The Debye length is calculated using

where

is the electron number density.

T is the temperature.

Debye shielding is also known as electrostatic screening, due to

the cancelling of the positive and negative charges with each

other.

Finally, Debye shielding plays an important rule in decreasing the

electric field of the plasma.