Sheath collapse at critical shallow angle due to kinetic effects

The Debye sheath is known to vanish completely in magnetised plasmas for a sufficiently small electron gyroradius and small angle between the magnetic field and the wall. This angle depends on the current onto the wall. When the Debye sheath vanishes, there is still a potential drop between the wall and the plasma across the magnetic presheath. The magnetic field angle corresponding to the predicted sheath collapse is shown to be much smaller than previous estimates, scaling with the electron-ion mass ratio and not with the square root of the mass ratio. This is shown to be a consequence of the kinetic electron and finite ion orbit width effects, which are not captured by fluid models. The wall potential with respect to the bulk plasma at which the Debye sheath vanishes is calculated. Above this wall potential, it is possible that the Debye sheath will invert.

Automated summary

The Debye sheath disappears completely in magnetized plasmas when the electron gyroradius is sufficiently small and the angle between the magnetic field and the wall is small. When the Debye sheath vanishes, there is still a potential drop between the wall and the plasma across the magnetic presheath. The predicted collapse of the sheath is shown to be due to the kinetic electron and finite ion orbit width effects, which are not captured by fluid models.