Speaker
Sergio Calatroni
(CERN)
Description
Direct field ionisation of neutral atoms may happen when they are immersed in an external electric field of magnitude comparable to the atomic electric field seen by the outer electron shells. The resulting ionisation probability may have a magnitude comparable to the usual electron impact ionisation probability, and thus this process should not be neglected in plasma simulations codes. In particular direct field ionisation may play an important role in the first triggering phase of a breakdown.
This poster presents the basic underlying physics and formulas, and some simple comparison with electron impact ionisation cross-sections.
