DENSE PLASMA

When the plasma density is high, the Coulomb potential for the atomic electron is modified and level energies, transition probabilities are accordingly modified. Collision cross sections are also modified by the Debye shielding of the Coulomb force exerted by the incident electron. For ions, an excitation process involving doubly excited levels (i.e., the dielectronic-capture ladder-like (DL) excitation) is operative, which is expressed as a modification to the conventional excitation cross section. The inverse process, the CR recombination of excited ions (DL deexcitation), is experimentally...

When the plasma density is high, the Coulomb potential for the atomic electron is modified and level energies, transition probabilities are accordingly modified. Collision cross sections are also modified by the Debye shielding of the Coulomb force exerted by the incident electron. For ions, an excitation process involving doubly excited levels (i.e., the dielectronic-capture ladder-like (DL) excitation) is operative, which is expressed as a modification to the conventional excitation cross section. The inverse process, the CR recombination of excited ions (DL deexcitation), is experimentally verified. In dense plasma, the modification to the Coulomb potential converts a part of the originally discrete levels into the continuum. An ion sphere model describes the situation, and the Saha relationship for ionization balance, which is valid in complete LTE, is modified.