Nonlocal electron kinetics in collisional gas discharge plasmas

Nonlocal phenomena in electron kinetics of collisional gas discharge plasmas, their kinetic treatment by a nonlocal approach, and relevant experimental results are reviewed in this paper. Using the traditional two-term approximation for the electron distribution function, a general method to analyze electron kinetics in nonuniform plasmas in DC and RF fields for atomic gases is presented for the nonlocal case, when the electron energy relaxation length exceeds the characteristic spatial scale of bounded plasmas. The nonlocal method, which is based on the great difference between the electron mean free path for the momentum transfer and the electron energy relaxation length, considerably simplifies the solution of the kinetic equation and, in a number of cases, allows one to obtain analytical and semi-analytical solutions. The main simplification is achieved for trapped electrons by averaging the Boltzmann equation over space and fast electron motion. Numerous examples of spatial nonlocality are considered in the positive column and near the electrodes of DC glow discharges, in spatial relaxation of the electron distribution and in striations, and in capacitively and inductively coupled low-pressure RF discharges. The modeling of fast beam-like electrons is based on a continuous-energy-loss approximation with the assumption of forward scattering. Simple analytic expressions for the fast electron spectrum are obtained in cathode regions of DC discharges with planar and hollow cathodes