Complex glow discharge plasma: Radial electric field disappearance

We have considered the conditions of the disappearance of the radial electric field in a complex plasma of a glow DC discharge in a cloud of charged particles of micrometer sizes. This phenomenon manifests itself in a glow discharge in two different modes corresponding to different properties of the discharge and the cloud. The processes occurring in these modes are determined by the interaction of a plasma with particles and explain the electrical properties of discharge. The reason for the disappearance of the radial electric field is the depletion of the radial diffusion flow of electrons due to its redirection within the cloud of particles and the involvement of these electrons in other plasma processes. In the first case, this effect appears at some critical particle number density. In the second case, this effect is determined by the symmetry and uniformity of the cloud, and it appears when the particles in a cloud form a plasma crystal. Within plasma crystals, the electrons from the radial diffusion flux are involved in the axial channeling, resulting in the formation of luminous plasma jets inside the plasma crystal. This is happening when, as a rule, particle number density is less than the critical one by more than a factor of ten. The axial electric field increases in the first case and decreases in the second case. The experiment and its simulation revealed a synergistic effect in the glow discharge plasma, which manifests itself in these modes as positive and negative feedback that controls the radial and axial electric field.