An explanation of the sheath instability

When the sheath accelerates in its plasma–bound motion as a result of the ion response to the electric field, one has a top-heavy equilibrium. In the sheath frame ions are accelerated towards the wall–sheath boundary. In such a situation sheath may become unstable. The sheath instability is examined as the Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) instability and RT growth rate is compared with the reported sheath instability in the literature. © 2003 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69739/2/PHPAEN-10-1-5-1.pd