Transverse Instabilities in Solid State Plasmas under Steady Electric and Magnetic Fields

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Abstract
Effects of a dc electric field on the behavior of circularly polarized, low frequency waves in infinite plasmas under a dc magnetic field in which densities of mobile carriers of different sign of charge are not equal are investigated. The wave shows spatial growth and instability. Collisions are beneficial to these. According to Sturrock's criterion, the spatially growing waves can not be used for amplification and the instability leads to spontaneous oscillation. The dielectric constant tensor is calculated for a quite general case of arbitrary directions of wave propagation and dc electric field by the hydrodynamic approximation and for the case of parallel electric and magnetic fields but arbitrary direction of propagation by the kinetic theory using a completely degenerate steady state distribution and a simple collision term. By using the dielectric constant tensor thus obtained, it is found that in Bi-like material at lower temperatures, the inclined field enhances instability especially of inclined waves and the hydrodynamic approximation is a fairly good approximation.

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