A new hands-on experiment dedicated to Plasma Physics!
- Published: 04 November 2016
This year @UPMC, students in Physics (Third year of Bachelor’s degree – L3 & First year of Master’s degree « Physics & Applications » - M1) apprehend fundamental concepts of Plasma physics thanks to a new hands-on experiment called « Plasma discharges – Langmuir probe ».
This Teaching Unit allows students to become familiar with fundamental processes in plasma physics.
Photo credit: ©UPMC-Pierre Kitmacher
Learn more about this new hands-on experiment
Student objectives:
- Students have to quantitatively measure the breakdown voltage of a tube under a given residual gas pressure; Then, students are able to verify the Paschen law.
- Students qualitatively study the light emitted by the plasma’s glow discharge (by image analysis) and highlight that inelastic electron/ion collisions are the source of this light emission.
- Students measure the floating electrostatic potential within the plasma and highlight the inhomogeneity of the electric field inside discharge (screening effects).
- The Langmuir probe allow them to measure the temperature of electrons in the plasma.
- A spectroscopic study help identify more precisely the ions and their excited states formed in the glow discharge.
This hands-on experiment was created in collaboration with INSP (Institut des NanoSciences de Paris) the experimental platform of the Physics Faculty @UPMC and the Cluster of Excellence PLAS@PAR.
More information about plasma physics education (summer school, grants for international internships, scolarships, etc) here.

Photo credit: ©UPMC-Pierre Kitmacher