Ionized Gases
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this advanced course on low-temperature plasma physics, covering equilibrium and kinetic theory of ionized gases. Topics include energy states, statistical mechanics, and thermodynamics of plasmas, as well as kinetic theory covering charged particle motion, distribution functions, collisions, characteristic lengths and times, cross sections, and transport properties. The course also examines gas surface interactions such as thermionic emission, sheaths, and probe theory, plus radiation in plasmas and diagnostic techniques. Applications discussed include energy conversion, plasma propulsion, and gas lasers. Materials include lecture notes and problem sets from MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, freely available under a Creative Commons license with no certificate offered.