Conductivity of Plasmas to Microwaves

Abstract

If one assumes that the effect of an alternating electric field on an electron in a slightly ionized gas is on the average an addition, in the direction of the field, of a velocity component, the magnitude of which is dependent on the speed of the electron, then it is possible to derive very simply the expression for conductivity obtained earlier by Margenau. In addition an alternative expression is proposed which is of interest because it avoids difficulties with negative conductivities encountered by Margenau's formula.