Electron temperature

Temperature of the plasma's electrons, usually given in keV. It can be higher or lower than the ion temperature in the same plasma, depending on how the plasma is heated: microwave heating warms the electrons first, while neutral-beam heating mostly heats the ions, and several record temperatures came from 'hot-ion' plasmas in which the ions were much hotter than the electrons. The fusion rate depends on the ion temperature, so an electron temperature quoted as "the" plasma temperature answers a different question and cannot be ranked against ion temperatures.

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metric:electron-temperature

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