Debye length

In plasmas and electrolytes, the Debye length ${\displaystyle \lambda _{\rm {D}}}$ (Debye radius or Debye–Hückel screening length), is a measure of a charge carrier's net electrostatic effect in a solution and how far its electrostatic effect persists.^[1] With each Debye length the charges are increasingly electrically screened and the electric potential decreases in magnitude by 1/e. A Debye sphere is a volume whose radius is the Debye length. Debye length is an important parameter in plasma physics, electrolytes, and colloids (DLVO theory). The corresponding Debye screening wave vector ${\displaystyle k_{\rm {D}}=1/\lambda _{\rm {D}}}$ for particles of density ${\displaystyle n}$, charge ${\displaystyle q}$ at a temperature ${\displaystyle T}$ is given by ${\displaystyle k_{\rm {D}}^{2}=4\pi nq^{2}/(k_{\rm {B}}T)}$ in Gaussian units. Expressions in MKS units will be given below. The analogous quantities at very low temperatures (${\displaystyle T\to 0}$) are known as the Thomas–Fermi length and the Thomas–Fermi wave vector. They are of interest in describing the behaviour of electrons in metals at room temperature.

The Debye length is named after the Dutch-American physicist and chemist Peter Debye (1884–1966), a Nobel laureate in Chemistry.