Low-temperature (LT) plasmas have a substantial role in diverse scientific areas and modern technologies. Their stochastic and nonlinear dynamics strongly determine the efficiency and effectiveness of LT plasma-based procedures involved in applications such as etching, spectrochemical analysis, deposition of thin films on substrates, and others. Understanding and controlling complex behaviors in LT plasmas have become a serious research problem. Modeling their behavior is also a major problem. However, models based on hydrodynamic equations have proven to be useful in their study. In this chapter, we expose the use of fluid models taking into account relevant kinetic processes to describe out from equilibrium LT plasma behavior. Selected topics on the stability, stochastic, and nonlinear dynamics of LT plasmas are discussed. These include the coexistence of diffusive and wave-like particle transport and delayed feedback control of oscillatory regime with relaxation.
Part of the book: Plasma Science and Technology
In this chapter, the physical principles to be taken into account in thermoelectricity at the nanometre scale are discussed. We argue that the numerical methods must also be adapted to the emergence of new physical behaviours at that scale, namely, wave propagation of heat, diffusive-ballistic transition, nonlocal effects, among others. It is first shown that thermoelectric phenomena at the nanoscale can be described by introducing thermodynamic inertia and nonlocal effects. The transport equations are obtained from the thermodynamics of irreversible processes. After this, we introduce the Spectral Chebyshev Collocation method as a well-suited numerical method to deal with the new physical behaviours appearing at the nanoscale. We then show the use of these formalisms to analyse specific and interesting aspects of the optimization of pulsed thermoelectricity and coupled thermoelectric modules.
Part of the book: Bringing Thermoelectricity into Reality