Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2009
The self consistent electrostatic field due to plasma inhomogeneities and associated with free expansion of a plasma into a vacuum is evaluated in the framework of two-fluid hydrodynamics and the corresponding generalized Rieman's self-similar solution found. The case of an adiabatic expansion is also discussed and the results obtained are applied to a laser produced plasma with a characteristic electron temperature of 1 keV and a characteristic time scale of 1 nsec.