In inverse order, > ..won't this screening simply act to essentially diffuse the ion's charge into the surrounding plasma? I guess that's a reasonable descrip

In inverse order, > ..won't this screening simply act to essentially diffuse the ion's charge into the surrounding plasma? I guess that's a reasonable description, but remember you are diffusing ions (well, protons and electrons) of opposite sign, in equal quantities, so diffusion is good; they will eventually mix back together. > ...does the screening not have the same effect between the plates? I expect they'd be more than a few millimeters apart. This is a good question. For this thing to work, plasma must be allowed into the capacitor and yes, there will be screening there too. The obvious dumb way I can think of to counter that is to have not just one pair of plates, but a sequence of more closely spaced ones, linear accelerator style.