In this chapter we study the properties of a plasma in an electric field Our treatment of magnetized plasmas will await consideration of individual charged particle orbits in spatially and time varying electric and magnetic fields presented in Chapter Thus in this chapter the Lorentz force is simple F qE We look at basic phenomena such as plasma breakdown equilibrium di usion and plasma wall interactions including sheath physics and Langmuir probes To commence let us look at plasma equilibrium in the presence of an E field