Thus, the conversion factor is 1 eV ≈ 11600 K. In many processing plasmas several temperatures can exists at the same time. Often the ions and the electrons have Maxwellian distributions with different temperatures. In most cases, the energy to the plasma is supplied via energetic electrons. The moment transfer efficiency is relatively low, due to the large
differences in mass. Then each species can have its own thermal equilibrium, but the lifetime of the plasma species is not long enough for the two temperatures to equalize. In the presence of a magnetic field, the temperature can also be different in different directions.