2.1Debye Shielding In most types of plasma, quasi-neutrality is not just an ideal equilibrium state; it is a state that the plasma actively tries to achieve by readjusting the local charge distribution in response to a disturbance.However, it is more useful to consider the shielding as a dielectric phenomenon: i.e., it is the polarization of the plasma medium, and the associated redistribution of space charge, which prevents penetration by an external electric field.