Cooperative formation of dust structures in plasma

The formation and destruction of ordered dust structures in glow discharges are investigated experimentally. The initial construction phase of an ordered structure is related to the construction of its cooperative field and is determined by the number of particles and by the existence of crystallization centers. After the structure has been constructed, it influences the local plasma properties and the discharge current-voltage characteristics. The recovery of the structure after weak exposure takes place at local equilibrium, while, after intense exposure to high-voltage nanosecond pulses, it is determined by the fluctuation level and the degree of chaotization in the system.     

Formation of plasma dust structures at atmospheric pressure

The formation of strongly coupled stable dust structures in the plasma produced by an electron beam at atmospheric pressure was detected experimentally. Analytical expressions were derived for the ionization rate of a gas by an electron beam in an axially symmetric geometry by comparing experimental data with Monte Carlo calculations. Self-consistent one-dimensional simulations of the beam plasma were performed in the diffusion drift approximation of charged plasma particle transport with electron diffusion to determine the dust particle levitation conditions. Since almost all of the applied voltage drops on the cathode layer in the Thomson glow regime of a non-self-sustained gas discharge, a distribution of the electric field that grows toward the cathode is produced in it; this field together with the gravity produces a potential well in which the dust particles levitate to form a stable disk-shaped structure. The nonideality parameters of the dust component in the formation region of a highly ordered quasi-crystalline structure calculated using computational data for the dust particle charging problem were found to be higher than the critical value after exceeding which an ensemble of particles with a Yukawa interaction should pass to the crystalline state.     

Dispersion anomalies of surface plasma oscillations in mom tunnel structures

SPO dispersion relations measured in periodically corrugated AlAl₂O₃Ag structures show deviations from the theoretical expectations. The change of the slope and the shift of the dispersion curves can be explained if the surface roughness is taken into account but the appearance of a momentum gap at the intersection of two branches cannot yet be explained satisfactorily.     

Oblique collisional effects of dust acoustic waves in unmagnetized dusty plasma

Effects of oblique collisions of the dust acoustic(DA)waves in dusty plasma are studied by considering unmagnetized fully ionized plasma.The plasma consists of inertial warm negatively charged massive dusts,positively charged dusts,superthermal kappa distributed electrons,and isothermal ions.The extended Poincaré–Lighthill–Kuo(e PLK)method is employed for the drivation of two-sided Korteweg–de Vries(KdV)equations(KdVEs).The Kd V soliton solutions are derived by using the hyperbolic secant method.The effects of superthermality index of electrons,temperature ratio of isothermal ion to electron,and the density ratio of isothermal ions to negatively charged massive dusts on nonlinear coefficients are investigated.The effects of oblique collision on amplitude,phase shift,and potential profile of right traveling solitons of DA waves are also studied.The study reveals that the new nonlinear wave structures are produced in the colliding region due to head-on collision of the two counter propagating DA waves.The nonlinearity is found to decrease with the increasing density ratio of ion to negative dust in the critical region.The phase shifts decrease(increase)with increasing the temperature ratio of ion to electron(κe).The hump(compressive,κeκec)and dipshaped(rarefactive,κeκec)solitons are produced depending on the angle(θ)of oblique collision between the two waves.     

Nonlinear development of the dust acoustic instability in acollisional dusty plasma

We study the nonlinear behavior of the low-frequency dust acoustic instability in a collisional dusty plasma by means of particle simulations. The instability arises due to the streaming of plasma ions and neutrals relative to charged dust grains. According to linear theory, the presence of collisions between the plasma ions and a neutral gas background reduces the growth rate of the instability. Nonlinearly, however, the presence of drifting neutrals maintains the initial relative drift between plasma and dust ions until the unstable waves grow to large amplitude and collisions due to wave-particle interactions exceed the neutral collisions. As a result, stronger nonlinear effects, as manifested by enhanced fluctuations, larger amounts of plasma and dust heating, and a temporary reduction of the relative drift velocity, can occur in the presence of collisions     

Spectrum of plasma oscillations in structures with a periodically inhomogeneous two-dimensional electron plasma

We develop a rigorous electrodynamic theory of plasma oscillations in a periodically inhomogeneous two-dimensional electron system with a rectangular profile of the spatial modulation of the equilibrium electron concentration. We calculate the frequencies and radiative damping of the main plasma-oscillation types with a zero reduced wave vector. We show that the frequency splitting and the radiative damping of the oscillations are nonmonotonic functions of the modulation percentage and the ratio of the widths of the bands of two-dimensional plasma with low and high electron concentrations. The results of calculations are compared with experimental data and with the results of a perturbation theory developed in earlier work of other researchers. We discuss the physical mechanism for the emergence of radiative damping of plasma oscillations. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 113, 988–999 (March 1998)     

On the thermophoresis in dense dust structures in neon plasma

Numerical study of the effect of dust particle concentration on the thermophoretic force acting on a dust particle inside a dust structure in plasma has been carried out. The experimental data on the formation of voids in dust structures formed by 2.55 μm dust particles in a glow dc discharge in neon have been used. The simulation has been performed using the diffusion-drift model with taking into account joule heating of discharge. The dependence of the thermophoretic force acting on a dust particle in a dust structure on the ratio of atom mean free path to the distance between the adjacent particles in the dust structure has been obtained.     

Landau damping of dust acoustic waves in the plasma with nonextensive distribution

The Landau damping of dust acoustic waves propagating in a dusty plasma composed of nonextensive distributed electrons and ions, and Maxwellian distributed dust grains is investigated based on kinetic theory. The dust acoustic waves are found in the range of k_vd?ω?k_vi?k_ve$k{v}_d?\omega ?k{v}_i?k{v}_e$, where _vα$v_{\alpha }$ is the thermal velocity of species α(=i,e,d)$\alpha (=i,e,d)$. The damping rate is shown to be dependent on the nonextensivity parameter q$q$ as well as the ratio of ion density to electron. In the limit q→1$q\to 1$, the result based on the Maxwellian distribution is recovered. The maximum Landau damping rate is found to be enhanced as the population of the electron density decreases.     

Experimental study of nonlinear dust acoustic solitary waves in a dusty plasma

The excitation and propagation of finite-amplitude low-frequency solitary waves are investigated in an argon plasma impregnated with kaolin dust particles. A nonlinear longitudinal dust acoustic solitary wave is excited by pulse modulating the discharge voltage with a negative potential. It is found that the velocity of the solitary wave increases and the width decreases with the increase of the modulating voltage, but the product of the solitary wave amplitude and the square of the width remains nearly constant. The experimental findings are compared with analytic soliton solutions of a model Korteveg-de Vries equation.     

The dust acoustic wave in a bounded dusty plasma with strong electrostatic interactions between dust grains

The dispersion relation for the dust acoustic wave (DAW) in an unmagnetized dusty plasma cylindrical waveguide is derived, accounting for strong electrostatic interactions between charged dust grains. It is found that the boundary effect limits the radial extent of the DAW. The present result should be helpful for understanding the frequency spectrum of the DAW in a dusty plasma waveguide with strongly coupled charged dust grains.     

Measurement of dust particle shielding in a plasma from oscillations of a linear chain

An experimental method for the measurement of the shielding of dust particles in the sheath of an rf plasma based on the excitation of coupled oscillations of a linear particle arrangement is presented. With the measured screening strength the solid-liquid phase transition of the plasma crystal is analysed.     

Higher-order solution for dust acoustic solitary waves in an unmagnetized dusty plasma

The effect of higher-order nonlinearity on dust acoustic solitary waves is studied taking into account the dust-charge variation. The model of charge fluctuation, taken here, is of the formI _e+I _i=0,I _e andI _i being the electronic and ionic currents. The dust charge is determined self consistently from the current-balance equation. It is found that the higher-order correction modifies the amplitude and width of the dust acoustic solitary waves. The effect of dust-charge streaming is also discussed.     

Nonlinear interaction phenomenon of dust acoustic solitary and shock waves in dusty plasma

The effects of head-on collision on dust acoustic (DA) solitary and shock waves in dusty plasma are investigated considering positively charged inertial dust, Boltzmann distributed negatively charged heavy ions, positively charged light ions, and superthermal electrons in the plasma system. The nonlinear Korteweg-de-Vries (KdV) Burger equations are derived taking the extended Poincaré-Lighthill-Kuo method into account to study the characteristic properties of nonlinearity and production of solitary shock due to collisions. The study reveals that the amplitudes and widths of the DA shock waves are decreasing with increasing viscosity, electron to dust density ratio, and dust to ion temperature ratio, while they are increasing due to the presence of superthermal electrons. The nonlinearity of DA waves are enhanced with increasing density ratio of electron to dust and temperature ratio of dust to ion and electron, respectively, but it is reducing with superthermal electrons. The phase shifts of DA solitary waves are found to decrease with rising superthermality of electrons and increase with the density ratio of electron to dust.     

The action of an electron beam on dust structures in a plasma

The action of an electron beam on ordered dust structures in glow and low-pressure RF discharges was studied experimentally. The electron beam produces destruction and dynamic displacement of the dust structure. In the center of a dust structure, an electron beam with a low electron energy (tens of eV) at currents up to 1 mA caused structural disordering and “melting” in the region of its action but did not excite external crystal regions. Local action of an electron beam with a high electron energy (25 keV) and a beam current above 10 mA caused deformation of the whole dust structure and shifted it in the horizontal direction so that it was carried away from the RF discharge zone. The effect of dust structure displacements can be used to locally remove particles from a plasma.     

Directional motion of dust particles at different gear structures in a plasma

Directional motion of dust particles in a dusty plasma ratcnet is observed experimentally.The dusty plasma ratcnet consists of two concentric gears with asymmetric sawtooth.It is found that the sawtooth number affects the directional motion of dust particles along the saw channel.With the inerease of the sawtooth number,the particle velocity increases firstly and then decreases,and there is an optimum number of the sawtooth which could induce fast rotation of dust particles.The velocities of dust particles change as they are flowing along the saw channel.We also explore the force acting on the dust particle experimentally.     

The effect of negative ions on the dust acoustic wave in dusty electronegative plasma with positively charged dust grains

The effect of negative ions on the modulational instability properties of nonlinear dust acoustic (DA) waves in the electronegative dusty plasmas was investigated by considering Boltzmann-distributed electrons, negative ions, positive ions as well as positively charged dust grain under the ultraviolet irradiation. It is shown that the modulational instability properties of the DA waves were strongly affected by the temperature and proportion of negative ions. The modulational instability can occur only if the proportion of negative ions was smaller than critical value. The instability growth rate has a maximum value when the proportion of negative ions was a critical one in the unstable region. The effect of photoelectron generated by ultraviolet irradiation on the modulational instability of dust acoustic waves was also discussed by numerical method.     

Arbitrary amplitude dust acoustic solitary waves in a dusty plasma with an ion beam

Propagation regimes of an arbitrary amplitude dust acoustic solitary wave in a dusty plasma with an ion beam are analyzed by employing the Sagdeev potential technique. Two domains of the Mach numbers are defined depending on the ion beam and plasma parameters. Only a rarefactive soliton solution is found in a low velocity regime. Numerical solutions are presented that illustrate the dependence of soliton characteristics on practically interesting plasma and ion beam parameters. The findings of this investigation could be useful in understanding the nonlinear interaction of external ion beam and dusty plasma observed in laboratory plasma experiments.     

Dust acoustic shock wave generation due to dust charge variation in a dusty plasma

In a dusty plasma, the non-adiabaticity of the charge variation on a dust grain surface results in an anomalous dissipation. Analytical investigation shows that this results in a small but finite amplitude dust acoustic (DA) wave propagation which is described by the Korteweg-de Vries-Burger equation. Results of the numerical investigation of the propagation of large-amplitude dust acoustic stationary shock wave are presented here using the complete set of non-linear dust fluid equations coupled with the dust charging equation and Poisson equation. The DA waves are of compressional type showing considerable increase of dust density, which is of significant importance in astrophysical context as it leads to enhanced gravitational attraction considered as a viable process for star formation. The DA shock transition to its far downstream amplitude is oscillatory in nature due to dust charge fluctuations, the oscillation amplitude and shock width depending on the ratioω _pd/V_ch and other plasma parameters Article presented at the International Conference on the Frontiers of Plasma Physics and Technology, 9–14 December 2002, Bangalore, India.