Coulomb Crystallization in Dusty Plasmas
Abstract
Ionized gases laden with fine charged dust grains are loosely referred to as dusty plasmas. Recently, lattice structures of negatively charged strongly coupled dust grains, called Coulomb crystals, have been formed in several laboratory plasma experiments. This three year project conducted fundamental theoretical research on issues important for understanding the basic physics of Coulomb crystallization in dusty plasmas. Models of the intergrain forces were developed, including attractive induced dipole forces in addition to repulsive screened Coulomb forces, and applied to modeling experimental data. The properties of low frequency dust acoustic waves and instabilities in strongly coupled dusty plasmas were investigated. Novel schemes for forming Coulomb lattices of positively charged grains were developed, involving grains that are charged positively either by ultraviolet (UV)-induced photoemission in a high-pressure gas, or by thermionic emission under laser heating. The use of UV to reduce dust trapping in process plasmas was also explored, and studies began on the use of dust as an electron source resulting from photoemission or thermionic emission. In addition, various waves and instabilities in collisional dusty plasmas were investigated.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 30, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA354822
Entities
People
- Marlene Rosenberg
Organizations
- University of California, San Diego