Experiments on ion-acoustic waves in dusty plasmas

An experiment is described on ion-acoustic (IA) waves in dusty plasmas, which was performed in the dusty plasma device (DPD) of Xu et al. (Rev. Sci. Instrum. 63, 5266, 1992). It is found that, as expected, the presence of negatively charged dust grains increases the phase velocity of the waves and, at the same time, also reduces the strength of the collisionless (Landau) damping to which the waves are subjected.