Measurement of grain charge in dusty plasma Coulomb crystals

Author

Smith, M.A. ; Goodrich, J. ; Rahman, H.U. ; Mohideen, U.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., California Univ., Riverside, CA, USA

Volume

29

Issue

2

fYear

2001

fDate

4/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

216

Lastpage

220

Abstract

We report the measurement of the grain charge on individual dust grains of a dusty plasma Coulomb crystal. These dust grains, grown in a radio frequency plasma from constituent gases, are formed by the aggregation of nanometer sized crystallites. The Coulomb crystal formed from the dust grains appears to be made of mutually repulsive columns of grains confined by the walls of the electrode. A direct measurement of the grain charge was performed using a Faraday cup. The average measured value of the grain charge using this technique was found to be 2×10⁵ e. This value of the grain charge is approximately consistent with estimates based on the plasma parameters. The corresponding electrostatic interaction energy between the dust grains is found to be 200 times greater than the dust thermal energy

Keywords

dusty plasmas; high-frequency discharges; plasma density; plasma diagnostics; plasma impurities; Coulomb crystal; Faraday cup; aggregation; constituent gases; dust grains; dust thermal energy; dusty plasma Coulomb crystal; dusty plasma Coulomb crystals; electrode walls; electrostatic interaction energy; grain charge; individual dust grains; mutually repulsive columns; nanometer sized crystallites; plasma parameters; radio frequency plasma; Charge measurement; Crystallization; Current measurement; Dusty plasma; Electrodes; Gases; Performance evaluation; Plasma confinement; Plasma measurements; Radio frequency;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.923697

Filename

923697