The effect of negative ions on the charging of dust particles in a plasma is investigated experimentally. A plasma containing a very low percentage of electrons is formed in a single-ended Q machine when SF6 is admitted into the vacuum system. The relatively cold Q machine electrons Te 0.2 eV readily attach to SF6 molecules to form SF6 − negative ions. Calculations of the dust charge indicate t...

[1] Dust grains on the lunar surface are exposed to UV radiation and solar wind plasma and can collect electrical charges, leading to their possible lift-off and transport in the presence of near-surface electric fields. Motivated by the long-standing open questions about the physics of electrostatic lunar dust transport, we investigated the dynamics of dust grains on a conducting surface in a ...

A historical overview of some of the early theoretical and experimental work on dust acoustic waves is given. The basic physics of the dust acoustic wave and some of the theoretical refinements that have been made, including the effects of collisions, plasma absorption, dust charge fluctuations, particle drifts and strong coupling effects are discussed. Some recent experimental findings and out...

The Cosmic Dust Analyzer aboard the Cassini spacecraft consists of a several targets as well as a photomultiplier tube which provide information upon collision with ambient dust particles in Saturn’s magnetosphere. Information includes particle mass, velocity, chemical composition, and charge. The focus of this report is the charge of the dust particles; specifically, the processes by which the...

The shielding of dust particles by each other in a dusty plasma is studied taking into account the effects of dust charging. It is shown that the assumption of a Boltzmann response for dust species is not appropriate under these circumstances. Further, it is shown that in the close-packing limit, dust grains screen each other by charge reduction, and an expression is obtained for this shielding...

Dusty plasmas are complex systems where new phenomena arise from the presence of solid dust particles inside a plasma. Dust particles acquire a negative charge by attaching free electrons and are thus trapped in the plasma. This charge loss can be drastic for the plasma equilibrium and instabilities can appear due to the strong interdependence between the dust particle cloud and the plasma. In ...

We have simulated a method for changing the charge on dust grains in plasmas by exciting a small fraction of the neutral atoms into highly excited states. The atoms can be preferentially excited near a dust grain and quickly ionized by the hot electrons in the plasma. Because the neutral atom has low speed when it is excited, the resulting positive ion strikes the dust with nearly unit efficien...

A dusty plasma system containing Boltzmann-distributed electrons, non-thermal ions, and mobile charge fluctuating negative dust has been considered. The nonlinear propagation of the dust-acoustic (DA) waves in such a dusty plasma has been investigated by employing the reductive perturbation method. It has been found that the dust charge fluctuation is a source of dissipation, and is responsible...

Small number dust particle clusters can be used as probes for plasma diagnostics. The number of dust particles as well as cluster size and shape can be easily controlled employing a glass box placed within a Gaseous Electronics Conference (GEC) rf reference chamber to provide confinement of the dust. The plasma parameters inside this box and within the larger plasma chamber have not yet been ad...