Dust Growth by RF Sputtering

Blake Churton (1) , Lénaïc Couëdel (1, 2) , Alexander A. Samarian (1) , Maxime Mikikian (2) , Laifa Boufendi (2)

1 School of Physics
2 GREMI - Groupe de recherches sur l'énergétique des milieux ionisés

The effect of the dust particle growth by RF sputtering on glow discharge has been investigated. It has been found that the growth of dust particles modifies the electrical characteristics of the discharge. In particularly, the absolute value of the self-bias voltage decreases during the particle growth due to the electron losses on the dust particles. To find the correlation between the dust growth and the self bias evolution, dust particles have been collected at different times. The dust particle growth rate is found to be linear.

Mots clés: Dust particles; growth; complex plasma

Domaines: Plasmas; Physique des plasmas [physics.plasm-ph]

Blake Churton, Lénaïc Couëdel, Alexander A. Samarian, Maxime Mikikian, Laifa Boufendi. Dust Growth by RF Sputtering. Fifth International Conference on the Physics of Dusty Plasmas, May 2008, Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal. pp.187, ⟨10.1063/1.2996830⟩. ⟨hal-00328152⟩