Residual dust charges in discharge afterglow

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

1 GREMI - Groupe de recherches sur l'énergétique des milieux ionisés
2 School of Physics A28

An on-ground measurement of dust-particle residual charges in the afterglow of a dusty plasma was performed in a rf discharge. An upward thermophoretic force was used to balance the gravitational force. It was found that positively charged, negatively charged, and neutral dust particles coexisted for more than 1 min after the discharge was switched off. The mean residual charge for 200 nm radius particles was measured. The dust particle mean charge is about −5e at a pressure of 1.2 mbar and about −3e at a pressure of 0.4 mbar.

Mots clés: Dusty plasma; Complex plasma; Dust particle; Charge; Residual charge; Afterglow; Force; Thermophoresis; Oscillation; Neutral drag; Relaxation; Diffusion

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

Lénaïc Couëdel, Maxime Mikikian, Laifa Boufendi, Alexander A. Samarian. Residual dust charges in discharge afterglow. Physical Review E : Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, 2006, 74, pp.026403. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevE.74.026403⟩. ⟨hal-00097728⟩