Dust charge distribution in complex plasma afterglow

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

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

Dust charge distributions have been measured for the first time in a complex plasma. Experiments were performed late in a discharge afterglow. Residual charges of few hundred particles have been determined. It was found that the mean residual charge is negative but the tail of the distribution extends into the positive charge region. The experiments were complemented by numerical simulations taking into account discreteness of the charging process and dependence of plasma parameters on the transition from ambipolar to free diffusion. It is shown that the existence of positively charged particles can be explained by the broadening of the dust charge distribution in the late complex plasma afterglow.

Mots clés: Dust charge distribution; Complex plasma; Afterglow; Dusty plasma

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

Lénaïc Couëdel, Alexander A. Samarian, Maxime Mikikian, Laïfa Boufendi. Dust charge distribution in complex plasma afterglow. EPL - Europhysics Letters, 2008, 84, pp.35002. ⟨10.1209/0295-5075/84/35002⟩. ⟨hal-00336180⟩