Dust Charge in complex plasma afterglow

Lénaïc Couëdel (1) , Alexander A. Samarian (2) , Maxime Mikikian (1) , Laifa Boufendi (1) , Cameron Cuthbert (3)

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

In this talk, we report the first experiment in which the distribution of residual charges on dust grains after the decay of a dusty plasma was measured. The experiment was performed in the PKE-Nefedov reactor where the dust particles were physically grown in the plasma. A temperature gradient was introduced in the chamber to create an upward thermophoretic force to balance gravity. The residual charges were determined from an analysis of dust oscillations, which were excited by applying a sinusoidal bias to the bottom electrode. It was found the coexistence of positively and negatively charged dust as well as and non-charged dust for more than one minute after the discharge was switched off. The residual charges for 200 nm radius particles have been measured for two different pressures. The experimental data were compared with the predictions of a simple theoretical model that describes residual charge evolution in discharge afterglow.

Mots clés: Dusty plasmas; Complex plasmas; Dust particle; Afterglow; Charge

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

Lénaïc Couëdel, Alexander A. Samarian, Maxime Mikikian, Laifa Boufendi, Cameron Cuthbert. Dust Charge in complex plasma afterglow. Australian Institute of Physics, 17th National Congress, Dec 2006, Brisbane, Australia. pp.0080. ⟨hal-00445203⟩