Electrostatic interaction of charged planes in the thermal collision plasma: detailed investigation and comparison with experiment

Charging of dust in thermal collisional plasmas

Thermal strongly collisional dusty plasma is studied. The electrical neutrality of the plasma suggests that the gas phase has some electrostatic energy when the plasma contains charged dust grains. The value of this energy determines the interphase interaction and ionization balance in the plasma. Proceeding from this, a new method of calculation of the dust grains' charges in plasmas with any number of ions (down to zero) has been proposed. The correspondence between the theory and the experimental data is demonstrated.

Nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation in spherical symmetry

The Poisson-Boltzmann problem in spherical symmetry has been considered using the distribution of a self-consistent potential around a charged grain in a thermal collisional plasma as an example. The qualitative patterns of all possible solutions have been presented and a study of their asymptotics has been carried out. It has been demonstrated that for large potentials it is possible to neglect the curvature of the grain surface and to use the solution of the plane problem. It has also been demonstrated that the electrical interaction of the grains is possible only at distances smaller than eight screening lengths.

Thermoemission (dust-electron) plasmas: theory of neutralizing charges

Thermoemission plasma--i.e., a system consisting of dust grains and electrons--is studied. In the proposed model, it is assumed that the major part of the electronic gas is uniformly distributed in space and the spatial inhomogeneities of electronic density exist only near the dust grains. The experimental data, well described by the proposed theory, are given.

Ordered spatial structures of dust grains in the thermal plasma

The thermal complex plasma of atmospheric pressure, containing the grains of condensed phase, has been studied. It has been demonstrated that the existence of the space charge areas around the dust grains leads to the inhomogeneous ionization of the plasma and the occurrence of the fluxes of nonequilibrium charge carriers. These fluxes change the pressure of the gas on the grain surfaces and define the forces that force the grains to move towards the zone of maximum ionization perturbation of the plasma. It has been shown that the combined operation of the electrical forces and the forces of the interface pressure leads to the formation of the ordered structures, corresponding to the balance of forces. The results of computer simulation, corresponding to the experimental data, are given.