Dust as a surfactant

Abstract

We argue that dust immersed in a plasma sheath acts as a surfactant. By considering the momentum balance in a plasma sheath, we evaluate the dependence of the plasma surface pressure on the dust density. It is shown that the dust may reduce the surface pressure, giving rise to a sufficiently strong tangential force. The latter is capable of confining the dust layer inside the sheath in the direction perpendicular to the ion flow.