Sheath formation under collisional conditions in presence of dust

Abstract

Sheath formation is studied for collisional plasma in presence of dust. In common laboratory plasma, the dust acquires negative charges because of high thermal velocity of the electrons. The usual dust charging theory dealing with the issue is that of the Orbit Motion Limited theory. However, the theory does not find its application when the ion neutral collisions are significantly present. An alternate theory exists in literature for collisional dust charging. Collision is modeled by constant mean free path model. The sheath is considered jointly with the bulk of the plasma and a smooth transition of the plasma profiles from the bulk to the sheath is obtained. The various plasma profiles such as the electrostatic force on the grain, the ion drag force along with the dust density, and velocity are shown to vary spatially with increasing ion neutral collision. © 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.