Charging of Dust Grains in a Nuclear-Induced Plasma at High Pressures

Abstract

The process of dust-grain charging in plasmas produced by radioactive decay products or spontaneous fission fragments in air and xenon at high pressures is studied numerically in the hydrodynamic approximation. It is shown that, at sufficiently high rates of gas ionization, the dust grains in air are charged by electrons rather than ions, so that the grain charge in air is comparable to that in electropositive gases. The results of numerical calculations based on a complete model agree well with the experimental data. The time evolution of the grain charge is investigated, and the characteristic time scales on which the grains acquire an electric charge are established. The validity of approximate theories of dust-grain charging in electropositive and electronegative gases at high pressures is examined.