Influence of an external electric field on plasma parameters around an isolated dust particle

Abstract

The paper presents new numerical results on the behavior of plasma parameters around an isolated chargeddust particle under the action of the external electric field. For the first time, the model takes into account thedependence of mean electron energy on the reduced electric field strength. As a result of the calculations, thedependencies of self-consistent spatial distributions of the electron and ion densities and electric potentialaround the dust particle on reduced external electric field strength were obtained. These distributions wereanalyzed through the expansion into Legendre polynomials. The processes of ion focusing wakeformation behind the dust particle were studied. The dust particle charge and the dipole moment of the“ion cloud - dust particle” are calculated for different values of the reduced electric field and ion mean freepaths. It is shown that in the determination of electron density spatial profile and the dust particle charge thedependence of electron temperature on electric field strength plays a significant role. Key words: dusty plasma, dust particle charging, dipole moment, wake, plasma polarization.