Measurement of Electric Charge of Dust in a Plasma

Abstract

The electric charge of dust particles which move in a plasma has been measured experimentally. The dust particles are produced by a gas-evaporation method and are introduced into a plasma chamber in order to be electrically charged by the plasma. Then the particles pass through a gap with electric field and the deviation of their trajectories is detected. The result shows that the average charge of the dust particles of the radius of about 100mm is about 900 times the unit charge. The density of the plasma is 1014/m3 and the electron temperature is about 5eV.