Non-self-maintained discharge supported by a proton beam for studying stretched dust structures

Abstract

The main parameters of non-self-maintained discharge supported by a proton beam in inert gas are obtained. The discharge is used to study dust structures in nuclear excited plasma. Its main features include low gas pressure (∼133 Pa) and low proton beam current density (∼10−6 A/cm2). It is shown that a trap for negatively charged dust particles is formed in the discharge near-collector area at a sufficiently large negative voltage on the collector (−100 V), which is caused by a large negative potential jump in the Langmuir electrode layer whose width increases with distance from the center of the discharge. The possibility of generating stretched dust structures in non-self-maintained discharge is considered.