Observation of self-excited dust acoustic wave in dusty plasma with nanometer size dust grains

Abstract

Dusty plasma with a nanometer size dust grain is produced by externally injecting carbon nanopowder into a radio frequency discharge argon plasma. A self-excited dust acoustic wave with a characteristic frequency of ∼100 Hz is observed in the dust cloud. The average dust charge is estimated from the Orbital Motion Limited theory using experimentally measured parameters. The measured wave parameters are used to determine dusty plasma parameters such as dust density and average inter particle distance. The screening parameter and the coupling strength of the dusty plasma indicate that the system is very close to the strongly coupled state.