Structure and dynamics of Yukawa dusty plasmas and dusty plasma mixtures

Abstract

Dusty plasmas can be regarded as Yukawa system in a one-dimensional potential well. We extend the analysis on dusty plasmas to the two-dimensional Yukawa particles. At low temperatures, dust particles sit in a plane which is perpendicular to the gravitational field under appropriate conditions. When they are also confined laterally by an electrode, we have a finite two-dimensional system of Yukawa particles. The low temperature structures are obtained by molecular dynamics simulations and the results are reproduced by theoretical analyses. The correlation energy of the Yukawa particles has been shown to play an essential role in structure formations. As for dynamics of this system, the tendency of a change from the surface melting in systems with short-ranged interactions to possible surface freezing of Coulombic system is observed.