Ultrahigh charging of dust particles in a nonequilibrium plasma

Abstract

Charging of dust particles in a plasma with the two-temperature energy distribution of electrons has been studied. It has been shown that the dust-particle potential divided by the electron temperature decreases with increasing electron temperature in the plasma with cold ions. Owing to this behavior, the potential of the dustparticle surface increases with the electron temperature more slowly than the linear function and is lower than the electron temperature (divided by the elementary charge) for T e > 5.5 eV in hydrogen and for T e > 240 eV in argon. The fraction of fast electrons at which these electrons begin to contribute to the charge of dust particles has been determined. It has been shown that the charge of micron particles can reach 106 elementary charges. The effect of the cold and thermal field emission on the charge of dust particles has been analyzed. The possibility of obtaining ultrahigh charges (to 107 elementary charges on dust particles with a radius of 50–100 μm irradiated by a 25-keV 1-mA electron beam has been demonstrated.