Waves and Instabilities in Dusty Plasmas

Abstract

This chapter summarizes the experimental and theoretical work on waves and instabilities in dusty plasmas, performed by the group at the University of Iowa during the last decade. The work has generally proceeded along two parallel lines, with the same wave modes and instabilities being studied both in dusty plasmas and in plasmas with large percentages of negative ions. Because, in typical, laboratory dusty plasmas the dust grains are negatively charged, the close connection between wave phenomena in these plasmas and those in negative ion plasmas should not come as a surprise. Further, the chapter examines the effects of negatively charged dust grains on an ionization instability in plasmas of low degree of ionization, in which electrons are present which have an energy slightly above the ionization energy of the neutral gas.