Physics and applications of dusty plasmas: The Perspectives 2023

Dusty plasmas are electrically quasi-neutral media that, along with electrons, ions, neutral gas, radiation, and electric and/or magnetic fields, also contain solid or liquid particles with sizes ranging from a few nanometers to a few micrometers. These media can be found in many natural environments as well as in various laboratory setups and industrial applications. As a separate branch of plasma physics, the field of dusty plasma physics was born in the beginning of 1990s at the intersection of the interests of the communities investigating astrophysical and technological plasmas. An additional boost to the development of the field was given by the discovery of plasma crystals leading to a series of microgravity experiments of which the purpose was to investigate generic phenomena in condensed matter physics using strongly coupled complex (dusty) plasmas as model systems. Finally, the field has gained an increasing amount of attention due to its inevitable connection to the development of novel applications ranging from the synthesis of functional nanoparticles to nuclear fusion and from particle sensing and diagnostics to nano-contamination control. The purpose of the present perspectives paper is to identify promising new developments and research directions for the field. As such, dusty plasmas are considered in their entire variety: from classical low-pressure noble-gas dusty discharges to atmospheric pressure plasmas with aerosols and from rarefied astrophysical plasmas to dense plasmas in nuclear fusion devices. Both fundamental and application aspects are covered

Discharging of dust particles of different sizes in an argon afterglow plasma

The dust charge distribution function (DCDF) in an argon plasma afterglow is obtained by solving numerically the master equation describing dust discharging as a one-step stochastic process. The calculated DCDFs are compared with Gaussian distributions, and it is found that the dust charge distribution functions can be approximated quite well by the latter ones for different external conditions. It is found how the DCDF, mean dust charge, variance and charging time depend on dust size. For late afterglow times, it is also analyzed how the emission of electrons in the collisions of excited argon atoms with dust particles affects the DCDF. It is shown that the emission effect is more essential for larger nanoparticles than for smaller ones.Здобуто функцію розподілу порошинок за зарядом (ФРПЗ) у післясвітінні аргонової плазми шляхом числового розв’язання основного кінетичного рівняння, що описує розрядження порошинок як однокроковий стохастичний процес. Розраховані ФРПЗ порівняно з розподілами Гаусса, і виявлено, що останні можуть доволі добре описувати функції розподілу порошинок за зарядом за різних зовнішніх умов. З’ясовано, як ФРПЗ, середній заряд порошинок, дисперсія функції Гаусса, що апроксимує ФРПЗ, та час заряджання порошинок залежать від розміру порошинок. Для пізніх часів післясвітіння також аналізується, як емісія електронів у зіткненнях збуджених атомів аргону з порошинками впливає на ФРПЗ. Показано, що вплив цієї емісії на більші порошинки є більш суттєвим, ніж на малі

Atomic structure of the nanocrystalline Si particles appearing in nanostructured Si thin films produced in low-temperature radiofrequency plasmas

Nanostructured Si thin films, also referred as polymorphous, were grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The term "polymorphous" is used to define silicon material that consists of a two-phase mixture of amorphous and ordered Si. The plasma conditions were set to obtain Si thin films from the simultaneous deposition of radical and ordered nanoparticles. Here, a careful analysis by electron transmission microscopy and electron diffraction is reported with the aim to clarify the specific atomic structure of the nanocrystalline particles embedded in the films. Whatever the plasma conditions, the electron diffraction images always revealed the existence of a well-defined crystalline structure different from the diamondlike structure of Si. The formation of nanocrystallinelike films at low temperature is discussed. A Si face-cubic-centered structure is demonstrated here in nanocrystalline particles produced in low-pressure silane plasma at room temperature

Self-excited void instability during dust particle growth in a dusty plasma

Copyright 2010 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Physics of Plasmas and may be found at http://link.aip.org/link/PHPAEN/v17/i8/p083705/s1International audienceA new kind of void instability in a complex plasma is described. This instability is directly linked to the growth of a new generation of dust particles inside the void. It consists of slow contraction and expansion sequences of the void size which frequency and amplitude evolve while the new dust particles are growing

Micro-sphere levitation in a sheath of a low pressure continuous discharge,” Phys

Electrode sheath profile measurements are reported, with dust particles in suspension and without With the shape of the unperturbed potential profile, basic characteristics can be predicted as the surface potential, the charge and potential energy of a dust particle in function of its position in the sheath The dust particle screening length is also estimated analyzing binary collisions in a gas phase cloud In the presence of dust particles, an average increase of ion drift velocities is measured showing that micron-sized particles whose charge is due to the electron and ion fluxes produce a selfconsistent redistribution of the plasma particle fluxes 1

Carousel instability in a capacitively coupled RF dusty plasma

Copyright 2011 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. This article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TPS.2011.2155675International audienceRotating plasma spheroids are observed in a capacitively coupled radio-frequency discharge containing grown dust particles. These plasma spheroids are regions of slightly enhanced emission that rotate along the circumference of electrodes. This effect is not observed systematically, and when it occurs, the number and the speed of the spheroids can vary with the discharge parameters. These spheroids have been evidenced by using high-speed imaging