Probing the Sheath Electric Field With a Crystal Lattice by Using Thermophoresis in Dusty Plasma

Author

Land, Victor ; Smith, Bernard ; Matthews, Lorin ; Hyde, Truell

Author_Institution

Center for Astrophys., Space Phys. & Eng. Res., Baylor Univ., Waco, TX, USA

Volume

38

Issue

4

fYear

2010

fDate

4/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

768

Lastpage

773

Abstract

A 2-D dust crystal levitated in the sheath of a modified Gaseous Electronics Conference reference cell is manipulated by heating or cooling the lower electrode. The dust charge is obtained by measuring the global characteristics of the levitated crystal obtained from top-view pictures. From the force balance, the electric field in the sheath is reconstructed. From the Bohm criterion, we conclude that the dust crystal is levitated mainly above and just below the classical Bohm point.

Keywords

dusty plasmas; plasma probes; plasma sheaths; 2-D dust crystal; Bohm criterion; classical Bohm point; crystal lattice; dust charge; dusty plasma; electrode cooling; electrode heating; force balance; global characteristic measurement; levitated crystal; modified Gaseous Electronics Conference reference cell; sheath electric field probing; thermophoresis; Dust crystal; dusty plasma; modified Gaseous Electronics Conference (GEC) cell; sheath electric field; thermophoresis;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2009.2034663

Filename

5332365