ON THE PHYSICS OF DUSTY PLASMAS
De Juli, M. C.
Instituto
de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas
Universidade
de São Paulo, Brasil
Most
of the material in the Universe is in the plasma state and it coexists with
dust particles in many situations. It was suggest long time ago that dust
grains become charged (negatively or positively) if they are immersed in a
radiative environment. The system composed of charged dusts, electrons and ions
forms a so called dusty plasma. In recent years the interest in dusty plasmas
has increased significantly because it was recognized their importance in a number
of applications in astrophysics and planetary physics, physics of strongly
coupled systems, problems in laboratory including plasma processing and fusion
devices, etc. There exists a number of physical effects, which distinguish a
dusty plasma from a standard plasma of electrons and ions, for example: the
charge fluctuation on dust particles, the mass distribution of dust particles,
effects of the shape of dust particles, etc. However, the most fascinating
effect that was observed in laboratory, is the crystallization of dusty
plasmas. There is a phase transition in the dusty plasma. I intend to present
an overview of the physical properties of the dusty plasmas, their occurrences
and applications.