A spiraling ion beam propagating through a magnetized dusty plasma cylinder drives electrostatic lower hybrid waves to instability via cyclotron interaction. Numerical calculations of the growth rate and unstable mode frequencies have been carried out for the Princeton Q-1 device using the experimental dusty plasma parameters [e.g., Barkan et al., Planet. Space Sci. 43, 905 (1995)]. It is found that as the density ratio δ(=nio∕neo, where ni0 is the ion plasma density and ne0 is the electron density) of negatively charged dust grains to electrons increases, the unstable mode frequency of the lower hybrid waves increases. In addition, the growth rate of the instability also increases with the density ratio δ. In other words, the presence of negatively charged dust grains can further destabilize the lower hybrid wave instability. The growth rate has the largest value for the modes where Jl(pnro) is maximum [here pn=xn∕r0, where pn is the perpendicular wave number in cm−1, r0 is the plasma radius, and xn are the zeros of the Bessel function J1(x)] i.e., whose eigenfunctions peak at the location of the beam. The growth rate scales as one third power of the beam current.

A large amplitude modulated Gaussian electromagnetic beam propagating in a dusty plasma with dust charge fluctuations has been studied. The electrons are heated non-uniformly by the electromagnetic beam. For non-steady state, we obtain nonlinear current density in the presence of dust grains. This expression has been used to study the non-stationary self-focusing and resulting self-distortion of the amplitude modulated electromagnetic beam. It has been observed that the dust charge fluctuation increases the self-focusing of electromagnetic beam. It is also found that the effect of dust charge fluctuations is significant on the modulation index.

An ion beam propagating through a magnetized potassium plasma cylinder having negatively charged dust grains drives electrostatic ion-acoustic waves to instability via Cerenkov interaction. The phase velocity of sound wave increases with the relative density of negatively charged dust grains. The unstable wave frequencies and the growth rate increase, with the relative density of negatively charged dust grains. The growth rate of the unstable mode scales as one-third power of the beam density. The real part of frequency of the unstable mode increases with the beam energy and scales as almost the one-half power of the beam energy.

A pre-bunched relativistic electron beam (REB) counter-propagating to the surface wave in the vacuum region Compton backscatters the surface wave into a high-frequency coherent radiation. Plasma supports the surface wave that acquires a large wave number k 0z around pump wave frequency ω 0 = ω p / √ 2, where ω p is the plasma frequency. The surface wave extends into the vacuum region and can be employed as a wiggler for the generation of sub-millimeter waves. The growth rate, efficiency, and gain were evaluated based on experimentally known parameters relevant to free electron laser (FEL). It was found that the growth rate, efficiency, and gain of the surface wave-pumped FEL increase with the modulation index Δ, which has the maximum value when approaching unity in addition to when the frequency and wave number of the pre-bunched beam are comparable to that of the radiation wave, i.e., ω 01 ∼ ω 1 and k 01 ∼ k 1 . The growth rate of FEL instability scales as one-third power of beam density in the Compton regime.

The role of negatively charged ions in plasma on growth (without catalyst) and field emission properties of spherical carbon nanotube (CNT) tip has been theoretically investigated. A theoretical model of charge neutrality, including the kinetics of electrons, negatively and positively charged ions, neutral atoms, and the energy balance of various species has been developed. Numerical calculations of the spherical CNT tip radius for different relative density of negatively charged ions ɛr(=nSF6-/nC+, where nSF6- and nC+ are the equilibrium densities of sulphur hexafluoride and carbon ions, respectively) have been carried out for the typical glow discharge plasma parameters. It is found that the spherical CNT tip radius decreases with ɛr and hence the field emission of electrons from the spherical CNT tip increases. Some of our theoretical results are in accordance with the existing experimental observations.