Physics and applications of dusty plasmas: The Perspectives 2023

Abstract

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.

The collisional study of EIC waves in a magnetized dusty plasma with the inclusion of a DC electric field

“…Dusty plasma is present in rocket exhaust, influencing the exhaust dynamics and interactions with the surrounding environment and the findings could be relevant for understanding and modelling the plasma phenomena in rocket exhaust plumes [21]. Dusty plasmas are employed in plasma processing reactors for material processing and surface treatments and the results from this work could be applied to improve the performance and control of these plasma processing reactors [20,21]. EIC waves have been extensively studied using kinetic and fluid theories and their existence in laboratory plasmas has also been experimentally verified [22][23][24][25] [8,9,[26][27][28][29].…”

“…Consequently, it's unsurprising that research on 'plasmas' [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] spans multiple domains, including various waves [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] and astrophysical phenomena [15][16][17][18][19]. Dusty plasmas are commonly utilized in semiconductor processing devices for various applications such as etching and deposition processes [20]. Dusty plasma is present in rocket exhaust, influencing the exhaust dynamics and interactions with the surrounding environment and the findings could be relevant for understanding and modelling the plasma phenomena in rocket exhaust plumes [21].…”

Non-equilibrium molecular dynamics study of heat transfer parameters in two-dimensional Yukawa systems under uniform magnetic field

“…Despite the many ways of generating such systems of charged particles, the model system of charged particles interacting via screened Coulomb potential (Yukawa potential) often provides adequate and close descriptions of plasma properties 7 – 9 . This is particularly the case for dusty plasmas 10 , where charged dust particles form a 2D system of strongly coupled particles. Among other interesting physical phenomena, such systems provide a unique opportunity to study the effect of strong magnetic fields on the physical properties of strongly coupled plasmas 11 – 13 .…”