Stochastic fluctuations of dust particle charge in RF discharges
- Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, Alabama 35899 (United States)
In addition to RF oscillations, intrinsic stochastic fluctuations due to the discreteness of electrons and ions could be important to the charging of a dust particle in RF discharges. These fluctuations are studied in the present work for three cases [M. Bacharis et al., Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 19, 025002 (2010)] relevant to RF discharges employing a recently proposed model [B. Shotorban, Phys. Rev. E 83, 066403 (2011)] valid for stochastic charging at nonstationary states. The cases are concerned with a time varying electron number density relevant to sheaths, a time varying electric field relevant to the bulk plasma, and a time-dependent bi-Maxwellian distribution of electrons in a low pressure discharge. Two dust particles with different sizes are individually studied in each case. The radius of one is ten times larger than the radius of the other. In all of the cases, for the larger dust particle, the root-mean-squre of charge stochastic fluctuations is about an order of magnitude smaller than the amplitude of RF charge oscillations, while for the smaller dust particle, they are comparable in magnitude.
- OSTI ID:
- 22072363
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 5; Other Information: (c) 2012 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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