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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Experimental Methods of Dust Charging and Mobilization on Surfaces with Exposure to Ultraviolet Radiation or Plasmas
Published on: April 3, 2018
Surface states and the charge of a dust particle in a plasma
F X Bronold1, H Fehske, H Kersten
1Institut für Physik, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
Abstract:
We investigate electron and ion surface states of a negatively charged dust particle in a gas discharge and identify the charge of the particle with the electron surface density bound in the polarization-induced short-range part of the particle potential. On that scale, ions do not affect the charge. They are trapped in the shallow states of the Coulomb tail of the potential and act only as screening charges. Using orbital-motion limited electron charging fluxes and the particle temperature as an adjustable parameter, we obtain excellent agreement with experimental data.
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