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Updated: Apr 26, 2026

Experimental Methods of Dust Charging and Mobilization on Surfaces with Exposure to Ultraviolet Radiation or Plasmas
Published on: April 3, 2018
Charging and heat collection by a positively charged dust grain in a plasma
Gian Luca Delzanno1, Xian-Zhu Tang1
1Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
Abstract:
Dust particulates immersed in a quasineutral plasma can emit electrons in several important applications. Once electron emission becomes strong enough, the dust enters the positively charged regime where the conventional orbital-motion-limited (OML) theory can break down due to potential-well effects on trapped electrons. A minimal modification of the trapped-passing boundary approximation in the so-called OML(+) approach is shown to accurately predict the dust charge and heat collection flux for a wide range of dust size and temperature.
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