Stochastic heating of a single Brownian particle by charge fluctuations in a radio-frequency produced plasma sheath

The Brownian motion of a single particle in the plasma sheath is studied to separate the effect of stochastic heating by charge fluctuations from heating by collective effects. By measuring the particle velocities in the ballistic regime and by carefully determining the particle mass from the Epstein drag it is shown that for a pressure of 10 Pa, which is typical of many experiments, the proper kinetic temperature of the Brownian particle remains close to the gas temperature and rises only slightly with particle size. This weak effect is confirmed by a detailed model for charging and charge fluctuations in the sheath. A substantial temperature rise is found for decreasing pressure, which approximately shows the expected scaling with p(-2). The system under study is an example for non-equilibrium Brownian motion under the influence of white noise without corresponding dissipation.