Experimental and theoretical investigations of dust crystals in plasma created by proton beam

First observations of the dust grain crystal formation in the plasma generated by the slowing-down proton beam have been described. The crystal being formed has a simple cubical lattice with the mean distances between particles for different gases (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe) from 90 to 140 μm. For a calculation of parameters of plasma the model of kinetic processes was developed. Results of our simulation showed that the anisotropic dust particles interaction can be the main physical reason of the appearance of the crystal like structure.