Anomalous dust temperature in dusty plasma experiments

Dust heating in dusty plasmas due to thermal electric field fluctuations and dust acoustic waves is examined. It is shown that dust particles acquire large random motion in fluctuating electric fields (within dust cloud) of background plasma causing dust electrostatic pressure PEPE [K. Avinash, Phys. Plasmas 13 (2006) 012109] and corresponding large temperature TETE. Due to quadratic dependence on qdqd and high dust charge (∼103–104e∼103–104e), TETE is much bigger than the dust kinetic temperature TdTd and is in the range of 10–300 eV for typical experimental numbers. Using global energy constraints dust heating due to dust acoustic waves is examined. It is shown that dust acoustic waves are potentially capable of heating dust to high temperatures in the range of a few hundreds of eV.

► We demonstrate heating of charged dust particles due to fluctuating electric fields in plasmas. ► An example of the anomalous dust heating is due the dust acoustic wave. ► Here dust attains high temperatures in the range of a few hundreds of eV. ► Our finding is in agreement with laboratory observations and simulation results.