S. K. Mishra

Charging of dust particles in an illuminated open complex plasma system

This paper presents an investigation of the charging of dust particles in a dusty plasma, irradiated by white light in near space at satellite altitudes. In deference to the recent emphasis on the character of openness in a dusty plasma, the investigation is based on the balance of the number density and energy of electrons, ions, and neutral particles as well as the energy balance of the dust particles and the charge neutrality condition. The accretion of electrons/ions and the emission of electrons by the dust particles, the ionization of neutral particles and the recombination of electrons and ions, and binary collisions between electrons, ions, and neutral atoms are the processes considered herein; the energy exchange associated with these processes has also been considered. The formulation is applicable to dusty plasmas in space and laboratory, where the photoemission of electrons is the dominant mechanism for electron generation. As an illustration a parametric study of the charging of the dust of C...

Kinetics of complex plasmas having spherical dust particles with a size distribution

This paper presents an analysis of the kinetics of an illuminated complex plasma having spherical dust particles with a size distribution. It has been pointed out that in the steady state, the electric potential on the surface of all the particles is the same; as a corollary, all particles carry a charge of the same sign. It is seen that in the steady state, the plasma parameters are determined by the number per unit volume and root mean square radius of the dust particles. This fact makes the analysis similar to that for a complex plasma with dust of uniform size. It is seen that it is essential to consider both the number and energy balance of the constituents of the complex plasma. A parametric analysis, a discussion of the numerical results thus obtained, and conclusions have also been given.

Growth of embryonic dust particles in a complex plasma

A model describing the growth of embryonic dust grains on account of accretion of neutral atoms and positively charged ionic species in a complex plasma has been developed. In deference to the recent emphasis on the character of the openness in complex plasma, the investigation is based on the balance of the number density and energy of electrons, ions, and neutral particles as well as the energy balance of the dust particles and the charge neutrality condition. To discuss the kinetics of the growth of the size of dust the processes of accretion of electrons, ions, and neutral species on the dust particles, the ionization of neutral atoms, and recombination of electrons and ions, and the elastic collisions between the constituent species of the dusty plasma have been considered; the energy exchange associated with these processes has also been taken into account. The dependence of the growth of dust particles and other relevant parameters on number density of embryonic dust grains has, in particular, been explored.

Self-focusing and cross-focusing of Gaussian electromagnetic beams in fully ionized collisional magnetoplasmas

This paper presents an analysis and subsequent discussion of the phenomena of self-focusing of single electromagnetic Gaussian beams and cross-focusing of multiple coaxial beams in fully ionized magnetoplasma, taking into account the Ohmic heating of the electrons by the beams and loss of energy by electrons due to collision with the ions and electronic thermal conduction; the energy gained by ions in collision with the electrons has been equated to the energy lost on account of ionic thermal conduction. It is seen that the inclusion of the ionic thermal conduction reduces self/cross-focusing for high values of the magnetic field (νe≪Ωc) and enhances the same for low values of the magnetic field (νe≫ωc); here νe is the electron collision frequency and ωc,Ωc are the cyclotron frequencies of electrons and ions, respectively. The wave frequency is assumed to be much higher than the cyclotron frequency of the electrons. The results lead to the conclusion that considerable error occurs by neglecting ionic ther...

Ring formation in self-focusing of electromagnetic beams in plasmas

This article presents a paraxial theory of ring formation as an initially Gaussian beam propagates in a nonlinear plasma, characterized by significant collisional or ponderomotive nonlinearity. Regions in the axial irradiance-(beamwidth)−2 space, for which the ring formation occurs and the paraxial theory is valid, have been characterized; for typical points in these regions the dependence of the beam width parameter and the radial distribution of irradiance on the distance has been specifically investigated and discussed.

Focusing of a dark hollow Gaussian electromagnetic beam in a magnetoplasma

This paper presents an analysis and subsequent discussion of the self focusing of a dark hollow Gaussian electromagnetic beam (HGB) in a magnetoplasma, considering ponderomotive and collisional nonlinearities. A paraxial-like approach, in which the relevant parameters are expanded in terms of radial distance from the maximum of the irradiance rather than that from the axis, has been adopted to analyze the propagation of the HGB. The nature of self focusing is highlighted through the critical curves as a plot of dimensionless radius versus power of the beam. The effect of the magnetic field and the nature of the nonlinearity on self focusing of various order HGBs has also been explored.

Kinetics of illuminated complex plasmas considering Mie scattering by spherical dust particles with a size distribution

In this paper Mie scattering of light by dust particles having Mathis, Rumpl, and Nordsieek power law distribution of size has been incorporated in the formulation of the kinetics of an illuminated complex plasma which takes into account the ionization of neutral atoms by an external agency, ion-electron recombination, photoemission of electrons by the dust particles, and accretion of electrons and ions on the surface of the particles; the number and energy balance of the constituent species has also been taken into account. An interesting conclusion is that unlike the usual case (when Mie scattering is neglected) the charge on a particle is not proportional to the radius and that for certain sets of parameters the smaller particles are negatively charged while the larger particles, carry positive charge.

Nonlinear dependence of complex plasma parameters on applied electric field

This paper presents an analysis of the effect of an applied static or alternating electric field on the electron density and temperature, charge on the particles, the electron collision frequency, the electronic conductivity, and the coefficient of electron diffusion in a complex plasma (i) when not illuminated by light, which can cause photoelectric emission from the particles, and (ii) when so illuminated. A parametric analysis based on computations for some typical sets of parameters has also been made. The significance of this work to (i) the disappearance of a polar mesospheric summer echoes structure by radio wave and (ii) magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) power generation has also been indicated. The time dependence of the various parameters after the application of the electric field has also been discussed.

Charge distribution over dust particles in a flowing plasma

This paper presents an analytical model for the physical understanding of the charge distribution on dust particles in meso-thermal flow of plasmas where the flow speed of plasma relative to the dust particle is larger than the ion thermal speed but much less than the thermal speed of electrons. The formulation is based on the master difference equation for population balance and the number and energy balance considerations, allowing the charge to be only an integral multiple (positive or negative) of the electronic charge. The kinetics for (i) dark complex plasmas where accretion of electrons/ionic species are the dominant charging mechanisms and (ii) illuminated complex plasmas where photoemission significantly contributes to dust charging has been developed. The expression for the mean energy associated with the accretion of ionic species over dust gains in meso-thermal flow of complex plasmas has been derived and employed to obtain the charge distribution and other relevant plasma parameters. The high...

On focusing of a ring ripple on a Gaussian electromagnetic beam in a plasma

In this communication the authors have investigated the focusing of a ring ripple on a Gaussian electromagnetic beam propagating in a plasma, considering each of the three kinds of basic nonlinearities, namely, ponderomotive, collisional, and relativistic. In this analysis, the electric field profile of the propagating beam is assumed to be composed of the radial electric field distribution of the Gaussian beam as well as that of the ring ripple; a paraxial like approach has been adopted to analyze the characteristics of the propagation. Thus, one considers a unique dielectric function for the beam propagation and a radial field sensitive diffraction term, appropriate to the vicinity of the maximum of the irradiance distribution of the ring ripple. Further, the variation of the phase associated with the beam on account of the r independent terms in the eikonal has also been accounted for.