Successive Generations of Dust in Complex Plasmas: A Cyclic Phenomenon in the Void Region

Abstract

Dust formation and growth in plasmas are in most cases continuous cyclic phenomena. We show that the growth of new dust generations takes place in a dust-free region, usually called a void, in the dust cloud. The three-step process of new dust generation is detailed thanks to the correlation between electrical, optical, and ex situ diagnostics. The strong inhomogeneity of both the plasma and the dust cloud during this process is underlined.