Dust in the magnetized sheath

Abstract

In the present work the structure of the magnetized sheath is investigated in the multifluid framework. The ambient magnetic field is assumed parallel to the wall and the effect of the plasma magnetization, plasma ionization, and plasma-neutral collisions on the sheath is examined. It is shown that the width of the non-neutral boundary layer is dependent on the collision frequencies as well as on the plasma magnetization. The size of the sheath layer can decrease with the increase in magnetic field. The increase in the ion-neutral collision can also adversely affect the sheath size. The equilibrium and levitation of the dust particles in a collisional magnetized sheath are shown to depend on the collision frequencies and on the magnetization. Further, the increase in the collision or magnetization invariably leads to the presence of the positively charged grains near the plasma wall suggesting that the grain levitation inside the charged layer is implicitly dependent on the plasma parameters in a nontrivial way.