Structure of finite two-dimensional Yukawa lattices: Dust crystals

Abstract

Dust particles in plasmas are often confined near the boundary between the plasma bulk and the sheath where the gravitation is balanced by electrostatic force. To keep dust particles from running away horizontally, an electrostatic potential is usually applied to the electrode surrounding these dusty plasmas and, under appropriate conditions, we have finite two-dimensional lattices of dust particles. Modeling the interaction between dust particles as the isotropic Yukawa interaction, structures of finite two-dimensional Yukawa systems at low temperatures have been analyzed both by numerical simulations and variational methods. The effect of the correlation energy between dust particles is shown to play an important role in the formation of the one-body distribution in these systems.

Ground state of a confined Yukawa plasma including correlation effects

“…For this we extend the analysis of Ref. [14] by including correlation effects following an idea of Totsuji et al [15] applied to 2D systems. We apply the local density approximation (LDA) using known results [16] for the correlation energy of a homogeneous one-component Yukawa plasma.…”

Observation of particle pairing in a two-dimensional plasma crystal

“…Note that a dense lattice layer, consisting of highly charged microparticles, itself produces a finite electric field in its vicinity. In our conditions it is not large, though, about one fifth of E 0 in the mean-field approximation [38].…”

Structure and Phase Transitions of Yukawa Balls

“…An extension of the previous analysis to include correlation effects is difficult as the form of the pair correlation function is unknown. One way around this problem is to apply a local density approximation (LDA) [111,115]. There one replaces the nonlocal terms within the energy density at point r by local expressions using the known energy density of the homogeneous system [85] u corr (n 0 , κ) = −1.444Q 2 n 4/3 0 exp −0.375κn…”