?
Screening length in dusty plasma crystals
Particles interaction and value of the screening length in dusty plasma systems
are of great interest in dusty plasma area. Three inter-particle potentials (Debye potential,
Gurevich potential and interaction potential in the weakly collisional regime) are used to solve
equilibrium equations for two dusty particles suspended in a parabolic trap. The inter-particle
distance dependence on screening length, trap parameter and particle charge is obtained. The
functional form of inter-particle distance dependence on ion temperature is investigated and
compared with experimental data at 200–300 K in order to test used potentials applicability
to dusty plasma systems at room temperatures. The preference is given to the Yukawa-type
potential including effective values of particle charge and screening length. The estimated
effective value of the screening length is 5–15 times larger than the Debye length.