Modeling dust crystal in a cylindrical rf plasma reactor

In this study, the effect of the radiofrequency on the modeling of three-dimensional dust crystal was examined. A low pressure cylindrical argon reactor was modeled numerically using the local field approximation model, then multiple small dust grains were released and tracked in a three-dimensional Lagrangian framework. The dust grain configuration was obtained for two different cases; one using the rf-period-averaged plasma variables and one using the instantaneous plasma variables. The results of two cases were compared and significant differences were observed.