Modification of transmitted electric fields by dusty plasmas in weakly magnetized and unmagnetized laboratory plasmas

The presence of charged dust particles is ubiquitous in the space environment. From structures such as the dust tails of comets to flowing magnetized dust clouds that might modify the interplanetary magnetic fields, the presence of charged dust can modulate electrostatic perturbations in the plasma. Because these naturally occurring phenomena are transitory, they difficult to investigate. Scaled laboratory experiments are studying the role of magnetized and unmagnetized dust clouds and their effect on the background plasma and low frequency (f < f_ci) plasma waves at the Magnetized Plasma Research Laboratory (MPRL) to gain new insights for future space studies. The effects dust clouds have on electrostatic perturbations is investigated by using a single tip Langmuir probe to transmit low frequency perturbations while a set of three, single tip Langmuir probes detects fluctuations in floating potential allowing for reconstruction of local electric field components. This presentation compares experiments conducted with and without dust, with various driving frequencies, magnetic fields and radial separations between the transmitting and receiving probes. Preliminary analysis of the fluctuations of local electric fields are presented.