O EDP Sciences, Les Ulis Dusty plasmas: A topical review

Abstract. Ionized gases laden with fine charged dust grains, referred to as dusty plasmas, occur in a wide variety of cosmic and terrestrial environments. Dust is an almost ubiquitous component of the space envi-ronment, and occurs in laboratory plasmas including plasmas used for processing, and the novel crystallized dusty plasmas. In this review, selected topics in the physics of dusty plasmas are considered, with an empha-sis on strongly coupled dusty plasmas. This includes a parameter survey of dusty plasmas, and discussion of dust charging mechanisms, some characteristics of dust Coulomb crystals, and effects of strong coupling on dust acoustic waves. 1