Abstract
The onset and growth of a dust void are investigated in a radio-frequency (rf) sheath of a capacitively coupled argon plasma. A circularly symmetric void emerges and grows with increasing rf power and pressure in the central region of the dust cloud levitating in the sheath. Experimental measurements of the void diameter are compared with the predictions of a simple phenomenological theory, based on a balance of forces on dust grains.
- Received 18 January 2002
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.125001
©2002 American Physical Society
