Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 175002 (2008) [4 pages]Surface States and the Charge of a Dust Particle in a PlasmaReceived 7 January 2008; published 20 October 2008 We investigate electron and ion surface states of a negatively charged dust particle in a gas discharge and identify the charge of the particle with the electron surface density bound in the polarization-induced short-range part of the particle potential. On that scale, ions do not affect the charge. They are trapped in the shallow states of the Coulomb tail of the potential and act only as screening charges. Using orbital-motion limited electron charging fluxes and the particle temperature as an adjustable parameter, we obtain excellent agreement with experimental data. © 2008 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.175002
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.175002
PACS:
52.27.Lw, 52.40.Hf, 68.43.−h, 73.20.−r
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