The influence of an externally applied electric field on residual microparticle charge in a spatio-temporal afterglow plasma

Abstract

The residual charge of dust particles in spatial and temporal afterglow plasmas is relevant in many fundamental research fields and technological applications. It has been shown in both spatial and temporal afterglow plasmas that the presence of an externally applied electric field can greatly influence the residual dust particle charge. However, this has not yet been explored in a combined spatiotemporal afterglow plasma. In this work, the influence of an externally applied electric field on the residual microparticle charge is, therefore, investigated in a spatiotemporal afterglow plasma. It is found that the measured charge is predominantly affected by changes to the spatial component of the spatiotemporal afterglow when an electric field is applied, while the influence on the temporal component seems to be significantly less relevant. Our results contribute to an improved understanding of particle (de-)charging in afterglow plasmas and are highly relevant to the design of applications in which afterglow plasmas are present and where the charge of dust particles needs to be controlled for the sake of (nano)contamination control.