EPL, 84 (2008) 55001
DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/84/55001

Mode-spectral analysis of 2D Coulomb clusters with fluctuating charges

D. J. Kedziora, S. V. Vladimirov and A. A. Samarian

School of Physics, The University of Sydney - New South Wales 2006, Australia

S.Vladimirov@physics.usyd.edu.au

received 7 October 2008; accepted in final form 31 October 2008; published December 2008
published online 13 November 2008

Abstract
The mode spectra of small N = 3, 7, 12 clusters of dust particles with fluctuating charges are analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the influence of correlated and uncorrelated charge fluctuations on the oscillation mode spectra of these clusters. It is found that the main signature of the correlated charge fluctuations is the shift of the lowest-frequency (shear) mode; other modes are split/shifted according to their mode number and the weight of the shear and compressional parts in their oscillation pattern. This is useful for diagnostics as the character of dust charge fluctuations extracted from the analysis of the cluster mode spectra provides important information on the plasma correlation length.

PACS
52.27.Lw - Dusty or complex plasmas; plasma crystals.
52.27.Gr - Strongly-coupled plasmas.
52.35.-g - Waves, oscillations, and instabilities in plasmas and intense beams.

© EPLA 2008

What is OpenURL?