Precession of cylindrical dust particles in the plasma sheath

The vertical precession of cylindrical dust particles levitated in the sheath of an rf plasma is experimentally investigated. Typically, the dust particles have two equilibrium positions depending on the orientation of their longitudinal axis: horizontal and vertical. A transition between these two states is induced by rapidly increasing the neutral gas pressure in the plasma chamber. During this transition, the cylindrical dust particles make an angle with the horizontal and rotate about their center of mass. The rotation speed increases as the dust rods aligned with the vertical axis. All dust particles will eventually end up in the vertical state while spinning fast about their longitudinal axis. Dust-dust interaction and the attracting ion wakes are possible mechanisms for inducing the observed dust precession. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.