Propagation of dust electro-acoustic modes in dusty plasma

The propagation of the dust electro-acoustic (DEA) mode in dusty plasma with different electron and ion temperatures T-e and T-i and different ion species is studied. The critical ratio of the dust space charge to the ion space charge epsilon for the excitation of DEA mode is found to decrease with increasing T-e/T-i and increase with m(i)/m(e) (m(i) and m(e) are the ion and electron masses). Thus experiments with hydrogen plasma where electrons are sufficiently hotter than ions and where the reduction in the dust charge with epsilon is more than 50% are essential for the observation of self-shielding and the DEA mode. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.