On the existence and formation of small amplitude electrostatic double-layer structure in nonthermal dusty plasma

In the present article, we studied the effect of nonthermal electrons on the formation and existence of double-layer structures in a three-species plasma consisting of positive ions, nonthermal electrons, and immobile negative dust-charged grains. Employing the reductive perturbations, a modified Korteweg-de Vries (mKdV) type equation is derived for the dust-ion-acoustic waves (DIAWs) bearing nonthermality. We found that both positive and negative polarity shock structures (double layer) can exist such that it switches polarity while changing the dust charge concentrations. However, strong nonthemality favours only rarefactive structures irrespective of the ion temperature. It is also found that increasing the nonthermal electron in the system the width of the double layer is increased; furthermore, the shock structure forms with small dust charge concentration. For small ionic temperature, increasing the nonthermal electrons in the system makes the double layer potential to increase; however, for sigma = 1 reverse phenomena occurs. Our results are relevant to the shock observations in Q machine experiments and in the ionospheric regime of the earth.