Nonlinear Plasma Screening Effects on Elastic Electron-Dust Grain Collisions in Dusty Plasmas

Abstract

Nonlinear plasma screening effects on elastic electron-dust grain collisions are investigated in dusty plasmas. The nonlinear screened interaction is considered to obtain the total interaction potential between the projectile electron and the dust grain. The semiclassical straight-line trajectory analysis is applied to the path of the projectile electron in order to investigate the variation of the eikonal phase as functions of the impact parameter, dust charge, collision energy, and Debye length. The result shows that the nonlinear correction effects increase the magnitude of the eikonal phase as well as the total scattering cross section. It is found that the nonlinear effects on the eikonal phase are more significant for small impact parameters and decrease with increasing impact parameter.