Eikonal Elastic Scattering Cross-Section for Electron-Dust Grain Collisions in Dusty Plasmas

Abstract

Plasma screening effects on electron-dust grain elastic collisions in dusty plasmas are investigated using the eikonal method. Attractive interaction between the projectile electron and its own image charge inside the dust grain is included to obtain the total interaction potential between the projectile electron and the dust grain. The semiclassical straight-line trajectory method is applied to the path of the projectile electron in order to investigate the variation of the eikonal phase as a function of the impact parameter, dust charge, and Debye length. The eikonal elastic cross section substantially decreases with a decrease of the Debye length. It is also found that the position of the maximum cross section is shifted to a higher energy region with increasing the dust charge.