MEASUREMENT OF DUST GRAIN CHARGING IN A LABORATORY PLASMA

We present an experimental system capable of causing dust grains to in teract with a plasma in a well-controlled manner and measuring the acc umulated charge. Results indicate that the measured charge accumulated on 0.1 mum diameter bismuth particles agrees to the first order with simple charging models. With further refinement of the diagnostic syst em, it is expected that detailed comparisons can be made with existing models.