Shielding and charging of dust particles in the plasma sheath

General physical features of the ion particle distribution function in the plasma sheath derived theoretically and observed experimentally are: used f or describing the dust shielding and charging in the sheath. It is shown th at the shielding and charging of dust depend strongly on the degree of anis otropy of the ion distribution function and on the difference in the ion te mperatures parallel and antiparallel with respect to the ion now. Regions o f "antishielding" appear both along the ion flow and perpendicular to it. T he potential wells can be responsible for the attraction of other dust part icles and for the creation of dust aggregates. This effect is related to th e change of the sign of the dielectric function in the range of wave vector s corresponding to the strong Landau damping. [S1063-651X(99)14610-5].