Abstract

Dusty or complex plasmas are plasmas containing solid or liquid charged particles referred to as dust. Naturally occurring in space, they are present in planetary rings and comet tails, as well as clouds found in the vicinity of satellites and space stations. On a more earthly level, dusty plasmas are now actively researched as dust plays a key role in technological plasma applications associated with etching technologies in microelectronics, as well as with production of thin films and nanoparticles. Dusty plasmas represent unique strongly coupled systems where such complex phenomena as self organization, phase transitions, wave propagation, and instabilities can be investigated at the most fundamental kinetic level. Recently unique experimental and theoretical results were obtained in investigations of complex plasmas under microgravity conditions onboard Mir and ISS space stations.