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Scattering in the Attractive Yukawa Potential:

Application to the Ion-Drag Force in Complex
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Article in IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science May 2004

DOI: 10.1109/TPS.2004.826073 Source: IEEE Xplore

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 32, NO. 2, APRIL 2004 555

Scattering in the Attractive Yukawa

Potential: Application to the Ion-Drag
Force in Complex Plasmas
S. A. Khrapak, A. V. Ivlev, G. E. Morfill, S. K. Zhdanov, and H. M. Thomas

AbstractScattering in the attractive screened Coulomb II. FORMULATION OF THE PROBLEM

(Yukawa) potential is investigated. The momentum-transfer cross
section is numerically calculated and analytical approximations Let us consider collision between two particles of masses
are presented. The results are applied to estimate the ion-drag and interacting via isotropic potential . This problem is
force acting on an isolated micron-sized grain in low-pressure equivalent to the scattering of a single particle of reduced mass,
bulk plasmas. , in a field (whose center is at the
Index TermsComplex (dusty) plasmas, ion-drag force, center of masses). First, we study the case of pointlike particles;
ion-grain collision. the role of finite sizes is addressed later. Introducing the relative
velocity and the impact parameter , we get the deflection
I. INTRODUCTION angle , where [4]

T HE SCREENED Coulomb (DebyeHckel or Yukawa)

potential is widely used in physics, being a good ap-
proximation to describe interaction between charged particles Here is the effective potential energy (normalized by the
(1)

in (dusty/complex) plasmas, colloidal suspensions, etc. The kinetic energy )

momentum transfer in pair collisions of particles interacting
via the Yukawa potential is well investigated in the limit when (2)
the interaction is weak in the sense that its range (distance
at which the interaction energy is equal to the kinetic energy) The scattering momentum-transfer cross section is given by
is much shorter than the plasma screening length. This limit is
known as the theory of Coulomb scattering and is extensively (3)
used to describe collisions in usual electronion plasma [1][3].
Integration in (1) is performed from the distance of the closest
At the same time, we are not aware of any systematic classical
approach, the largest root of the following:
calculation of the momentum-transfer cross section in the
opposite limit of strong interaction (range of interaction (4)
exceeds the screening length). The latter situation is of interest
Using (1)(4), the momentum-transfer cross section can be
when (at least) one of the particles is highly charged and/or
generally calculated for arbitrary potential .
their relative velocity is small. For example, it is quite common
For the Yukawa potential (where
for ion-grain collisions in complex plasmas with (sub)thermal
is the screening length and is positive for attraction), the
ion drifts.
following important parameter can be introduced:
In this paper, we report an analytical approach (based on our
numerical calculations) to obtain the momentum-transfer cross
(5)
section for pair collisions of particles interacting via the attrac-
tive Yukawa potential. Most attention is paid to the limit when which is the ratio of the Coulomb radius
the interaction is strong. We apply the obtained results to de- to the screening length . First, we note that this parameter
scribe ion-grain collisions and estimate the ion drag force acting characterizes the strength of interaction. The interaction can be
on a negatively charged grain in a bulk plasma. The area of ap- called weak if the Coulomb radius is much shorter than
plicability of the estimates (which assume collisionless ions the screening length . In the opposite limit,
and isolated grain) is defined in terms of neutral gas pressure the interaction can be called strong. Second,
and grain concentration. normalizing and by the screening length, we get that
is the only parameter the function depends on. The
same applies for the deflection angle [see (1)]. Therefore,
Manuscript received August 13, 2003; revised October 22, 2003. we conclude from (3) that depends only on and, hence,
The authors are with the Centre for Interdisciplinary Plasma Science, (5) defines a unique parameter which describes scattering for
Max-Planck-Institut fr Extraterrestrische Physik, D-85741 Garching, Ger-
many (e-mail: skhrapak@mpe.mpg.de). Yukawa interaction. In Section III, the dependence is
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPS.2004.826073 investigated in a wide range of .
0093-3813/04$20.00 2004 IEEE
556 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 32, NO. 2, APRIL 2004

possible by taking into account collisions with impact parame-

ters above . In [5], the determination of the maximum impact
parameter is revisedall the trajectories with the distance of the
closest approach shorter than are taken into account. The def-
inition of the maximum impact parameter becomes
instead of (note that both definitions are equivalent
in the limit ). This basically leads to modification of the
Coulomb logarithm. The momentum-transfer cross section can
be written as

(6)

Although the approach of [5] is not rigorous, (6) shows very

good agreement with our and earlier numerical results [6], [7]
up to 5 (see Fig. 1) and agrees exactly with the result of the
Coulomb scattering theory for 1.
Fig. 1. Momentum-transfer cross section  normalized to the squared
screening length  versus the scattering parameter  . Circles correspond to B. Strong Interaction
our numerical calculation, triangles are numerical results by Hahn et al. [6]
and crosses are numerical results by Kilgore et al. [7]. Solid lines correspond
The case of strong interaction 1 is opposite to the
to the analytical formulas of (6) (which agrees well with the numerical results standard Coulomb scattering theory and requires new physical
up to   5) and (8) (which fits very well the numerical data for  >  ). approach, which is formulated in the following. We start with a
Dotted line corresponds to the Coulomb scattering theory (10). Dashed line
shows the approximation of Kilgore et al. (11). Dash-dotted line corresponds
brief description of radial motion of particles interacting via the
to the approximation proposed in the present paper, (9), which fits reasonably attractive Yukawa potential in terms of the effective potential en-
2
the numerical results in the range 0.1 <  < 1000. All the results except ( ) ergy [7], [8]. For nonzero impact, parameters has the
are for pointlike particles.
following asymptotes: and
. Therefore, (4), which determines the distance of the closest
III. MOMENTUM-TRANSFER CROSS SECTION approach , always has at least one solution. However, the
We integrated (1) and (3) numerically and obtained the scat- analysis shows that does not decrease monotonically with
tering angle and momentum-transfer cross section for various , but can deliver local maximum and minimum so that (4) can
in the range from 0.1 to 500. The results are presented in Fig. 1. have multiple roots (two or three) for certain conditions. Physi-
In the following, we consider different situations when analyt- cally, this means that the potential barrier emerges and then the
ical results can be obtained, and compare our results with those largest root of (4) must be chosen for . For 13.2,
previously known. there is no barrier for any [7] and the particles can approach
close to each other (single root, , close collisions).
A. Weak and Moderate Interaction For there exists a critical (transitional) impact param-
The standard Coulomb scattering approach (Coulomb eter separating trajectories in two groups: No barrier for
potential with cutoff at ) deals with the situation , but for the barrier emerges and the parti-
. For example, for electronion collisions in an isotropic cles are reflected at much larger distances (three roots, sig-
plasma (where nificantly exceeds , far collisions). This causes a disconti-
is the thermal velocity of electrons, is nuity at the curve at [5] (two roots, transition
plasma Debye length, is the electron (ion) temperature, collision). This also implies a singularity at for the
and is a number of electrons inside the Debye sphere). In dependence of the scattering angle on : In the vicinity of
this limit, the ratio of the momentum transfer by the electrons maximum of , we have an expansion:
with to that with is approximately , where is the location of the
equal to the so-called Coulomb logarithm, . maximum. In accordance with (1), this causes a logarithmic di-
Therefore, most of the momentum is transferred in collisions vergency of the scattering angle at , which is illustrated
with weak deflections (small angle scattering) inside the in Figs. 2 and 3. Thus, the existence of the potential barrier at
Debye sphere, i.e., in the bare Coulomb potential. The relative and the discontinuities it induces play a crucial role for
contribution of electrons with is small, , because the analysis of collisions.
of the screening [3]. This justifies the theory of Coulomb The appearance of the potential barrier and the location of its
scattering in the limit . maximum (i.e., and ) are determined by the following
The standard Coulomb scattering approach fails when . three conditions [7]:
In this case, the interaction range exceeds the screening length 1) ;
and deflection can be strong even if . This implies that 2) ;
considerable fraction of interaction occurs outside the Debye 3) , where primes denote derivatives with
sphere, which provides a substantial contribution to the mo- respect to .
mentum transfer. It was shown recently by Khrapak et al. [5] All three conditions can be satisfied simultaneously only for
that the extension of the standard Coulomb scattering theory is 13.2. The maximum is the solution of
KHRAPAK et al.: SCATTERING IN THE ATTRACTIVE YUKAWA POTENTIAL 557

for far collisions the scattering angle decreases very fast, due to
exponential screening of the interaction potential. It is conve-
nient to consider the contribution of close and far collisions to
the momentum-transfer cross section separately.
Close collisions . As can be seen from Fig. 3, the
behavior of as a function of the normalized impact parameter
is practically independent of for . This self-sim-
ilarity allows us to present this contribution to the cross section
in the form , where
and . The coefficient can be determined by direct
numerical integration. We found that for all
in the range .
Far collisions . Contribution of far collisions
to the cross section can be estimated in the following way.
The scattering angle decays rapidly in the vicinity of , as
, so that the range for the
large angle scattering is . Therefore, the contribution
of the large angle scattering, , vanishes rapidly as
grows (see also Fig. 3). Then, the small angle approximation
Fig. 2. Particle trajectories during collisions for different impact parameters,
. A unique parameter characterizing the scattering,  , is equal to 30. Impact is applicable, yielding .
parameters are chosen to be below, about, and above the transitional impact This functional dependence is in agreement with numerically
parameter  ' 4.24. found . Note that the ratio
decreases with . It is 0.3 for and tends
to zero as .
Combining the contribution from close and far collisions and
using (7), we can write the momentum-transfer cross section in
the form (with accuracy )

(8)

This expression is valid for and pointlike particles.

Fig. 1 demonstrates very good agreement between (8) and nu-
merical calculations.

C. Analytical Approximation
Expressions (6) and (8) represent physically justified analyt-
ical approximations but have limited range of validity:
and , respectively. For practical purposes, however, it
would be useful to have an analytical expression that is appli-
cable in a whole range of considered . We propose the fol-
lowing simple analytical form:
Fig. 3. Scattering angle  versus the normalized impact parameter = (
is the transitional impact parameter). The numerical calculations are for four
different scattering parameters  . (9)

the transcendent equation . Although this formula does not describe all the details of the
It grows with monotonically, starting from exact dependence (e.g., local maximum and minimum
. Conditions 1) and 2) determine the transi- at ), it shows reasonable agreement with the numerical
tional impact parameter, , as a function of (and, thus, of results for 0.1 10 (see Fig. 1). Because of its simplicity,
), which also in- (9) can be also quite useful for numerical estimates of the ion
creases, starting from 3.33. For large , we obtain drag force which require integration of the cross section over
the asymptotic solutions: and the ion velocity distribution function.

D. Comparison With Other Results

(7)
In Fig. 1, the numerical results for the momentum-transfer
The dependence of the scattering angle on the impact param- cross section obtained earlier by Hahn et al. [6] and Kilgore
eter in the limit of strong interaction shown in Fig. 3 has the fol- et al. [7] are also shown. Hahn et al. cross sections were obtained
lowing features. For close collisions, we have at , for the attractive Yukawa potential. Kilgore et al. cross sections
and grows monotonically until , where it diverges; were calculated from a potential distribution around dust grain
558 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 32, NO. 2, APRIL 2004

in an isotropic plasma obtained using their self-consistent nu-

merical simulation. Fig. 1 shows good agreement between dif-
ferent numerical results.
In addition to the analytical expressions discussed earlier, two
more curves are plotted in Fig. 1. The dotted line in the figure
corresponds to the Coulomb scattering theory yielding

(10)

This expression underestimates the cross section significantly

for moderate and strong interaction. The dashed line in Fig. 1
shows a fit of Kilgore et al. numerical data to the analytical form
similar to (10), proposed in [7]. The result is

(11)

with 1.19 and 15.33 [7]. The agreement between (11)

Fig. 4. Total momentum-transfer cross section,  , normalized to the squared
and numerical results is quite good up to 5 (note, however, screening length  , versus the scattering parameter  . The numerical results
that (11) underestimates the correct results of (6) and (10) by for different values of a= are shown to illustrate the role of finite particle radius
approximately 40% in the limit of weak interaction 1). For a.
larger values of , the agreement is poor and (11) demonstrates
improper asymptotic behavior for . given now by (3), with the lower limit of integration replaced
by . The dependence is shown in Fig. 4 for different
IV. ROLE OF THE FINITE SIZE values of . For pointlike particles ( , solid line) the
Now, let us study collision of two (spherical) particles in- results of Section III are used. Collection is not important when
teracting via the attractive Yukawa potential and having finite 2 (i.e., ). Therefore, for finite but rel-
radii ( and ). This problem is equivalent to the scattering atively small particles we have in the
of a pointlike particle at the center of radius . In considered range of , i.e., the momentum transfer is mostly as-
contrast to the case of pointlike particles, when the scattering sociated with the scattering. For larger particles collection be-
is described by the single parameter , now we have a second comes more important. One can see from Fig. 4 that the mo-
parameter . This implies the following difference: If the dis- mentum transfer can decrease or increase (in comparison with
tance of the closest approach, [calculated from (4)], is smaller the case of a pointlike particle), depending on the value of .
than , then the direct collision takes place. In order to apply the For sufficiently large (when ), the total cross section
results to ion-grain collisions, we assume an agglomeration in is . At contribution of elastic (far) col-
this case, i.e., the pointlike particle is collected (absorbed) by the lisions vanishes (the momentum transfer is entirely associated
center. Collection occurs if the particle has an impact parameter with the collection) and tends to . At the same time, the
smaller than the so-called collection radius, . If , momentum transfer cross section is not very sensitive to the par-
then (4) has a single root and the orbital motion limited (OML) ticle sizethe deviation of from does not exceed 50 .
theory can be applied, yielding This allows us to make the very important conclusion that for
practical purposes, the total momentum-transfer cross section
can be quite well approximated by the scattering cross section
for pointlike particles in case of weak and moderate interac-
tion, and by in the limit [9].

V. ION-DRAG FORCE
(12)
Finally, we apply the obtained results to estimate the ion
At very large , however, , exceeds the transitional impact drag force acting on an isolated micrometer-size grain in a
parameter, . That means that the OML approach is bulk low-pressure plasma. This force is associated with the
no longer applicable, because for particles having (4) has momentum transfer due to the relative ion drift and determines
multiple roots. These particles experience far collisions, with various important processes in complex plasmas (e.g., particle
considerably larger than and, therefore, are not absorbed (for transport [7], [10][13], particle-particle interaction (ion
). Thus, the absorption radius for very large equals the shadowing) [14][16], wave propagation and stability [17],
transitional impact parameter: . [18], crystal rotation in a magnetic field [19], void formation
The total momentum-transfer cross section for the case of under microgravity conditions [5], [20][25], etc.). We restrict
finite-size particles consists of collection and scattering parts: ourselves to the situation of subthermal relative drift, ,
. Collection formally corresponds to the scattering which corresponds to a slow grain motion and/or the ion drift in
angle , yielding . The scattering part is a weak electric field. Even a weak plasma anisotropy induced
KHRAPAK et al.: SCATTERING IN THE ATTRACTIVE YUKAWA POTENTIAL 559

by the drift can cause the deviation of the grain potential from the ion-drag force on the particle size and plasma number den-
the Yukawa form: The potential does not fall off exponentially sity was calculated.
at very large distances, , but exhibits asymptotic Finally, let us define the range of parameters where our es-
behavior [26], [27]. In addition, the plasma absorption on a timations of the ion-drag force are applicable. We take typical
grain causes asymptote at large [14], [16]. How- bulk plasma parameters: Ar gas, eV, , and
ever, in [7], it was shown that (for particular set of plasma cm . This gives 6 (where is in m) as
parameters) this deviation does not affect substantially the long as . This implies that for submicrometer grains, (15)
momentum-transfer cross section (see also Fig. 1). Therefore, can be used to estimate the ion-drag force. For grains of a few
for our problem the attractive Yukawa interaction potential micrometers, (16) is applicable. Our model also assumes iso-
between positive ions and a negatively charged grain seems to lated dust grain and collisionless ions. This means that the
be a good approximation, at least when . The interaction average interparticle distance and the ion mean-free path both
is characterized by (where exceed the characteristic interaction length 40 m .
and are the grain surface potential and charge number, For the chosen parameters, this gives the pressure and particle
respectively). The plasma screening is mostly associated with number density ranges up to 50 Pa and 1.5
ions, , provided the electron-to-ion 10 cm , respectively.
temperature ratio is large.
The calculation of the ion drag force involves the integra-
VI. CONCLUSION
tion of the momentum-transfer cross section over the ion ve-
locity distribution function [5] We studied scattering in the attractive screened Coulomb
(Yukawa) potential and calculated numerically the mo-
(13) mentum-transfer cross section for pointlike particles. The
analytical approximations were also derived. We compared
Assuming shifted Maxwellian distribution our results with earlier numerical and analytical calculations
for ions, , where by different authors. The role of the finite particle size was
and performing studied and it was shown that it does not affect significantly the
integration over angles in (13) we obtain momentum transfer. We applied the obtained results to estimate
the ion drag force in complex plasmas and discussed the limits
(14) of the applicability of the presented model.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, VOL. 32, NO. 2, APRIL 2004
A.V. Ivlev was born in Moscow, U.S.S.R. (now
Russia), in 1971. He received the M.S. degrees in
physics and applied mathematics and the Ph.D.
degree in physics from Moscow State Technical
University, Moscow, in 1993 and 1997, respectively.
In 1998, he became a Research Scientist with the
Complex Plasma Group, Max-Planck-Institut fr Ex-
traterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany. His cur-
rent scientific research is mainly focused on dusty
and space plasmas.
Gregor Morfill was born in Oberhausen, Germany,
in 1945. He received the B.S. degree (first class
honors) in physics in 1967 and the Ph.D. degree in
space plasma physics in 1970, both from Imperial
College, London University, London, U.K.
He stayed in research (Max Planck Institut fur
Physik and Astrophysik, Max Planck Institut fur
Kernphysik) and was appointed Director at the Max
Planck Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik in 1984,
a position he still occupies now. He has written
over 300 publications, has given over 300 talks at
scientific meetings and universities, and holds six patents. His research interests
include: investigation of distant magnetospheres using energetic solar particles,
first calculations of diffusive shock acceleration in interplanetary space, cosmic
ray transport theory, origin of Jupiters particle rings and Spokes in Saturn
rings, transport of dust in turbulent pro-planetary disks with application to
meteorite measurements, acceleration of cosmic rays in shear flows, devel-
opment of information-dynamical theories for analysis of complex systems,
discovery of plasma crystals and liquid plasmas, first kinetic measurements
of phase transitions (plasma crystals), first observations of complex plasmas
under microgravity conditions, complex plasma studies of surface interactions,
domain formation, and wave propagation under microgravity conditions.
Dr. Morfill has received several prizes including the Patten Prize, Indiana Uni-
versity, Bavarian Innovation Prize, and the Wissenshaftpreis of German Stifter-
verband. He is an Honorary Professor at Leeds University, Leeds, U.K., and the
University of Arizona, Tempe. He is a foreign member of the Russian Academy
of Sciences and received the Gagarin Medal in 1999. He received an honorary
doctorate from the Technische Universitat, Berlin, Germany, in 2003.
S. K. Zhdanov, photograph and biography not available at the time of publica-
tion.
H. M. Thomas, photograph and biography not available at the time of publica-
tion.