UC San Diego

One dimensional Particle in Cell simulations of a dust- dust counter-streaming instability in a plasma containing dust grains of opposite charge polarity are presented. This dust-dust instability has potentially the lowest threshold drift for a dust wave instability in an unmagnetized dusty plasma. The linear and nonlinear development of the dusty plasma instability is investigated, including the effects of collisions with background neutrals, and a background electric field which acts as a driver to impart the drift velocities of the counter streaming charged dust particles. The saturation of the linear instability appears to be dust heating related to dust trapping. Potential double layer formation from dust-dust turbulence is observed in cases with a high neutral collision rate. A comparative study is done with varying collision rates and background electric fields to explore the nonlinear development as a function of collision rate and background electric field. These simulation results could help guide future laboratory and micro-gravity dusty plasma experiments on this instability. The results could also relate to similar counter-streaming instabilities in pair plasmas and negative ion plasmas