Plasma response to nanoparticle growth

The influence of nanoparticle growth on the plasma characteristics is studied by analyzing the spatiotemporal evolution of several argon lines. It appears that some lines are promoted in dusty areas while other ones have an enhanced emission in dust-free regions like the void. This effect is related to the spatial dependence of the electron energy distribution: the particularly small electron energy in dust-free regions of a dusty plasma results in enhanced excitation of certain argon energy levels from metastable atoms.