The electrostatic sheath in a dusty plasma

The electrostatic sheath in a conventional dc discharge involving dusty plasmas is revisited. Assuming Boltzmann responses for electrons and dust particles and taking into account the effect of ion flows, it is shown that the sheath around an electrically floated cylindrical wire contains electrons and ions but no dust particles. The dust particle density rises sharply at the plasma-sheath interface, as seen in a recent experiment [C. O. Thompson, N. D'Angelo, and R. L. Merlino, Phys. Plasmas 6, 1421 (1999)].