Single Particle Probing of Glass Box Plasma Sheaths under Controlled Electrode Temperature

Dusty plasmas, plasmas that contain solid particles, appear in a variety of natural, industrial, and laboratory environments. Micron-sized dust particles in plasma typically acquire a negative charge through interactions with surrounding electrons and ions. In the laboratory, dust can levitate where the upward electric force balances gravity in a plasma sheath. When conditions allow, dust particles exhibit collective behavior, such as self-organization and crystal formation. To observe these phenomena in a controlled environment, one experimental technique uses a glass box placed on the lower electrode of a modified GEC RF reference cell to provide lateral confinement. This configuration allows for the formation of vertical dust chains and introduces complex overlapping sheath regions between the electrode and the box walls. The structure and behavior of these sheaths remain an open area of investigation. In this work, we use a single dust particle as a diagnostic probe and leverage the effects of heating and cooling the lower electrode to adjust the dust equilibrium height and investigate the confinement forces in a glass box. These results inform ongoing efforts to characterize confinement conditions relevant to more complex dusty plasma structures.