Electric potential around an absorbing body in plasmas: effect of ion-neutral collisions

A simple linear kinetic model is used to investigate the combined effect of plasma absorption and ion-neutral collisions on the electric potential around a small absorbing body in weakly ionized plasmas. It is demonstrated that far from the body the potential decays considerably slower than the conventional Debye-Hückel potential. Moreover, at distances exceeding approximately the ion mean free path, the potential approaches an unscreened Coulomb-like asymptote. Some important consequences of this result are discussed in the context of complex (dusty) plasmas.