Structural Phases of Bounded Three-Dimensional Screened Coulomb Clusters (Finite Yukawa System)

The formation of 3-D dust clusters within a complex plasma modeled as a spatially confined Yukawa system is simulated using the box_tree code. Similar to unscreened Coulomb clusters, the occurrence of concentric shells with characteristic occupation numbers was observed. Both the occupation numbers and radii were found to depend on the Debye length. Ground and low-energy metastable states of the shielded 3-D Coulomb clusters were determined for 4