The interplay between plasmas and charged dust grains have opened up a new and
fascinating research area, that of a dusty plasma. A dusty plasma is a normal electron-
ion plasma with an additional charged component of small micron-sized particulates.
This extra component, which increases the complexity of the system further, is responsible for the name ``complex plasma''.

Dusty plasma is an area of physics research that is rapidly growing. It is also a highly
interdesciplinary expanding area, combining  plasma physics,  astrophysics, condensed matter physics, semiconductor technology, and other areas as well.

The most  significant  contributions of Professor Shukla in dusty plasmas are

A. DUST ACOUSTIC WAVES

B. WAKE FIELDS CAUSING DUST ATTRATCION

C. DUST ION-ACOUSTIC SHOCKS

which are observed  in laboratories by many groups around the globe.

The  research topics of the group in Bochum include

-Waves and Instabilities in the Presence of  Spherical and Irreagular  Shaped Grains
- Parametric Instabilities and Enhanced Scattering from Turbulent Fluctuations
-Coherent  Nonlinear Structures: Solitons, Voids, Shocks, Double Layers, Vortices
-Attractive Forces, 3D Dust Crystal Formation, Dust Lattice Waves, Phase Transitions
-Collective Processes in  Self-Gravitating  Astrophysical Environments

More information  regarding the dusty plasma research of Professor Shukla's group
can be found in the list of publications  (dusty plasma area) on the main page of the website.

Professor Shukla has written (with Dr A A Mamun) a text book ``Introduction to Dusty Plasma Physics´´  (Institute of Physics Pub., Bristol, 2002; ISBN:0-7503-0653-X).
The book gives the reader a deeper understanding of theoretical and experimental aspects of numerous collective processes in a dusty plasma which have  wide ranging applications in science and industy. The book can be used for teaching the essentials of dusty plasma physics and its applications in low-temperature laboratory and space environments, and will be useful to a wide variety researchers in physics and engineering.