Abstract
A method is proposed and implemented for controlling the size of dust particles using the variation of the electron temperature by adding a small fraction of a gas impurity with a low ionization potential to the discharge. It is shown that when using the inert He and Xe gases, which differ the most in mass, the size of the selected dust particles differs by a factor of two. Numerical estimates are made of the average size of a selected particle based on the balance of forces acting on a dust particle, taking into account the effect of impurities on the particle charge and ion flow rate. The method of tuning the dust trap to the size of retained particles, operates in the range on the order of 1–10 µm.