  A perpendicular ion drift is investigated as a mechanism for the generation
of magnetic field structures in a highly collisional dusty plasma. The basic
dissipation mechanism is assumed to be the dust-neutrals momentum exchange, so
that plasmas with a small ionization fraction are natural candidates for
experiments. The model reduces to a nonlinear partial differential equation for
the vector potential. The conditions for linear instability are determined. The
stationary states are periodic arrangements for the magnetic field, described
by a Lienard equation. The fully depleted (ion-dust) case is also considered in
detail. Applications to planetary rings, comets and dust acoustic instability
experiments are analyzed. A necessary condition for the validity of the model
is a sufficiently slow time-scale of the generated magnetic fields.
