Dynamics of dust particles confined in imposed potential structures in strongly magnetized, low-temperature plasmas.

Abstract

A new phenomenon called imposed ordered structures has been of particular interest to the dusty plasma community within the past several years. These structures are a new type of pattern formation within a dusty plasma in which the dust particles become fixed to a background confining potential whose spatial structure is determined by some conducting element present in the plasma. In previous works, this element has typically been a conducting wire mesh. One of the unanswered questions is whether the dust particles become trapped beneath the conducting surface of the mesh or in the gaps (holes) between the wires. This work makes use of a new electrode whose shape is designed to mimic that of wire mesh, but with much larger dimensions to facilitate in situ diagnostic measurements. Observations of the dust show that particles become confined to the regions beneath the holes of this new electrode. Measurements of the dust particle velocities allow for a determination of the kinetic energy within the dust cloud which show that the particles are in an energetic steady state. Comparisons of spatial profiles of the particle velocities also show that the dust particles typically reside in areas of increased plasma glow, possibly being trapped by plasma filaments.