The growth of a naturally occurring dust-density wave ͑DDW͒ is experimentally observed using high-speed imaging. This low frequency wave ͑ϳ25 Hz͒ grows in amplitude as it propagates downward through a dusty plasma. The wave's linear growth rate −k i is measured using a phase-sensitive analysis method. For the conditions studied here, the growth rate increases as gas pressure decreases. At a critical gas pressure, which is observed, a balance between an ion-flow instability and dissipation by neutral gas drag determines a threshold for wave propagation. A linear dispersion relation is derived, taking into account the effects of strong-coupling, to compare to the experiment.
Micrometer-sized particles adhered to a surface can be released when exposed to plasma. In an experiment with a glass surface coated with lunar-simulant dust, it was found that particle release requires exposure to both plasma and an electron beam. The dust release rate diminishes almost exponentially in time, which is consistent with a random process. As proposed here, charges of particles adhered to the surface fluctuate. These charges experience a fluctuating electric force that occasionally overcomes the adhesive van der Waals force, causing particle release. The release rate increases with plasma density, so that plasma cleaning is feasible at high plasma densities. Applications of this cleaning include controlling particulate contamination in semiconductor manufacturing, dust mitigation in the exploration of the moon and Mars, and dusty plasmas.
The experimentally measured waveform of nonlinear dust acoustic waves in a plasma is shown, by analyzing experimental data, to be accurately described by a cnoidal function. This function, which is predicted by nonlinear theory, has broad minima and narrow peaks, and we found that the waveforms in the experimental data match. Fitting the experimental waveforms to the cnoidal function also provides a measure of the wave's nonlinearity, namely, the elliptical parameter k. By characterizing experimental results at various wave amplitudes, we confirm that the parameter k varies upwardincreases and approaches a maximum value of unity, as the wave amplitude is increased. The underlying theory that predicts the cnoidal waveform as an exact solution of a Korteweg-de Vries model equation takes account of the streaming ions that are responsible for the spontaneous excitation of the dust acoustic waves.
The development of nonlinearity is observed in a naturally occurring planar dust-density wave. As it propagates through a dusty plasma, the wave grows and harmonics are generated. The amplitudes, wave numbers, and growth rates are measured for the fundamental and its harmonics. The energy in the harmonic modes exhibits a strong exponential increase with diminishing gas pressure, until it levels off at lower gas pressures. The wave numbers and growth rates for the harmonics are near integer multiples of those for the fundamental.
Thermal creep flow (TCF) is a flow of gas driven by a temperature gradient along a solid boundary. Here, TCF is demonstrated experimentally in a dusty plasma. Stripes on a glass box are heated by laser beam absorption, leading to both TCF and a thermophoretic force. The design of the experiment allows isolating the effect of TCF. A stirring motion of the dust particle suspension is observed. By eliminating all other explanations for this motion, we conclude that TCF at the boundary couples by drag to the bulk gas, causing the bulk gas to flow, thereby stirring the suspension of dust particles. This result provides an experimental verification, for the field of fluid mechanics, that TCF in the slip-flow regime causes steady-state gas flow in a confined volume.
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