Complex Plasma Research under Microgravity Conditions: PK‐3 Plus Laboratory on the International Space Station

Khrapak, A. G.; Molotkov, V. I.; Lipaev, A. M.; Zhukhovitskii, D. I.; Naumkin, V. N.; Фортов, В. Е.; Петров, О. Ф.; Thomas, Hubertus M.; Khrapak, S. A.; Huber, Peter J.; Ivlev, A. V.; Morfill, G. E.

doi:10.1002/ctpp.201500102

Cited by 27 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(46 reference statements)

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“…Experiments were performed in the PK-3 Plus laboratory onboard the ISS [11,21]. The heart of this laboratory is a parallel-plate radio-frequency (rf) discharge operating at a frequency of 13.56 MHz, sketched in Fig.…”

Section: Experimental Setup and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Density distribution of a dust cloud in three-dimensional complex plasmas

et al. 2016

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We propose a method of determination of the dust particle spatial distribution in dust clouds that form in three-dimensional (3D) complex plasmas under microgravity conditions. The method utilizes the data obtained during the 3D scanning of a cloud, and it provides reasonably good accuracy. Based on this method, we investigate the particle density in a dust cloud realized in gas discharge plasma in the PK-3 Plus setup onboard the International Space Station. We find that the treated dust clouds are both anisotropic and inhomogeneous. One can isolate two regimes in which a stationary dust cloud can be observed. At low pressures, the particle density decreases monotonically with the increase of the distance from the discharge center; at higher pressures, the density distribution has a shallow minimum. Regardless of the regime, we detect a cusp of the distribution at the void boundary and a slowly varying density at larger distances (in the foot region). A theoretical interpretation of the obtained results is developed that leads to reasonable estimates of the densities for both the cusp and the foot. The modified ionization equation of state, which allows for violation of the local quasineutrality in the cusp region, predicts the spatial distributions of ion and electron densities to be measured in future experiments.

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Section: Experimental Setup and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Density distribution of a dust cloud in three-dimensional complex plasmas

et al. 2016

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“…Here we report on the last experiment of the PK-3 Plus laboratory on board the International Space Station (ISS) [22][23][24]. The laboratory was operated on the space station from 2006-2013.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observation of metallic sphere–complex plasma interactions in microgravity

Schwabe¹,

Zhdanov²,

Hagl³

et al. 2017

New J. Phys.

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The PK-3 Plus laboratory on board the International Space Station is used to study the interaction between metallic spheres and a complex plasma. We show that the metallic spheres significantly affect both the local plasma environment and the microparticle dynamics. The spheres charge under the influence of the plasma and repel the microparticles, forming cavities surrounding the spheres. The size of the cavity around a sphere is used to study the force balance acting on microparticles at the cavity edge. We show that the ion drag force and pressure force from other microparticles balances with the electric force acting from the sphere to within 20%. At intermediate distances from the sphere surface, the interaction between the microparticles and the metallic spheres is attractive due to the drag force stemming from the ions which are moving towards the highly charged spheres. The spheres thus strongly affect the plasma fluxes. This modification of the plasma flux can lead to an effective surface tension acting on the microparticles, and to the excitation of dust-density waves near the spheres, as the local electric field crosses a threshold.

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“…is the balance equation of electrons neglecting the electron inertia, the Poisson law which completes the nonlinear system of equations, and the expressions for ion-drag force presented in (4, 5) constitute the governing equations. Also, one can consider equations (1) and 2as the hydrodynamic part of the model [9][10][11][12] and the equations (3)-(5) are the electrostatic part of it.…”

Section: Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently a field connected with the research of complex plasma is widely investigated. [1][2][3] One of the first complex plasma patterns containing a domain which is free of dust particles (void) was observed in the course of the experiments on the board of the International Space Station 3 . Afterwards similar patterns were found at the laboratory conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A note on modeling a void generation and contraction in complex plasma

Azarova¹

2018

AAOAJ

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Nomenclature n d , n e = densities of dust and electrons components v d , v i = velocities of dust and ions components E = electric field currency F d = ion-drag force D 0 = diffusion coefficient t, x, y = time and spatial variables a, b = fit parameters of ion-drag force approximation µ = coefficient of ions mobility α 0 = friction coefficient τ d , τ i = coefficients of normalized temperature for dust and ion species n i = amount of the grid points in the x-direction Index " 0 " refers to the initial parameters

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Complex Plasma Research under Microgravity Conditions: PK‐3 Plus Laboratory on the International Space Station

Cited by 27 publications

References 43 publications

Density distribution of a dust cloud in three-dimensional complex plasmas

Density distribution of a dust cloud in three-dimensional complex plasmas

Observation of metallic sphere–complex plasma interactions in microgravity

A note on modeling a void generation and contraction in complex plasma

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