Confinement of Coulomb balls
- IEAP, Christian-Albrechts-Universitaet, D-24098 Kiel (Germany)
A model for the confinement of the recently discovered Coulomb balls is proposed. These spherical three-dimensional plasma crystals are trapped inside a rf discharge under gravity conditions and show an unusual structural order in complex plasmas. Measurements of the thermophoretic force acting on the trapped dust particles and simulations of the plasma properties of the discharge are presented. The proposed model of confinement considers thermophoretic, ion-drag, and electric field forces, and shows excellent agreement with the observations. The findings suggest that self-confinement does not significantly contribute to the structural properties of Coulomb balls.
- OSTI ID:
- 20782373
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 12, Issue 12; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2147000; (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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