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Title: Formation of plasma dust structures at atmospheric pressure

Journal Article · · Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics
; ; ; ;  [1];  [2]
  1. Troitsk Institute for Innovation and Fusion Research, State Research Center of Russian Federation (Russian Federation)
  2. Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute for High Energy Densities (Russian Federation)

The formation of strongly coupled stable dust structures in the plasma produced by an electron beam at atmospheric pressure was detected experimentally. Analytical expressions were derived for the ionization rate of a gas by an electron beam in an axially symmetric geometry by comparing experimental data with Monte Carlo calculations. Self-consistent one-dimensional simulations of the beam plasma were performed in the diffusion drift approximation of charged plasma particle transport with electron diffusion to determine the dust particle levitation conditions. Since almost all of the applied voltage drops on the cathode layer in the Thomson glow regime of a non-self-sustained gas discharge, a distribution of the electric field that grows toward the cathode is produced in it; this field together with the gravity produces a potential well in which the dust particles levitate to form a stable disk-shaped structure. The nonideality parameters of the dust component in the formation region of a highly ordered quasi-crystalline structure calculated using computational data for the dust particle charging problem were found to be higher than the critical value after exceeding which an ensemble of particles with a Yukawa interaction should pass to the crystalline state.

OSTI ID:
21067732
Journal Information:
Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics, Vol. 102, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1134/S1063776106020154; Copyright (c) 2006 Nauka/Interperiodica; Article Copyright (c) 2006 Pleiades Publishing, Inc; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1063-7761
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English