Melting scenarios for three-dimensional dusty plasma clusters
- Institut fuer Physik, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universitaet Greifswald, D-17489 Greifswald (Germany)
The melting transition of finite three-dimensional dust clouds (Yukawa balls) from a solid-like to a liquid-like state is systematically studied with high spatial and temporal resolution of the individual grains by means of stereoscopy. Two different melting scenarios are reported: Melting is induced first by an increase of plasma power, and second by laser-induced heating. The experiments confirm that melting starts with a loss of orientational correlation, followed by a loss of the radial order upon further heating. While the plasma-power melting is driven via the ion wakefield, laser heating provides a more equilibrium scenario. The internal loss of correlations is well captured by the triple correlation function (TCF) which is insensitive to particle exchanges and the rotation of the cluster as a whole. The critical Coulomb coupling parameter for N=35 is determined as {Gamma}{sub crit}{approx_equal}570. The experimental findings are in good agreement with thermodynamic Monte Carlo simulations.
- OSTI ID:
- 21612319
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics (Print), Vol. 84, Issue 5; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.84.056402; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1539-3755
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GENERAL PHYSICS
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CORRELATION FUNCTIONS
IONS
LASER-RADIATION HEATING
LASERS
MELTING
MONTE CARLO METHOD
PLASMA
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
CALCULATION METHODS
CHARGED PARTICLES
FUNCTIONS
HEATING
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PLASMA HEATING
SIMULATION