Observation of Hypervelocity Dust in Dense Supersonic Plasma Flows: Physics and Applications
- National Institute for Laser, Plasma and Radiation Physics, Bucharest (Romania)
- Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (United States)
- Institut fuer Teoretische Physik IV, Fakueltat fuer Physik und Astronomie, Ruhr-Universtaet Bochum, D-44780 Bochum (Germany)
Synthetic diamond and graphite dust powders with a wide range of sizes, from a few to several tens of microns in diameter were accelerated to velocities up to 4 km/s in vacuum by plasma jet produced in a coaxial gun. Some of the key features of the plasma flow are high density, of the order of 10{sup 22} m{sup -3}, low ion and electron temperatures, of only a few eV, and good collimation over a distance of {approx_equal}2 m due to confinement by the self-generated magnetic field. The main features of this plasma-drag acceleration technique are presented and discussed. From basic science point of view hypervelocity dust is useful for studying the physics of dust interaction with energetic plasma flows at microscopic level. In physical applications, it has been proposed to use hypervelocity dust for diagnostic or control of magnetically confined fusion plasmas. In engineering, hypervelocity dusty plasmas are extensively employed in industrial processes involved in the processing of surfaces.
- OSTI ID:
- 21251507
- Journal Information:
- AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1061, Issue 1; Conference: 2008 ICTP international workshop on the frontiers of modern plasma physics, Trieste (Italy), 14-25 Jul 2008; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3013759; (c) 2008 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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