Interaction of fast projectiles with a stationary dusty plasma under microgravity conditions AIP Conf.

The penetration of a projectile into a strongly coupled dusty plasma was studied in a radio-frequency discharge under microgravity conditions. A supersonic projectile produces an elongated dust-free cavity in its wake. The dynamics of the cavity is analyzed and compared with Langevin dynamics simulations. Besides a three-dimensional Mach cone structure, the simulation shows that the cavity dynamics can be subdivided into three phases: An opening phase with fixed time scale, a closing phase, whose duration is affected by the projectile speed and, finally, a phase of particle realignment in the target cloud, which persists for a long time after the closure of the cavity.

Abstract-Dust density waves (DDWs) are compressional modes that are often excited by subsonic ion flows in dusty plasmas. Previous experiments relying on imaging of only the dust revealed that they can propagate parallel to the ion flow direction or at an oblique angle. An experiment was performed using microgravity conditions on parabolic flights with video imaging of both the dust and the plasma glow. Glow arises from electron-impact excitation of neutral gas atoms, and it serves as a signature of energetic electrons. Averaging over time, it was found that the presence of dust enhances the glow brightness everywhere in the plasma. Resolving the time variation, a spontaneously excited DDW was observed at 3.9 Hz. It was characterized not only by a compression of the dust number density but also by a modulation of the glow intensity. The correlation between the wave and the glow is analyzed by Fourier methods. We found an unexpected phase relation between the plasma glow and the DDW of 118• . A glow maximum is followed by a dust density maximum.

Dusty plasmas under microgravity conditions are a great opportunity to observe dynamical processes in strongly coupled systems. For example, in such systems, self-excited dustdensity waves can occur at low gas pressures in extended regions of the discharge. Recently, we have performed a series of measurements in a parallel-plate RF reactor during parabolic flights. It reveals that the waves can appear in two completely different states. One of them yields a high spatial and temporal coherence of the density fluctuations. This feature allows us to utilize scanning video microscopy to obtain information on the structure of the 3-D wave field. Under different experimental conditions, we also found that a wave field with multiple different wavelengths can arise in the dust volume. This results in defects in the wave pattern due to merging wavefronts. We determine their temporal evolution, which can be derived accurately from the phase information.

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