Dynamics of Lane Formation in Driven Binary Complex Plasmas

Abstract

The dynamical onset of lane formation is studied in experiments with binary complex plasmas under microgravity conditions. Small microparticles are driven and penetrate into a cloud of big particles, revealing a strong tendency towards lane formation. The observed time-resolved lane-formation process is in good agreement with computer simulations of a binary Yukawa model with Langevin dynamics. The laning is quantified in terms of the anisotropic scaling index, leading to a universal order parameter for driven systems.

Dynamics of dust-free cavities behind fast projectiles in a dusty plasma under microgravity conditions

“…It shows a slow projectile (v p ¼ 18 mm=s), which is obviously an agglomerate of several PMMA particles and moves upwards, i.e., away from the void, on a slightly curved path through the dust cloud with weakly increasing speed due to plasma-induced forces. 12,13,24 An elliptical dust-free region with a sharp boundary is formed around the projectile. This region has a typical diameter of 2 mm, corresponding to approximately five interparticle distances.…”

“…11 The penetration of small dust particles through a cloud of larger particles leads to the phenomenon of lane formation. 12 When the projectiles are smaller or of the same size as the target particles, a so-called classical tunneling effect was reported, 13 which is based on charge reduction of the projectiles.…”

Non-equilibrium phase transitions in complex plasma

“…These smaller grains are pulled by the net force of confinement and ion drag through the background of larger grains toward the center and settle around the perimeter 5 An important results from PK-3 Plus research has been that inside such a homogeneous one-component complex plasma the net force F between ambipolar electric field force and ion drag force becomes very small in the symmetry plane of the chamber [40]. In the interpretation of our experiments we use this fact by assuming zero net force acting on large particles in the numerical simulations [41,42]. of the void.…”

“…Details on our laboratory and numerical experiments as well as on the order parameter we developed were published in [41]. A study of the dependence of lane formation dynamics on complex plasma parameters, based on our numerical simulations, was published in [42].…”

Lane Formation in Driven Binary Complex Plasmas on the International Space Station

“…PK-3 Plus offers the perfect system to study the dynamics of lane formation [12]. Under microgravity conditions the dominant forces (see Figure 1) are the electrostatic force F Q arising from an electric potential with a maximum in the centre, and the ion drag force F id .…”