Diagnostics for transport phenomena in strongly coupled dusty plasmas

Abstract

Experimental methods are described for determining transport coefficients in a strongly coupled dusty plasma. A dusty plasma is a mixture of electrons, ions and highly charged microspheres. Due to their large charges, the microspheres are a strongly coupled plasma, and they arrange themselves like atoms in a crystal or liquid. Using a video microscopy diagnostic, with laser illumination and a high speed video camera, the microspheres are imaged. Moment-method image analysis then yields the microspheres' positions and velocities. In one approach, these data in the particle paradigm are converted into the continuum paradigm by binning, yielding hydrodynamic quantities like number density, flow velocity and temperature that are recorded on a grid. To analyze continuum data for two-dimensional laboratory experiments, they are fit to the hydrodynamic equations, yielding the transport coefficients for shear viscosity and thermal conductivity. In another approach, the original particle data can be used to obtain the diffusion and viscosity coefficients, as is discussed in the context of future three-dimensional microgravity experiments.