From Cold Dusty Plasmas to Hot Microplasmas X-Ray Dust

Abstract

We have considered consequently few qualitatively different stages of creation of high power density matter in our simple experiments with hollow cathode discharge: solid target (anode) — electron beam interaction, generation of anode flare with cold grains collected (cold dusty plasma), hot plasmas dust ensemble (with extreme local parameters and anomalous properties of hot spots), and high temperature uniform self-organized plasma. This study have allowed to demonstrate some crucial effects: formation hard x-ray “balls” with power ∼105–106 W and total photons number about 1011–1012 per shot, self-organization of microplasmas of extreme parameters, certain suprathermal x-ray output. The experimental data accumulated in this new branch of dusty plasma physics is a broad basis for the formulation of reasonable and adequate theoretical description.