Vertical Spread of Fine-Particle Clouds in a Magnetized DC Plasma

Abstract

This chapter explains the vertical spread of fine-particle clouds in a weakly ionized argon dc plasma by applying axial magnetic field in vertical direction, using a double-plasma method. In order to investigate 3D behaviors of strongly-coupled dust particles, it is necessary to build up a long dusty plasma-column filled with the particles. Therefore, the formation of large-volume dusty plasma extending in vertical and radial directions is of crucial importance for the investigations of the 3D dust vortices, convection, instabilities, and particle transportation. The fine particles are trapped radially to form a large-volume fine-particle cloud along the magnetic field. The fine-particle cloud rotates around its vertical axis, as a whole, under the presence of the vertical magnetic field. A small-scale convection motion of fine particles is observed near the surface of the cloud. Changing the discharge conditions also excites unstable fluctuations propagating along the magnetic field.