The effect of thermophoresis on the discharge parameters in complex plasma experiments

TL;DR

This paper investigates how thermophoresis affects plasma discharge parameters in complex plasma experiments, revealing that it influences plasma conditions through changes in neutral atom density rather than being independent.

Contribution

It demonstrates that thermophoresis impacts plasma parameters via neutral density changes, challenging the assumption of its independence in complex plasma experiments.

Findings

Thermophoresis affects plasma emission profiles and Langmuir probe data.

Dust particle levitation is influenced by thermophoresis.

Neutral atom density changes explain the observed plasma parameter variations.

Abstract

Thermophoresis is a tool often applied in complex plasma experiments. One of the usual stated benefits over other experimental tools is that changes induced by thermophoresis neither directly depend on, nor directly influence, the plasma parameters. From electronic data, plasma emission profiles in the sheath, and Langmuir probe data in the plasma bulk, we conclude that this assumption does not hold. An important effect on the levitation of dust particles in argon plasma is observed as well. The reason behind the changes in plasma parameters seems to be the change in neutral atom density accompanying the increased gas temperature while running at constant pressure.