Dusty Plasma Experimental (DPEx) device for complex plasma experiments with flow

TL;DR

This paper introduces a versatile tabletop dusty plasma device designed to study flow-induced wave and structure excitations in complex plasmas, providing detailed characterization and initial experimental results on dust flow dynamics.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel, easily configurable DPEx device for controlled dusty plasma flow experiments, including comprehensive plasma diagnostics and dust flow measurements.

Findings

Dust flow velocity varies with neutral pressure and gas flow rate.

Neutral drag force and Epstein coefficient are estimated from particle acceleration.

Device demonstrates potential for studying flow-induced instabilities.

Abstract

A versatile table-top dusty plasma experimental (DPEx) device to study flow induced excitations of linear and nonlinear waves/structures in a complex plasma is presented. In this {$\Pi$}-shaped apparatus a DC glow discharge plasma is produced between a disc shaped anode and a grounded long cathode {tray} by applying a high voltage DC in the background of a neutral gas {(Argon)} and subsequently a dusty plasma is created by introducing micron sized dust particles that get charged and levitated in the sheath region. A flow of the dust particles is induced in a controlled manner by adjusting the pumping speed and the gas flow rate into the device. A full characterisation of the plasma, using Langmuir and emissive probe data, and that of the dusty plasma using particle tracking data with the help of an idl based (super) Particle Identification and Tracking (sPIT) code is reported. Experimental results on the variation of the dust flow velocity as a function of the neutral pressure and the gas flow rate are given. {The neutral drag force acting on the particles and the Epstein coefficient are estimated from the initial acceleration of the particles}. The potential experimental capabilities of the device for conducting fundamental studies of flow induced instabilities are discussed.