Berlin 2001 – scientific programme

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AMPD: EPS AMPD

AMPD 9: Sitzung 9

AMPD 9.1: Talk

Friday, April 6, 2001, 09:55–10:30, H105

Physics of liquid and crystalline plasmas — •G.E. Morfill — Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, 85741 Garching, Germany

It has been shown that under certain conditions "complex plasmas" (plasma containing ions, electrons and charged microspheres) may undergo spontaneous phase changes to become liquid and crystalline, without recombination of the charge components. Hence these systems may be regarded as new plasma states – "condensed plasmas". The ordering forces are mainly electrostatic, but dipolar effects, anisotropic pressure due shielding, ion flow focussing etc. may all play a role, too. Complex plasmas are of great interest from a fundamental research point of view because the individual particles of one plasma component (the charged microspheres) can be visualised and hence the plasma can be studied at the kinetic level. Also, the relevant time scales (e.g. 1/plasma frequency) are of order 0.1 sec, the plasma processes occur practically in "slow motion". We will discuss some physical processes (e.g. wave propagation, shocks, phase transitions) of these systems and outline the potential of the research for the understanding of strongly coupled systems. Technologically, it is expected that colloidal plasmas will also become very important, because both plasma technology and colloid technology are widely developed already. In this overview first the basic forces between the particles are discussed, then the phase transitions, the lattice structures and finally results from active experiments will be presented.