Aachen PK 2003 – scientific programme

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P: Plasmaphysik

P 6: Dusty Plasmas

P 6.2: Talk

Tuesday, March 18, 2003, 11:50–12:10, FO2

Investigation on non-spherical particles behaviour in the sheath of a radio-frequency dusty plasma — •Gabriela Paeva, Winfred Stoffels, and Gerrit Kroesen — Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Behaviour of non-spherical dust particles suspended in a plasma is studied. The particles are trapped above the powered electrode. The cloud is illuminated with a laser light sheet. For visualisation of the cloud we use a CCD video camera, with which we get top or side view of the plasma chamber. The experiments are performed with cylindrical nylon particles and fiber-like paper particles. The rod-like particles tend to arrange themselves in direction parallel to the electric field. This can be used as a simple method for estimating the form of the sheath. The fiber-like particles perform horizontal spinning in the trap. An explanation of the different behaviour is proposed.