München 2019 – scientific programme

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P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 14: Complex and Dusty Plasmas II

P 14.5: Talk

Wednesday, March 20, 2019, 12:25–12:40, HS 20

Experimental Studies of Phase Separation in Dusty Plasmas under Microgravity — •Stefan Schütt and André Melzer — Institute of Physics, University of Greifswald, Germany

Dusty plasmas allow to access the dynamical behavior of single dust particles, making them a suitable tool for studying phase separation processes. To prevent the particles from sedimenting in the lower discharge sheath and, hence, to be able to observe three-dimensionally extended systems, measurements are conducted under microgravity conditions on parabolic flights. Binary systems consisting of two particle species exhibit phase separation even for small relative size disparities of about 3%. Particles marked with a fluorecscent dye are used for one of the species. This makes it possible to distinguish between the species despite their small size disparity using a two-camera video microscopy setup and appropriate filters. The availability of high-resolution, high-speed cameras allows to track single particles during the separation process. As the particle number density as well as the flux is available, diffusion coefficients can be determined. In this contribution, measurements conducted on two parabolic flight campaigns are presented. This work was supported by DLR under grant no. 50WM1638.