SMuK 2021 – scientific programme

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P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 11: Complex Plasmas and Dusty Plasmas I

P 11.2: Talk

Thursday, September 2, 2021, 11:30–11:45, H4

String Formation and Recrystallisation — •E Joshi¹, M Pustylnik¹, M Schwabe¹, H Thomas¹, M Thoma², A Lipaev³, A Zobnin³, A Usachev³, and A Ivanishin⁴ — ¹Institut für Materialphysik im Weltraum, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Weßling, Germany — ²I. Physikalisches Institut, Justus-Liebig Universität Giessen, Giessen, Germany — ³Joint Institute for High Temperatures, Russian Academy of Sciences — ⁴Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Russia

Plasmas with micrometre sized particles embedded in them where the particles gain high negative charges and become strongly coupled are known as complex plasmas. These complex plasmas can be studied in microgravity conditions using the Plasmakristall-4 (PK-4) facility onboard the International Space Station. Recrystallisation was studied in a complex plasma with string-like structure using the PK-4 lab by turning the plasma off for a fraction of a second to destroy the stringy order, then turning the plasma on again to see how the structure reforms. We characterised the `stringiness' of the system by the average number of string neighbours at a given time and noted how it changed during the experiment. We then performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations using Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator (LAMMPS) to compare with the experiment, and used a Yukawa + wake potential for the interparticle interactions. This lets us mimic the effect of ions in our simulation which led to string formation. We found that the simulations had a good agreement with experimental findings.