Stereoscopic Observations of Dust Clouds in Front of a Pixel Electrode in a Radio Frequency Discharge

Dust particles confined in radio frequency discharges can form 2-D and 3-D dust clouds. In front of a positively biased additional “pixel” electrode, 2-D vertical aligned particle chains as well as 3-D cone-like clouds were observed, that are strongly affected by the bias voltage of the additional electrode. In order to understand which mechanisms lead to the chain formation, a stereoscopic camera system with a high spatial resolution was used to reconstruct the 3-D particle positions and their trajectories.