PK-4: Complex Plasmas in Space—The Next Generation

Author

Thoma, Markus H. ; Fink, Martin A. ; Höfner, Herwig ; Kretschmer, Michael ; Khrapak, Sergey A. ; Ratynskaia, Svetlana V. ; Yaroshenko, Victoria V. ; Morfill, Gregor E. ; Petrov, Oleg F. ; Usachev, Alexander D. ; Zobnin, Andrey V. ; Fortov, Vladimir E.

Author_Institution

Max-Planck-Inst. fur Extraterrestrische Phys., Garching

Volume

35

Issue

2

fYear

2007

fDate

4/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

255

Lastpage

259

Abstract

PK-4 is an experiment designed to investigate complex plasmas in a combined dc/RF discharge under microgravity conditions on board of the International Space Station. The dc discharge is produced in a glass tube with a length of 35 cm and a diameter of 3 cm. In addition, an RF discharge can be applied by external RF coils. The setup is especially suited for studying the liquid phase of the complex plasmas, e.g., flow phenomena such as turbulence or nozzles, and forces acting on the microparticles. Experiments in the laboratory and in parabolic flights have been used to determine the charge of the microparticles as well as the ion drag force acting on them

Keywords

drag; dusty plasmas; high-frequency discharges; nozzles; plasma flow; plasma turbulence; DC discharge; International Space Station; RF discharge; complex plasmas; dusty plasma; external RF coils; glass tube; ion drag force; microgravity; microparticles; nozzles; parabolic flights; plasma flow; turbulence; Coils; Glass; International Space Station; Laboratories; Physics; Plasma accelerators; Plasma density; Plasma measurements; Plasma simulation; Radio frequency; Complex plasmas; dc/rf discharge; fluid simulation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPS.2007.893750

Filename

4154907