Waves in a 2D Dusty Plasma Crystal J. Goree S. Nunomura, V. Nosenko Univ. of Iowa Work supported by DOE, NASA, NSF
What is a dusty plasma? electrons + ions = plasma small particle of solid matter absorbs electrons and ions Debye shielding becomes negatively charged
Who cares about dusty plasmas? Solar system Rings of Saturn Comet tails Manufacturing Particle contamination (Si wafer processing) Nanomaterial synthesis Basic physics Coulomb crystals Waves
Dusty plasma publications in APS & AIP journals 80 160 9 months data in 1999
Experimental conditions Polymer microspheres diameter 8.69 ± 0.17 mm Gas Ar, 15 mTorr RF plasma capacitively-coupled 13.56 MHz 20 W Te = 2.6 eV ni = 1.27´1015 m-3
Modified GEC chamber top-view Big upper window, no upper electrode camera laser illumination side-view Big upper window, no upper electrode vacuum chamber
Forces Acting on a Particle Coulomb trapping potential inter-particle µ particle radius1 Radiation pressure from laser beam µ particle radius3 Gravity µ particle radius3 Laser manipulation of particles = push the particles with an Ar laser beam
Electrostatic trapping of particles Equipotential contours electrode positive potential Without gravity, particles fill 3-D volume QE mg With gravity, particles sediment to high-field region Þ 2-D layer
Particle confinement Particles repel each other External confinement by natural electric fields present in plasma
Laboratory results: monolayer with 19 particles view from top camera
Laboratory results: monolayer with 948 particles particles triangulation view from top camera
Laboratory results: monolayer with many particles triangular (hexagonal) lattice separation a < 1 mm
Compressional and shear waves
Dispersion relation (phonon spectrum) Theory for a triangular lattice, q = 0° Wang, Bhattacharjee, Hu (2000) wavenumber ka/p Frequency w/w0 w/k = shear sound speed w/k = compressional sound speed compressional shear w02 = Q2 / 4pe0 m a3
Compressional & shear waves The shear wave is: slow propagates only in a solid The compressional wave is: fast propagates in solids & liquids
Here, we show two kinds of experiments Pulse propagation Sine wave excitation
Data analysis method Get top view images of the lattice Determine particle positions Trace particle orbits Calculate particle velocity, number density
Particle Manipulation with Ar laser
Velocity map for pulse propagation LASER EXCITATION
Dispersion relations for sinusoidal excitation Experiment: S.Nunomura et al. PRL 2001 Theory: Wang et al. PRL 2001 Compressional wave Shear wave
Summary 2D plasma crystals Laser manipulation of particles Excite shear wave & compressional waves Measure dispersion relation, compare to theory
Experimental setup